That morning we had breakfast in the restaurant; there was a beautiful display of dumplings and the breakfast items were the usual stuff .
When travelling abroad, we usually go for breakfast quite early, maybe by 7 am, come back to the room, rest for a while and start the tour for that day; this way, we find the restaurants less crowded
We were going to see the world-famous Terracotta Army that day, which was around 35 km from our hotel .
We were first taken to a factory and store where we were shown the exact procedure of how these warriors were made, which was very educational.
We could see shuttle carts available for an optional fee but chose to walk.
I was pretty much excited to be visiting the Warriors because, along with the Great Wall of China, they were on my bucket list of things to see in China.
The Terracotta army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the army of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, it is a form of funerary art buried with him in 210–209 BCE to protect the emperor in his afterlife.
The Terracotta Army is part of a much larger necropolis constructed as a microcosm of the emperor's imperial palace compound and covers 38 square miles around the tomb mound located at the foot of Mount Li and built in a pyramidal shape.
The construction of the tomb was described by historian Sima Qian (145–90 BCE).
Work on the mausoleum began in 246 BCE, soon after the emperor (then aged 13 years, such a tender age, I thought!) ascended the throne, and the project eventually involved 700,000 conscripted workers.
Mount Li was a favoured location due to the presence of jade mines, and gold was found abundantly
Xiang Yu, a contender for the throne after the death of the first emperor, looted the tomb, and it is surrounded by two solidly built rammed-earth walls with gateway entrances.
The warriors stand guard to the east of the tomb. Up to 16 ft of reddish, sandy soil has accumulated over the site in the two millennia following its construction.
The tomb appears to be a hermetically sealed space roughly the size of a football pitch and remains unopened due to concerns over preservation of its artefacts. It was found that after the excavation of the Terracotta Army, the painted surface present on some terracotta figures began to flake and fade.
The necropolis consists of several offices, halls, stables, and an imperial park around the tomb mound.
A museum complex has since been constructed there, the largest pit being enclosed by a roofed structure. The figures, dating from the late third century BCE, were discovered in 1974 by local farmers in Lintong County, outside Xi'an, while they were digging for something else
Estimates from 2007 were that the three pits comprising the Terracotta Army held more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses, majority of which remained buried in the pits.
The figures vary in height according to their roles, the tallest being the generals.
The figures include warriors, chariots, and horses.
Other terracotta non-military figures found in other pits include officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians.
The museum facility is very large, with four Terra-Cotta Army Pits 1, 2, 3 and the Relics Hall of Quin Shi Huang Mausoleum.
We had a guide and found it easy to navigate around the necropolis, and tickets were quickly arranged.
We proceeded from one pit to the other; there were heavy crowds, and I noticed that the Chinese also chatter a lot like us, and they are habituated to spitting, which is said to be a cleansing act for the body.
The 1st pit was the largest -750 ft long and 200 ft wide—and was most impressive.
It was bigger than several football fields. It had eleven corridors and was paved with small bricks, with a wooden ceiling supported by large beams and posts. It apparently contained the main army of more than 6000 figures
This design was also used for tombs of nobles. The wooden ceilings were covered with reed mats and layers of clay added for waterproofing, raising them about 6 ft to 10 ft above the surrounding ground level when completed.
We saw stretchers, body scanners, and the archaeologists were trying to assemble the many terra-cotta soldiers and horses. I was reminded of our anatomy dissection halls, where we put bodies for students to dissect.
The 2nd Pit was an area of earthen ground partially uncovered by the archeologists who were painstakingly uncovering the small fragments of terra-cotta warriors and horses that have been destroyed by time and past rulers.
The 3rd Pit is where we could see most of the terra-cotta horses and a limited number of soldiers and extensive restoration work going on.
The Relics Hall of the Quin Shi Huang Mausoleum was very impressive; we could see many of the different terra-cotta soldiers that either have been pieced together or found mostly intact. Foot soldiers, officers, archers, and horses can be seen there.
Other pits that formed the necropolis have also been excavated. These pits lie within and outside the walls surrounding the tomb mound.
They contain bronze carriages, terracotta figures of acrobats and strongmen, officials, stone armor suits, burial sites of horses, rare animals, and labourers, as well as bronze cranes and ducks set in an underground park.
The terracotta figures were life-sized, their heights ranging from 5.74 ft to about 6.6 ft, officers typically taller. They vary in height, uniform, and hairstyle in accordance with rank. Their faces appeared to be different for each individual figure, which I found very interesting.
The figures were of these general types: armoured infantry, unarmored infantry, cavalrymen who wear a pillbox hat, helmeted drivers of chariots with more armour protection, and spear-carrying charioteers.
We saw kneeling crossbowmen in the original state and the recovered state too.
Archers who are armoured, standing archers who are not, as well as generals and other lower-ranking officers.
Uniforms varied within the ranks; for example, some had shin pads while others didn’t, some wore long or short trousers, some of which may be padded.
Their body armor varied depending on rank, function, and position in formation.
We saw terracotta horses placed among the warrior figures.
Pigments originally used on the terracotta warriors were ground precious stones, intensely fired bones (white), pigments of iron oxide (dark red), cinnabar (red), malachite (green), azurite (blue), charcoal (black), and Chinese lacquer tree (brown)
I thought the colored lacquer finish and individual facial features would have given the figures a realistic feel, with eyebrows and facial hair in black and the faces done in pink.
However, in Xi’an’s dry climate, much of the color coating would flake off in less than four minutes after removing the mud surrounding the army.
The terracotta army figures were evidently manufactured in workshops by government laborers and local craftsmen using local materials.
Heads, arms, legs, and torsos were created separately and then assembled by luting the pieces together. When completed, the terracotta figures were placed in the pits in precise military formation according to rank and duty.
The faces were created using moulds, and at least ten face moulds may have been used. Clay was then added after assembly to provide individual facial features to make each figure appear different.
Over 40,000 bronze items of weaponry have been recovered, including swords, daggers, spears, lances, battle-axes, scimitars, shields, crossbows, and crossbow triggers. Most of the recovered items are arrowheads
The slightly alkaline pH and small particle size of the burial soil most likely preserved the weapons.
The swords contain an alloy of copper, tin, and other elements, including nickel, magnesium, and cobalt.
Some carry inscriptions that date their manufacture to between 245 and 228 BCE, indicating that they were used before burial.
On seeing the museum, we were reminded of Nagarjuna Konda in Nagarjuna Sagar, where similar excavations were done, and a beautiful Buddhist museum exists on an island on the Krishna River, which can be reached only by a motor launch
There were several exhibitions held all over the world with a small number of the warriors; there was one in Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad too, a thrilling and proud fact for us.
By the time we covered all the areas, we were exhausted and were taken for lunch.
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