“The Average height of the Terracotta Warriors is 180cm”

This fact was brought to you by our young volunteer tour guide at the Terracotta Warriors. On closer inspection you see that not only are the soldiers different heights, but they are different body sizes and (apparently) no two faces are the same.

This becomes surreal when you see thousands of them arrayed together…

Getting here and back was easy – local bus. Once in the centre you have to run the gauntlet of tourist shops and restaurants before reaching the Warriors themselves. Or you can shell out on an electric buggy for the 1km distance!

 

But where did they come from?

Emperor Qin Shì Huang was buried in probably one of the most impressive tombs ever constructed. The Annals describe it as palaces of precious stones defended by Indiana Jones-style traps.

It is rumoured that most of the 700,000 workers who built the tomb were consumed by the arduous task our buried alive inside at the end.

Maybe more than a rumour…

Less than 2km from here is (still) buried what would have been considered the actual 8th Wonder of the World ( Edit: sorry King Kong!), The Terracotta Warriors, had their fate not been hidden for so long.

That secret was uncovered by peasants in 1974….

It is believed that the Terracotta Warriors were created to protect the Emperor in the afterlife.

This place was very special. Inside the 3 main pits there was such a variety from soldiers to officers, chariots to cavalry as well as five figures up real close.

A smaller museum gave some background info and had two bronze chariots on display but it was all about the soldiers!

 

And you know what else is pretty cool. They are still at work excavating more of them. In Pit 1 you get to see some of the archaeologists at work trying to put ‘All the Kings Horses and all the King’s Men’ back together again.