Terra-Cotta Warriors

Pit 1, Lishan Necropolis, Xi'an

The army faces east, looking ready to march at the emperor's command. The emperor surely believed that he and his army would magically come to life in the afterworld, according to the ancient proverb, "treat the dead as if alive." It is also thought, by some scholars, that his terra-cotta army was intended to protect him from the angry ghosts of all the other armies that he had defeated and killed in his ruthless quest for supreme power.

Approximately 6,000 soldiers were found in this pit. They were badly smashed up and fused together during the disturbances at the end of the dynasty, when the pit's mounded roof and wooden beams were fired and collapsed upon them. Their painstaking restoration is a tribute to the dedication of Chinese archaeologists.