Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an

   Truly one of the great wonders of the world is the Terracotta Army of Xi’an.  We spent a whole morning with some special viewing privileges at the museum constructed over the site discovered in 1974 by a local farmer digging a well. ( We saw him today, the Chinese government has given him the concession for the guide books and most days he is available to sign them.)  They were built to guard the approach to tomb of the emperor of the Qin Dynasty, whose actual tomb is several km away. There were 7000 life size pottery warriors, and horses, and chariots arranged in battle formation with the flanks facing outward. They are in partial restoration and about 700 have been restored.  It took 700,000 workers about 40 years to build. Dug in the ground and covered with a wooden roof and buried.  Only shortly after the death of the emperor, conquerors invaded the site and smashed the army, took away the bronze armaments and set fire to the wood which collapsed and buried the army as rubble.  Only after identified in the 70’s have archeologists started the massive task of excavating the site and reassembling the warriors and horses.  Large museum buildings have been erected over the site and approx 1.5 million foreign and 30 million natives visit the site each year. What you see are the restored warriors, the rubble and some unexcavated ground.