Army of Terracota Warriors

We saw the movie The Mummy III in Korea which displayed an amazing animation of the Army of Terracotta Warriors. Obviously, we had to see them in person to make sure Hollywood wasn't bluffing.

Well - They kinda did.

First, the famous horses with the carriage are not life-size, but very small (maybe 1 meter high):

They were displayed in a small museum with several other artifacts that were excavated like bronze arrows and bows, spears, harnesses etc. all belonging to the warriors.

The museum also displayed other items such as a special exhibit for the Olympics - showing the history of sports and leisure as depicted in art. See the statue of a musician:


We did not despair and continued to check out the so called "Pits" (where the warriors were actually discovered and are still being excavated, though the work did not seem to have progressed much since the site was opened).

So apparently, the warriors were placed in these pits - underground halls that were dug for this purpose, then walled, roofed and recovered in dirt after the warriors were put in. What we found striking was the fact that no one knew about them until they were discovered by mistake by a farmer digging a well - he found a terracotta head, they say. This was the mistake of his life, since though his village stood here at the time (1974), nothing is left of the village as the farmers must have been sent packing when the archeological excavation started.

Anyway, the warriors are standing in these pits - 4 in a raw, line after line after line of them - and only a small portion of the site was uncovered the rest is still there.
A lot of them were completely broken (they are hollow) and only some were put together for the exhibition. Most are still either covered, or are lying in pieces in the pits.

It is rather amazing as each of the warriors is completely different - there are really no two alike!!!
Some are skinny, some chubby. Short and tall, uniform according to rank and place and the nicest thing is their expressions. There was one who was standing so tightly he looked like a nervous new recruit - tight and tense, his facial expression showing great stress.

This is an archer who lost his bow:


there was a smaller pit with mostly cavalry men (some of which lost their heads) and their horses:


The officers seem to be amused:



Here you can see the larger pit - as you see, long halls were dug in which they were placed. The walls between the lines of warriors held the roof (which caved in when the wood beams got completely rotten and then the warriors were smashed).

Visitors cannot really go near the warriors - you walk around the pit. It was rather challenging for Shay who was trying to take pictures.

All the warriors were once painted in bright colors - you may be able to notice the yellow scarf of one at the right of this picture.


Outside, at the gift-shop, they had warriors for sale, some of which were trying out for the next Olympics: