Warriors of xian

Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China Qin Shi Huangdi (c. -259? September 10 -210) was the first king of Qin from -247 to -221. The emperor, still haunted by immortality, hired a magician. This he manufactured the famous "red beads" of cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) supposed to give, each, six years of life. Therefore made ​​of mercury, the "red beads" were probably the cause of his death. Mausoleum of Emperor Qin. He is the mausoleum of Xi'an which covers about 56 square kilometers, a high mound of 115m to 1.5 km covering his tomb drowned in rivers of mercury still untouched at present and several pits containing some seven thousand statues of soldiers and terracotta horses. Not wanting to be alone after the death, Qin Shi Huang ordered his army to be carved into the ground and be buried with him. He therefore build thousands of terracotta soldiers, chariots and horses, all different from each other (face, clothes, arms position) and a little larger than life, a soldier measuring between 1.72 m and 2m. In 1974, farmers found these statues by digging a well in their field. Then they made use of archaeologists. We can now see some of the statues excavated by Chinese archaeologists (about 1500 over 7000), all considered a wonder of the world. The mausoleum beneath the mound, meanwhile, has not yet been excavated.

Archaeological site of Xian, overview of the pit n° 1 of the sculptures of the army of soldiers: