The warriors were built by a crazy emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who decided that a simple burial tomb was not enough and so build himself an entire burial city. The warriors are some 2km from his tomb.  The surrounding areas have yet to be fully uncovered.

The emperor’s original plan was to bury the actual soldiers for protection in the after life, but someone slightly more sane convinced him to make clay replicas. There are thousands of them and each is based on an actual soldier – some 6,000 unique faces. It’s amazing to see thousands upon thousands of these soldiers all in line. Many were damaged from years of warfare after the fall of the Qing dynasty.

Less than half of the soldiers have actually been uncovered to-date, as their colouring fades when exposed to light or air. They are investigating new preservation technologies before they uncover the remainder. It must have been beautiful to see all these soldiers fully painted.

 UNESCO World Heritage Site #10