Confucian Cemetery

Confucian Cemetery is about 1.5 kilometers north of Qufu and is the graveyard of Confucius and his decedents. It takes up 1.998 million square meters and around it there is a seven-kilometer-long hedge. It's the largest, oldest, and best-preserved single-family cemetery in China. There are 100 thousand tombs since the Zhou Dynasty (1066-221BC) on, the forests of stone steles and 400 tombstones in the cemetery, and the pavilions, towers, halls and archways built in various historical periods are set in a forest. The Confucian Cemetery is also a botanical garden, as there are over 42,000 trees in it, and the planting of trees in it started 2,400 years ago. After Confucius death in 479BC, most of his descendants and clansmen were buried in the cemetery, such as the tombs of his son Kong Li and grandson Kong Ji. The tomb of Confucius is 6.2 meters high and has a circumference of 88 meters, so it has been expanding ever since.