Xian is known as the home of the Spectacular Terracotta Soldier Army. Discovered in 1976 by a farmer digging a well, the terracotta army is the meticulously crafted life-size clay army
built to protect the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
Apparently the guy was really freaked out about dying so after trying a number of immortality potions, he finally gave up trying to live forever and decided the next best thing would be to create a majestic tomb with massive army to retain his power after death. He figured the best way to do this is force 100s of thousands of workers and artisans over the course of his lifetime to construct an underground tomb and more importantly 10s of thousands of life size soldiers to protect him.
The soldiers were made of terra cotta, and individually hand constructed to show detailed facial and hair features. Furthermore, horses, carriages and weapons were all included to create an exact replica of his real-life standing army.
No big deal right? Just another ancient ruler with an Oedipus complex…? Not quite. The shear magnitude of this archaeological find is staggering… prompting the accurate comparison to the Pyramids in
So far, a little over 8000 have been uncovered and reconstructed, in 3 separate digs. These digs were our destination for our only full day in Xian.
Although the site is an hour outside of Xian in a sparsely populated part of the countryside, the government spared no expense on the facilities. The excavated sites were covered by huge blimp-hanger shaped buildings, providing accurate protection for the soldiers as well as plenty of space for the millions of visitors each year.
Additionally, there was a large museum showcasing some of the horses and carriages recovered, a decent restaurant custom-designed to handle multiple tour-bus sized groups for lunch and a circle vision move theater a la Disneyland which showed a goofy old Chinese-produced re-creation/documentary film which didn’t afford any additional insight into the history of the soldiers but did provide vertigo and neck cramps.
The big payoff of course were the soldiers themselves. We toured each of the 3 excavations, with the grand finale being the big room with 6000 of the soldiers.
I tried my best to take pictures which showed the shear scope of the excavations, but the pictures don’t do it justice. The final room was so large; it had its own hazy atmosphere. It was as if there was still dust hanging in the air kicked up from the horses and soldiers, frozen in a fierce attack stance, ready at any moment to spring to life and charge toward an invisible foe.
New Pictures: TERRACOTTA SOLDIERS, WILD GOOSE PAGODA, XIAN CITY WALL, XIAN OTHER
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