Our main stop in Xian was a visit to the famous Terracotta Warriors archeology site. It is a major tourist stop and for good reason. It was well worth seeing it and it was actually not very crowded when we visited here.

The Terracotta Army was discovered by a farmer in 1974 as he was digging a well. The region is evidently riddled with underground springs and watercourses. The farmer had dug the well and dropped down a bucket. When he pulled up the bucket, there was a terracotta head in it. That led to the archeological digging which led to what we see today. Years later, someone made a short documentary ‘re-creation’ movie of the discovery. The movie was evidently quite good and the old farmer attended, signing books. We were told that he looked quite healthy and happy.

The figures were constructed under Emperor Qin as part of his burial complex. His mausoleum work was begun in 246 BCE soon after he ascended the throne at age 13. The project involved some 700,000 workers. The emperor felt that he would return in his afterlife and therefore he needed his army of terracotta warriors to defend him. My guess is that he might have needed defending from all the people that died building all this.

We visited all three of the terracotta archeological pits, plus the bronze room. It was all very impressive and is still an active dig site. I expect that it will remain active for many years to come. The dig sites are now covered by buildings to protect them. There are around 8,000 terracotta soldiers so far plus hundreds of horses, chariots, and other artifacts. I understand that they have discovered figures other than soldiers as well, perhaps officials, musicians, acrobats, and strongmen.

Vicky was more impressed with the horses than the warriors and there were hundreds of horses.

I’ve included a close-up of one warrior. Each figure was unique, even including the faces. The detail of each figure was really quite incredible.

The archeological site is still very active. We saw teams working in several areas. Some areas are very different than just masses of warriors, such as the site below.