Thursday, May 17, 2012

Xi’an China – Terracotta Warriors


Yesterday I went to visit one of China’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites – and after the Great Wall, perhaps the most famous one – the Terracotta Warriors.

In 1974 farmers digging a well happened upon a few terracotta figures in the dirt, all of them soldiers or warriors. Archaeologists were called in.

Research and further investigation unearthed approximately 6000 warriors (many more have not been dug up yet … and estimates are that there could be another 2000 or more soldiers still buried).
A busy day at the Terracotta Soldier Museum

Every one of them is unique and all are protecting the tomb of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. So, this site is fact a mausoleum (burial place) of an emperor, not unlike India’s most famous mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.