Buried under the soil of central China, an elegant brick tomb lay forgotten. Dust collected on the ornate carving as decades stretched into centuries. Then a construction project came along.

While doing construction on a pipeline in Yuanqu County of Shanxi province, workers stumbled upon a tomb, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology said in a joint release with an archaeology blogger shared on Weibo.

Archaeologists were brought in to rescue the site and uncovered a stunning tomb from the Jin Dynasty, the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a March 15 news release via China News Network.

The 800-year-old tomb was crafted entirely out of carved bricks, and no paint was used. The grave had a stepped passageway leading through a corridor and into the main burial chamber, archaeologists said in the joint release.