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Download Think Egypt, and images of pharaohs and pyramids immediately spring to mind.

However, the ancient structures are not unique to Egypt.

There are massive pyramids in Teotihuacán, Mexico. And the triangular burial tombs at Tikal in Guatemala even had a cameo in the Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back.

But could there be pyramids in China?

Our correspondent Clarence Chua travels to Ningxia to find out.

Search “Pyramids and China” on the Internet and you will find more than a dozen conspiracy theories.

Rumors of pyramids in China first circulated during World War II when American pilot James Gaussman claimed to have seen a “gigantic white pyramid.”

Before China opened up in the late 1970s, many of these ancient buildings were located in restricted areas and inaccessible to foreigners.

This in turn fuelled numerous allegations of a possible government cover-up – not only of the existence of Chinese pyramids, but also of extraterrestrials.

I am here at the Western Xia Museum outside the capital of Ningxia in Yinchuan.

And not far from here is one of the so-called pyramids of China.

However, Chinese scholars have repeatedly stressed that these pyramids were originally mausoleums.

“The pyramids were originally hexagonal-shaped pagodas. After some time, close to a thousand years, they were damaged by erosion and human activity. The pagoda loses it original form and now looks like a pyramid. The pyramids in Egypt are actually tombs, but in the Western Xia mausoleum the ‘pyramid’ is a pagoda and the actual tomb is in front of it. There is definitely no connection between the two.”

Wang Chang Fen is a relic expert with the Western Xia Museum.

“The Western Xia dynasty existed from 1028 – 1227 AD. Upon his ascension as emperor, founder of the Western Xia, Li Yuanhao, ordered the construction of his tomb and those of his father and grandfather. Western Xia has a total of 12 emperors but in reality there are only 10. Li Yuanhao considered his father and grandfather as pioneers of the new state and accorded them the status of emperors. But there are only 9 tombs. Most of the tombs are severely damaged and we can only make an educated guess that tomb no. 3 is that of Li Yuanhao and tomb no.7 is that of the 5th emperor buried in sequence according to Han Chinese burial customs.”

Any avid reader of Chinese history would definitely come across numerous references to lesser-known dynasties such as the Northern Wei, Jin or Liao.

Like the Yuan and Qing, many of these dynasties were presided over by non-Chinese rulers that adopted Chinese culture and its ruling system.

Chang Fen explains that the so-called pyramids were built when there were three dynasties ruling China at the same time.

“The Western Xia was a loyal Buddhist Kingdom. Tibetan Buddhism is the official religion. It is called Western Xia because the kingdom is located west of the Yellow River. The Dangxiang is an ethnic minority that shares the same ancestors with present day Tibetans. They existed during the Tang Dynasty in the western regions of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai. They collected their own taxes, had their own army, even the central government couldn’t control them. When the Tang Dynasty fell China was split into the Liao, Song and Western Xia dynasties. Their society, culture and laws were adopted from Tang dynasty there was already a good foundation for building a nation. They also have their own writing system that is based on Chinese characters.”       

The Dangxiang ethnic minority is popularly known in Mongolian as the Tangut, or descendants of the Mongolic-speaking Tuoba people.  

So where are the Dangxiang people now? What happened to their civilization?

Ma Shenlin is the vice president of the Western Xia Masouleum Management Bureau.

He explains why the Dangxiangs are not included on China’s list of 56 ethnic minorities.

“The Dangxiang fought the Mongols six times over 22 years. Genghis Khan was wounded and died in Western Xia. Before Gengis Khan died he passed an edict that the Dangxiang must be annihilated even if they surrendered. Over time the Dangxiang were assimilated into other ethnic groups.”

Scholars believe the last three Xia emperors were unable to build their tombs due to the ongoing war with the Mongols.

Only tomb no. 3, that of the first emperor Li Yuanhao, is open to the public.

I tried walking to tomb no. 5, but was persuaded otherwise by a villager named Zhou.

“The tombs are really far away from each other. It will take a very long time for you to walk on foot. What is there to see anyway?”  

He then boasted that he had climbed to the top of tomb no 3.

“Do you believe that I can climb to the top in less than five minutes? Sometimes during some of the festivals we offer joss sticks and prayers. Whether you believe it or not it’s better to pay your respects.”

The Xia tombs are not exactly small but pale in comparison to those in Egypt.

But like the empire of the pharaohs, the Western Xia pyramids are testament to a once great civilization that even the Great Khan was unable to erase from the face of the earth.