"The Terracotta Army"

In 1974 a few farmers digging for a well found some baked clay in the earth they pulled up. Archeologists were quick in their respond when the unusual find was reported. This was in the area of an Emperor's tomb. There was no evidence in the old inscriptions documenting the Emperor's funeral that there should be anything there, but excavations started, and the site was already opened to the public in 1976. By then the archeologists had excavated what seemed to be a large army of clay figures. They were placed under wooden structures before they were hidden, and not mentioned again in a long time. There were three pits total, the last two found within a couple years after the first one. The excavations are not finished yet, but there are more than 8 000 Terracotta Soldiers, and many horses (terracotta, bronze and real), wooden carriages constructed out of more than 3 000 pieces. This, according to every other sign at the site, is by many considered to be the 8th wonder of the world.

The hostel arranges tours up there, but they are a little expensive, so instead of paying around 160 RMB, the German guy and I got on the local busses, and paid the student entrance. (He let me borough his insurance card as a student card, and with all words in German and no picture, that worked out just fine.) So we ended up paying a total of about 50 RMB. We were also able to walk around without a guide and the constant need of following the tempo of the group.

The details and the vast number of life size figures is just astonishing. I can only imagine how this would have looked if they had not been burned by a later Emperor, so that parts of the wooden construction had collapsed. Due to the fire, almost all of the paint is gone from the soldiers too, and so are their wooden artifacts. Thousands of arrows and swords have been found though, and thanks to the excellent handcraft and the really advanced techniques used to harden the metal, they weapons are as sharp today, as they were when the army was put up there, to make sure that the Emperor would have the same power also in the afterlife. The Emperor's tomb is still left untouched. The only thing you can see now is a small hill of dirt, not unlike the Viking tombs. They charge tourists 80 RMB to stand on top of it for a photograph. What a joke!