Archaeologists discover unusually shaped tombs under Chinese village

Archaeologists have unearthed a pyramid-shaped tomb under a construction site in central China.

Residents are amazed after the unusual ancient burial site was discovered in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, with one calling it 'magical'.

Further analysis is yet to be carried out to identify how old the tomb is, who the owner was and why it was built in this particular shape.

Chinese media have dubbed the tomb the 'pyramid of Zhengzhou', though the structure is much small in size compared to the real pyramids in Egypt.

The tomb was found near a motorway situated about 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) west of the Sinian Grove by the Yellow River, according to Huanqiu.com, an affiliation to People's Daily Online.

The area used to be a village, but the it has apparently moved away to make way for a new residential compound.

The pyramid-shaped tomb is one of the two tombs found inside a coffin chamber by staff from the Zhengzhou Cultural Relics Bureau. The other tomb is shaped like a half cylinder.

The chamber, which is 98 feet (30 meters) long and 26 feet (eight meters) wide, was built in a west-east position with the entrance facing the east. It features a narrow aisle leading to a main dome next to the pyramid-shaped tomb.

A resident was apparently impressed by the findings.

He told a local reporter: 'This is truly magical. I've never seen anything like this. It looks like an Egyptian pyramid.'

A worker who guards the excavation site told the same reporter that the tomb could be more than 2,000 years old and that the dig had been going on for more than a month.

While the public are stunned by China's very own 'mini pyramid', experts said it's not uncommon to see circular-shaped tombs with a pointed roof in the region.

According to Henan Cultural Relic Bureau, such tombs appeared after the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and were often built with bricks.