The Terracotta Warriors

Nov. 1

The morning began as dreary and overcast as last evening. But given today’s activity, the weather, whatever it was going to throw at us, didn’t matter.
It appears as if all tours must make obligatory visits to high-end artisans, in hopes that the tourists will drop big bucks. Sure enough, that’s the way today started. The premise was that we were visiting a factory that made reproductions of the Terracotta Warriors, produced from the same clay as the originals. Although they did this, they also had extensive showrooms for lacquered furniture, artworks, carpets and sundry tourist items. We did, however, learn that all the original Warriors were likenesses of real people, which explains their uniqueness’. Today they get people coming to them to build warriors with their facial features, which of course they will ship anywhere in the world.


Finally we were off to the site of the 1974 discovery of 8000 – to date – Terracotta Warriors, horses and chariots.
Like all the other huge attractions we’ve seen, there was a sprawling commercial development built around this find. That aside, this was an amazing spot to visit.

There are currently 3 pits that have been excavated and then covered with buildings. Pit 1 is the one shown in the pictures above. This is the original pit and only ½ of it has actually been excavated. This is also the site of most of the current archaeological work.

The preceeding picture shows some blue boxes containing the pieces of the warriors they are presently reassembling and the area inside the red cordons is the active dig.

The picture above, illustrates the condition of the artifacts when they are unearthed. In this case you can see the better part of a horse, but with him will be his cavalry handler. They have made a point of illustrating the condition of things as they were dug up. What we didn’t know before today was that there was a peasant uprising shortly after the Emperor who was responsible for creating this site died. As a result of this, the site was damaged and set afire. So, a scant six or so years following their internment, they were already in a state of chaos. This would explain why so many pieces – including a lot of heads – remain missing.
Then the ravages of time took over. The wooden roofs covering all of the models rotted, collapsed and further damaged anything under it because the whole site had been buried under metres of earth.
The figures shown below are not actually warriors, but rather prisoners. They were pushed out into battle first to expend some of the enemy’s weapons. Their status is known because of the lack of armour.


Both pit 2 and 3 – 3 is shown above – have only been excavated far enough to let the visitors understand both the condition of the archaeological find and what the archaeologists were up against. There is very little unearthed as they still struggle with a way to preserve the colours on these warriors that faded almost immediately upon exposure to air.
The Terracotta Warrior Museum has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Johnson & Johnson have developed a special research facility in China related specifically to the Terracotta Warriors to find a way to kill bacteria found on the relics that was further degrading them. They sponsor a showcase for 2 of the solid bronze chariots that were reconstructed. Although each one was in about 10 000 pieces, you wouldn’t know it.

The Pit 3 building is also home to the best preserved warriors that have been found to date. Among them is the poster boy of the bunch, shown below.

Well, needless to say, we once again had our minds blown. The enormity of what they’ve accomplished since 1974, coupled with the volume that is yet to be discovered, boggle the mind.
We had lunch today at the Museum, where we were treated to a noodle preparation demonstration. These guys were good!

After a very generous amount of time to explore the site with our guide and after viewing a 360 degree movie about the history of the site, we headed back to the city for a tour of the 17.4 kilometre wall that surrounds the original city of Xian. By now the overcast conditions had turned to rain. It wasn’t heavy enough however, to stop us from having a nice walk along one small section of the wall.
This wall was built some 800 years ago and although square, is surrounded by a round moat. To the Chinese this symbolizes heaven and earth. The towers along it were spaced 120 metres apart because archers of the day had a range of 62 metres, therefore covering over half of the area.

For dinner we went to a really nice restaurant with a buffet. After an excellent meal, we viewed someone with a fire burning on the sidewalk. This apparently is the Chinese equivalent of Halloween, since the intent is to appease the spirits by burning paper money – facsimiles will do.

We returned to the hotel weary – AGAIN – but totally pumped by our experience. Our guides informed us that we had yet another early flight tomorrow and would be departing the hotel by 5:30. Although we’re heading south, apparently the rain will continue. If it’s anything like today, it won’t be a major deterrent to sightseeing, other than the lack of blue skies in the photos. As always, with the weather, you get what you get.