Archaeologists in northwest China's Shaanxi Province have discovered a large-scale relic site estimated to be 2,200 years old on the outskirts of the provincial capital Xi'an.

The site is the biggest of its kind that has been excavated in the past three decades within the palace group of Changle Palace, the imperial residence palace of the imperial Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-24), archaeologists said.

The unearthed ruins, which lies in the northwest part of the palace group, is 160 meters long east-to-west and 50 meters wide north-to-south, with a rammed earth structure at its center, according to initial excavation.