Qualla: Xiadu https://qualla.com/xiadu en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Xiadu https://qualla.com/xiadu Xiadu: Introduction https://qualla.com/xiadu/ For a century, roughly from 400 to 300 BC, the largest city in the world may have sat in what is now Yi County, Hebei Province. Not Rome, not Athens, not Babylon -- but Xiadu, the Lower Capital of Yan, a state locked in the brutal competition of China's Warring States period. With an estimated peak population exceeding 300,000 and a footprint of 30 square kilometers, Xiadu was a city built for both commerce and war, its rammed earth walls stretching 40 meters wide at the base. Portions of those walls still stand today, rising nearly seven meters above the surrounding countryside, silent witnesses to a superpower that most of the world has never heard of.

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/f/p/xiadu-wp/wwfp-xiadu-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Xiadu: A Fortress Between Rivers https://qualla.com/xiadu/ The builders of Xiadu chose their location with a strategist's eye. The city sits in the Taihang Mountains, flanked by the Beiyi River to the north and the Zhongyi River to the south. This topography made the capital extraordinarily difficult to attack -- any invading army would ...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/f/p/xiadu-wp/wwfp-xiadu-a-fortress-between-rivers.mp3 0:06 2 full Xiadu: Workshops of an Empire https://qualla.com/xiadu/ What the archaeological record reveals about Xiadu's eastern city is the picture of an industrial powerhouse. Large workshops for casting iron, casting bronze, minting coins, making weapons, making pottery, and working bone have all been excavated there. This was not a ceremonial...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/f/p/xiadu-wp/wwfp-xiadu-workshops-of-an-empire.mp3 0:06 3 full Xiadu: Pyramids on the Plain https://qualla.com/xiadu/ Two royal cemeteries were discovered within the eastern city, containing 23 tombs in total -- 13 in one cemetery and 10 in the other. Each tomb was covered by a pyramidal tumulus, earthen mounds that would have been visible landmarks rising above the city's roofline. These were t...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/f/p/xiadu-wp/wwfp-xiadu-pyramids-on-the-plain.mp3 0:06 4 full Xiadu: The World's Forgotten Metropolis https://qualla.com/xiadu/ Xiadu is the largest excavated city from the Warring States period, yet it occupies virtually no space in Western historical imagination. The era that produced it was one of the most consequential in human history -- seven major states competed for supremacy across what would bec...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/f/p/xiadu-wp/wwfp-xiadu-the-worlds-forgotten-metropolis.mp3 0:06 5 full