Xi'an Terracotta Warriors

Tuesday, May 12

Today we head out to see the Terra Cotta warriors!

Ever since teaching about this UNESCO site through the Denver Natural History Museum back in the 90s, I’d wanted to see these for myself. Back in 1974 a local farmer digging for a well accidentally broke through an underground cavern. He notified a museum and when they started investigating they found a whole army. (The farmer is now the honorary director of the museum and he was sitting in the gift shop signing autographs.)

Every face is an individual

2200 years ago, the first emperor of China Chin Shi Huang, started to build his tomb at the age of 13. He had artisans create an army of terracotta to guard his eventual burial place for eternity. There’s a whole fascinating history of this boy king which includes killing off siblings for the throne, but the thing he’s most known for is that he united the warring feudal states and created what could first be called a “country”. Maybe because he created a lot of enemies in his lifetime, he felt he needed protection in the afterlife so he wanted to take his army with him.

Standing army

The archaeological dig site is huge with three open pits in airplane hangars where you can look down and see the figures. There had been grave robbers centuries ago who had stolen much of the metal weaponry the soldiers had been holding and then set fire to the wooden beams that held up the cavern. So, the cavern collapsed and crushed the clay figures and they were found in pieces. Archeologists have reconstructed a couple thousand soldiers and horses and they are standing facing the east as they had been when they were first buried. It’s an amazing and intimidating sight.

The actual tomb that Qin is buried in is behind the warrior’s site and is unexcavated. Local folklore described it being filled with rivers of mercury and modern science, using measuring instruments confirmed high levels of mercury in the mound. A scan of the mound also revealed crossbows armed and ready to go off automatically if anyone tried to enter. I think real life archeologists don’t have the bravery of Indiana Jones….

 Charioteers - wooden chariots had disintegrated

Calvary Man

We spent a number of hours at the Terracotta warriors, had some lunch, and were whisked away to another site which included hot springs and a love story between an emperor and his concubine. We were so weary at this point that, to quote my colleague as we got out of the van at this place, “Where are we? Who did what to who?”

We flew in late to Shanghai and will explore this city for the next couple of days.