The astonishing Terracotta Army!

Terracotta Army Built by China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Dynasty 2,200 years ago. When he was just 13 years old, he wanted a mausoleum as big as a city built for him to protect him in the afterlife. The city sized mausoleum is guarded by the life sized Terracotta Army of more than 8,000 life sized soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 Calvary horses. Also among the army were 40,000 real bronze weapons Construction took 38 years to build, by 720,000 workers (from 247BC - 208 BC). The Terracotta Army was first discovered in 1974 by five farmers when they were digging a well. One of the farmers is still alive. Today, there are about 108 pits discovered but only 3 pits are open to the public. All the warriors were discovered broken except for one kneeling archer that was found intact (slide 3). He is called the lucky warrior. It takes about one year to put one warrior back together using the same technique (including baking the clay in 950 -1200 degrees heat for a week). Each warrior weighs 100kg. When the warriors were first found, they were originally coloured, but due to the lack of technology at the time, the colour vanished within a week after they were exposed to the dry air #chinesehistory #terracottawarriors #terracottaarmy #xian