The Terra Cotta Warriors

The Terra Cotta Warriors. It was awesome. It was kind of surreal. I have wanted to see them for quite some time. A few years ago I was in Virginia and there was a traveling exhibit of the warriors in Washington DC. I couldn't swing to go and see them and I've been bummed since. So I very much enjoyed going to the site of discovery.

On our way there, we stopped at a factory (tourist trap) that shows you how the warriors were constructed. We had the opportunity to take these fun shots:

Fun.

The warriors were molded and cast in parts. Each warrior has at least one unique distinguishing characteristic.

They make life size warriors for purchase. You can also send in 6 profile pictures and have your head put on the warrior. Cool huh? for only 99.99 a month for 2 years you can be one of the Emporer's Warriors. Whatever.

Next we went to the site of the discovery.

 Not my best picture.

 This is site 1.

 Each head is different from the ones around it. The location of the ponytail of these guys meant they were archers - they could reach behind themselves and pull out an arrow without their hair getting in the way.

 This guys was a charioteer. We kind of laughed at how skinny he is.

 These guys were in the "hospital ward." In the back, on top of a part they have not yet excavated, they pull all the warrior out and piece them back together and fill in the missing parts.

 I wanted to take a picture of the horses faces, but there was stuff in the way. They were pretty impressive. Live size.

 A partially excavated area.

 There were all lined up in rows of four with these huge walls in between them. Over the top was a wooden roof. There was evidence that some of it was burned at some point.

 The heads are loose, as they are each unique to the warrior they represented. These guys' head were either getting fixed or were smashed beyond repair.

 Horses in pit 2.

 As they excavate they are finding that the warriors were painted bright colors. They have stopped excavating until they can come up with a way to save the paint. Some of the paint, once exposed to the air, fades as quickly as a month. They figure it's safer to leave them in the dirt, protected until science can help on that one. This guy still has some of the red paint on his armor. He was in a glass case.

 A charioteer and a horse.

 These guys were exactly half size. They were made of bronze. There were two carriages. The second one was like a tank would have been something like the emperor rode in.

 This is the man who discovered the sites. He looked pretty bored. This is now his job. There is a new book every year with updates. I got one in English and had him sign it.

Pictures others took:

 This is pit 3.

 You can see what it looks like when they are first found.

 The second bronze carriage.

The line of men at the front of pit 1.

It was pretty cool.

The next morning we headed out to Beijing, our final stop on our trip before coming to Xiamen.