Terracotta Highlights

We headed off bright and early the next morning for the Terracotta Warriors, with our new local guide, Jessica and our new driver leading the way.  Our little van had a special pass so we could drive almost all the way up to the main entrance - in contrast to the tour buses and other transportation that had to park about half a mile away and brave a gauntlet of souvenir vendors on their way to the main gate.  Have I mentioned how much I enjoy the perks of a private tour?!

Walking into the main room of Pit 1 was breathtaking.  There were multiple burial pits with scores of warriors lined up in rows.  We learned that there were an estimated 8,000 warriors in the 3 pits they've excavated so far, with about 2,000 of them having been reassembled.  Yes, they found a jumbled mass of body parts and every single warrior had to be painstakingly put back together and lined up for display.  That's why many warriors are incomplete - missing heads, arms etc.  But each face and body was very distinctive - there are serious looking warriors, more mischievous warriors, tall & skinny warriors, short and fatter ones.  But all had a small tummy sticking out - they were made to reflect the fact that they would be healthy and well-fed in the after life!  They also all had mustaches or beards!

You can see the reassembly work in progress at the rear of the building, in what is known as the hospital wing.  

There was also an active excavation going on in some of the pits, and we could see parts of warriors being excavated.

We visited two other pits - while Pit #1 had a lot of infantry, Pits #2 and #3 were a little ways behind, and had calvary as well as officers in a command center.

And finally, the best specimens were in cases in the museum so you could see them up close.  This archer was the most intact warrior found - his torso was all in one piece.

We learned that about a year after the death of Emperor Qin, his dynasty ended and his tomb was broken into and burned - so although all these warriors were brightly painted, all the paint had been burned off thousands of years ago.  Pits #2 and 3 had not been burned, so when discovered, there was still color on some figures.  Alas, they peeled right off about a week after they had been excavated, so all we have left are some photos.  That's one of the reasons that the Chinese government has slowed down excavation - they want to make sure that we have the right preservation technology so that doesn't happen again.  It was weird to think that there were countless treasures under the ground that we were walking on, but would probably never see in our lifetimes.

Overall, this was a wonderful experience.  It was a marvel to think that all this was created 2,200 years ago over the course of 30 years, with 700,000 workers (many of whom probably died in the process).