On Saturday we visited the Terracotta Warriors Museum. It is really interesting because it's part museum, part archeological dig. The back story is that the first Emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi had this "army" made as a part of his tomb. He started work on it very shortly after he took power, and it's good thing, because his reign was only about 14 years long! Anyway, the making of the terracotta soldiers and horses actually represents great progress because prior to this, kings were buried with their living slaves and soldiers...who quickly became their dead slaves and soldiers. Chalk another one up for living in the 20th and 21st Centuries.
After Emperor Qin died and was buried in his tomb, the empire fell apart, and grave robbers came down into the tombs to destroy them. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, the torches they brought down into the tombs set the tar and wood roofs on fire, and the structure collapsed in on itself. In 1974, farmers were digging a well and discovered part of a terracotta soldier. Soon archeologists realized that there were thousands of these figures buried in the area.
Today there are 3 pits they are displaying and still digging in. They know that there is much more out there, but they are trying to figure out how they can preserve the figures better after they dig them out before they go in for more. Also, apparently Emperor Qin was buried in "rivers of mercury" or some similar Chinese outlandishness, and so the mountain where he's buried is poisonous and they're not sure how to get at it.
Oh, and did I mention it's the largest tomb complex in the world? Of course, right, because like I've said, China does nothing on a small scale.
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| Pit #1 at the museum |
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| I make a pretty fierce warrior, right? |
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| Close up of a cross-bow soldier |
I think the warrior photo should be your new profile picture!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you got to go see this, I've heard amazing things
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