Largest Tumulus in Japan

City : Osaka

Nintoku-ryo Tumulus is the Japan's largest Kofun burial mound located in Sakai city, southern Osaka prefecture, which is considered the tomb of Emperor Nintoku. It is said to be one of the world's three largest imperial mausoleums along with the pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu of Egypt and the mausoleum of Ying Zheng, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty of China.

Seen from the ground level, it just looks like a grove of old trees, but from above, it reveals an unique key-hole shape, which consists of the round part for the dead buried and the square part where a rite to respect the dead took place. The mound has 486 meters length, 35 meters high, and surrounded by three moats, outer one is almost three kilometers around.

There are hundreds of ancient tombs of ruling class in Japan, and especially, tombs for the Emperors are big, and here, Nintoku-ryo is the biggest. It was constructed in the middle fifth century for Emperor Nintoku, the 16th in the Japanese imperial line leading to the present 125th. Like many other Emperor's tombs, Nintoku-ryo is off limits and protected by the Imperial Household Agency. It is a sacred place.

Standing on the center of southern edge of tumulus, you can see it from outside the moat. Unfortunately, there is no place in the neighborhood to overlook the tumulus to recognize its key-hole shape. However, about two kilometers to the north, Sakai City's municipal office, 80 meter-high building, has an observatory floor on the top and you can see the whole tumulus (still too low to see the key-hole shape)