The Terracotta Warriors

This is the day we had been waiting for - the highlight of our trip.  By this time Mardi and I had both come down with a throat infection - besides violent coughing, my symptoms included a head ache, Mardi had a fever.  But we both pulled it together for this day.

First, we were taken to a factory store, where, among other things, you could buy your own Terracotta Warrior with your own face!

No, not that face!

No, not those faces!

Faces like these, in your own likeness.

They are fired in kilns on site.

Packed and shipped to your home.

The factory store also made and sold other items.

The 15,800 yuan price tag on this item works out to about $3,100 Canadian.  

And here's a camphor hope chest.

Anybody need the Happy Room before we leave?

Traditional Chinese communal bathrooms have no walls so they end up being a place where people socialize, thus the name "Happy Room".

On the way to the museum we passed the Emperor's tomb mound (the hill in the background).

The tomb has never been opened.  Besides its artefacts it is thought to contain a model landscape with rivers of mercury.  

The "museum" complex is 3 kilometres by 3 kilometres and includes the tomb and the warrior pits.

The Emperor was just 13 years old when he came to power.  He united China and built the Great Wall, as well as the Terracotta Warriors, which were to protect him in the afterlife.  The Warrior complex was started when he came to power and at its peak employed over 700,000 workers. 

Huge buildings have been constructed over the warrior pits.

This is pit #1.

Ten different moulds were used for the heads, and then clay was added to personalize each face.

Building #1 is not climate controlled, so most of what you see is for display purposes.  The actual reconstruction work is done in a newer building.

On to building #3.  

And building #2.  Very little of this section has been completed.  The warriors are in rows still under the ground. 

Originally, the horses all had tethers and the warriors had weapons, but these were mostly raided by the next Emperor for his own army.  Nevertheless, swords, still sharp, with chromium coating (a process "discovered" by the west 2,000 years later) and bronze arrowheads, in bundles of 100, have been retrieved from the excavations. 

Absolutely mind boggling!  An incredible sight.

Tomorrow, we head for Beijing.