"The Terracotta Warriors" Terracotta Army Tip by Paul2001

A visit to the Terracotta Warriors is the primary reason most people come to Xian. They rank amongst the five top attractions.
The Terracotta Warriors were the brainchild of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the Chinese ruler who is credited with uniting China in the 3rd century B.C. In producing an army of terra cotta warriors, Qin Shi Huang was preparing himself to rule the afterlife. They were part of a larger tomb complex that expands to the actual mausoleum for Qin Shi Huang, located several kilometers to the west. It is thought that 700,000 workers were recruited for the construction of the tomb.
The terracotta warriors are individualized in that no two have the same exact facial features. Each warrior was designed according to rank and there military task. They were initially all painted in coloured lacquer finish. The warriors were all armed with actual bronze weaponry but these were lost due to looting of the tomb.
Five years after Emperor Qin Shi Huang died and laid to rest in his mausoleum, the tomb which held the terracotta warriors was raided by the army of General Xiang. They looted the tomb and broke many of the warriors. Apparently a fire was set which lasted for three months. This destroyed the wooden structures that surrounded the warriors but miraculously did not do much damage to the warriors themselves. Seemingly the Terracotta Army was then forgotten for the next 2,200 years when they were discovered by four farmers digging a well. Excavations discovered 8,900 terracotta warriors so far. They have since been reconstructed and placed in a massive museum.

Directions: The museum housing the Terracotta Warriors is located 28km east of Xian.