Terracotta Army, Xi'an

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It was built for sacrificial activities of mausoleum, covering an area of 3524square meters, which consist of the main palace, the subordinate palace, the verandah, the porch. Unfortunately, the splendid buildings of those day had disappeared, what remains on the surface of the earth is only some vestige of the rammed earth, pebbles on the rammed platform, some building materials, iron tools and daily supplies.

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It is a rammed earth platform in east-west direction, shaped like the Chinese character 中 and consists of the central bigger rammed earth platform and smaller platform in both sides. The height of the platform above the surface is 5 meters and 2.8 meters respectively. Buildings on the central platform is main, the both sides are subordinate. What remains on the surface is a large amount of building materials, including the shreds of broad plain tile, tube-shaped tile, ridge tile and stone column bases.

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Pit 9901 is a new pit discovered in Emperor Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum. During my visit, I could only see the the digging work in progress!!

Remains of Timbers

The corridors and the earthed-rammed walls were originally covered by the timbers, all wooden materials were rotted or burnt, now these are the remains of the timbers. Through the identification, the materials is mainly fir timbers, about 4.5-5 meters long, 0.3-0.4 meters thick.

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Pit K0006 is located 50 meters southwest of the Emperor's tomb mound. It was discovered in 2000 and fully excavated, covering an area of 410 square meters and consists of the sloping passage, the front chamber and the back chamber. Traces of wooded chariot, nine skeletons of horses were found. Eight terra-cotta figures with their hand inside sleeves, four charioteers, four bronze yue axes, one bronze ring, ten bronze finials of the chariot canopy as well as pottery jar were unearthed from the pit. In the field of Qin studies, there is a heated discussion about the use of the pit, some of the historical thought these figures may represent a kind of civil officials who was in charge of the imperial judicature and prisons. Some others think, it was a stable for the emperor, and some argue that these burial objects were used to prepare the emperor' strip.

Pit K006 is a subterranean earth-and wood structure. Its construction way is : first, dig out the east-west orientating pit, about 5 meters deep, with soil frame work. Then again construct earth-rammed walls around the edge of soil frame work, with 2.7 meters high, 1.3-1.5 meters top wide, 0.8 meters bottom wide. The bottom of pit were rammed solidly by earth and paved with floor planks in order. Above the floor planks, side planks were laid side by side along the edge of the earth-rammed walls. The earth-rammed walls sustained wood roof that was composed of square or round rafters, covered by layers of fiber mats on which fine soil was filled. Finally, the combination of pit body and the sloping doorway was blocked by the pillars.

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The Ruins of Inner City Walls :

The inner city wall is rectangular from north to south. According to the survey, it is 1355 meters long from south to north and 580 meters wide from east to west. The perimeter of the inner city wall is 3870 meters, wall base has width of 8 meters. The whole walls were rammed by the earth. There are six gates in the inner city walls, the watch towers were built with each of the gates. The long verandahs which were built along the two sides of the inner wall, were discovered for the first time in the field of Chinese archaeology.

The Underground Palace:

The underground palace is the most important part of the tomb structures and a place for housing coffin. According to the historical records, a great amount of priceless treasures, the ingenious machines, and magnificent palaces, made Qin Shihuang's tomb different from any other mausoleum. Archaeological investigation shows: there is the surrounding wall which builds with the unfired brick in the underqround palace, gates and tomb passages in each side, and complex drainage facilities. The opeing of the palace's gate would solve more mysteries.

Tumulus:

115 meters high originally, remains 51.3 meters in height now. The whole shape of the tumulus is close to a square-based pyramid with flat top and two slightly terrace in the middle, which forms a triple steps. The mound was built by rammed earth. The base of the tumulus is 515 meters long from north to south, 485 meters wide from east to west, 2,000 meters in perimeter, coversan area of 250,000 square meters. Archaeological investigation show: the earth of tumulus is taken from the pond area and is dug out from the tomb.

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Emperor Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum is the mausoleum of first feudalism emperor Ying Zheng in Chinese history, was initially named " Li Shan". According to the historical records, the mausoleum has started to be planed when he ascended the throne at the age of 13. The enormous project has lasted for 38 years; over 700,000 labours were summoned to construct the mausoleum.

Archaeological investigation shows: The mausoleum is grand in size and rich in burial objects. It covers an area of 56.25 square kilometers. Around the tumulus, over 60o sites have been discovered, including the ruins of the surface buildings, the burial pits with different contents, as well as subordinate tombs. Furthermore, over 50,000 cultural relics have been unearthed from these sites. Therefore experts think: all these things that the emperor needed in his real life was required in his afterlife. The mausoleum is an underground reproduction of the earth world.

On December 7, 1987, Emperor Sin Shihuang's Mausoleum and the terra-cotta warriors and horses three pits were listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO.

Admission: Y110 including admission to Terracotta Army Museum.

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After visiting Li Shan, I took the bus 306 for 25 minutes to Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum. This archaeological site and museum is the world famous and listed as UNESCO WORLD Heritage Site. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, built this site with the belief that he could continue be protected by terracotta warriors and houses after death. This remarkable historical site had shown how powerful and ambitious Emperor Qin during his ruling of China.

Emperor Qin 's Terra-cotta pits are the large attendant pits, located 1.5 kilometers east of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum, symbolizing the main defending force that guarded the capital before the emperor died. The pits were never mentioned in the historical records until Pit 1 was discovered in March, 1974 by local farmers while drilling a well. Then archaeologists began the explorations and excavations. On October 1st, Emperor Qin's Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses Museum was open to the public.

Pit 1, the largest pit, is a subterranean earth-and wood structure. It measures 230 meters long from east to west, 62 meters wide from north and south. It's assumed that more than 6,000 pottery warriors and horses will be unearthed from this pit. All the statues are big in life-size and exquisitely made, representing high technology in Chinese sculptural history. They are reputed as the " Eight Wonder of the World". The excavation of the terra-cotta warriors and horses provides extremely valuable data for the research of Chinese ancient politics, military affairs, science and arts.

Located 20 meters to the north of Pit 1 at the eastern end, Pit 2 is in "L" shape. This pits was discovered in April 1976, covering an area of 6,000 square meters. It measures 124 meters long from east to west, 98 meters wide from north to south and 5 meters deep.

Different from Pit 1, Pit 2 consists of mixed military forces in four arrays: archers, war chariots, cavalrymen and infantrymen. The four arrays seemed to exist independently, but could be assembled immediately to constitute a complete battle formation during the war times. This reflects the unique strategy of Qin military affairs.

The excavation work of Pit 2 is still continuing. At present a large area of the remnants of the roof beams and small part of the pottery warriors and horses are being exhibited in the pits. It is a rare chance for visitors to enjoy the archaeological digging at the site.

Pit 3 is a smaller pits comparing to pit 1 and 2. Most of the warriors on this pits are without heads, and mostly are high ranking officers and a war chariot.

Don't miss the Museum if you have more time to discover the history and the archaeological process of Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses.

Admission: Y110 ( Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses Museum & The Emperor Qin Shihuang's mausoleum Site Park including transport between two sites )

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We enter pit 1, the larger one, and we get immediately the notion of the huge size of the archaeological site. But they alert us that only a small part is dug, and that the main open area is pit 3. Why?

Because it is the headquarters. Generals, nobles and other important people seem to be represented there. Well, maybe historically that is important, but for the general visitor like us nothing beats the impact of the immense pit 1.