Tombs of Wei and Jin Dynasties are located in the New Town east of Jiayuguan City. It is a big tomb group with more than 1,000 tombs which were built between the third and fifth century, covering an area of almost 130,000 square kilometers. Among these tombs, most tombs are of families, housing bodies of three or even more generations. Because of the abundance of mural bricks, the Tombs of Wei and Jin Dynasties are renowned as the largest "Subterranean Art Gallery" in the world, attracting a large number of tourists from both home and abroad. It was also approved as one of the national relics in 2001.
With unique characteristics of architectural style, tombs here are made up of passageway, gate,-tower, front chamber, middle chamber, back chamber, corridor, niche and so on. In the tomb, two or three chambers are connected by corridors paved with ties in various flower patterns. The gate was decorated with delicate patterns and easy lines symbolizing clouds, water, fire, gods and weird animals.of the gate-tower were inlaid long bricks sculptured with patterns like figures, animals, etc.
From 18 excavated tombs, more than 760 mural bricks have been unearthed, which fall into several categories: one mural in one brick, one mural in half a brick and one mural in several bricks to form a chain of picture. Most murals on bricks drew on resources of daily life in West Regions of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, such as farming, breeding, dancing, traveling, hunting, posting, camping, picking mulberries, holding banquets, training armies and so on, giving an insight into the feudal society of ancient China.
These mural bricks play an important role in researching the developments of politics, economy, military, culture, science, nationalities and customs in northwest China of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Some mural bricks in these tombs are even earlier than those in Mogao Grottos. The mural bricks are of so great importance that they are received highly concerns from allof scholars, especially the studypainting.