The Terracotta Warriors

In a field around an hour south of Xi'an on a good traffic day, one of China's most famous attractions lies, some still subterraneanly.  The Terracotta Warriors are a collection of life-size terra-cotta sculptures that defy logic.  The site itself spans around 1.5km and because various bits are still being excavated, sections are covered with greenhouse-style roofing.

As the story goes, in 1974 a farmer was digging up his ground in preparations for a well when he stumbled upon chunks of what he thought was a pot.  Upon further digging, he discovered a gigantic terra-cotta statue. He called the Chinese government who set up an excavation site—they then discerned that the statues existed from the time of the Qing dynasty.  Overall, they found nearly 8,000 warriors statues, over 500 horse statues and 130 chariots and area has now been turned into one of the world’s greatest archaeological sites.  As for the farmer, the communist party has privileged him with the job of manning the gift shop. At 87 years of age, he still seems quite smitten with the job.  

The history of the warriors themselves is rather long.  The Cliff's notes version:  Apparently, work on the site began in 246BC when Emperor Qin (then 13) ascended the throne.  He had a fascination with death and thus summoned an army of civilians to construct a series of terra-cotta statues to be buried with him upon his death, as a means to protect him in the afterlife.  They worked tirelessly in primitive factory-style working conditions to construct heads, limbs, armor piece by piece by piece.  Ironically, this is the process excavation is taking today.  As pieces are painstakingly recovered, they get placed in the various pits--marching forward, staring stock-straight ahead, often headless: 

Other Emperors played similar games and the local area is littered with the partially excavated remains of the whims of them.  We later journeyed to another excavation site, where the emperor wanted to be buried with miniature doll-sized naked statues, symbols of the eunuchs who surrounded him during his lifetime.  I fear some of this history may have been lost with time and translation but its implausibility does sound ridiculously possible.  

Each warrior has its unique properties, including footwear, weaponry, hairstyle and facial expression. The ranks of soldiers can be seen based on these choices and historians have worked tirelessly to date these pieces.  Due to the hairstyle and moustache, historians have agreed that this guy was some kind of general: 

And this guy was some kind of warrior.  Is this, perhaps, the first documented case of man bun?

It's all pretty remarkable and very intimidating.

At various angles, the warriors appear to be marching forward, staring you straight on:

ready for their weapons to be returned to their upturned hands: 

row by row by row:

But still too fragile to be trampled near by mortal human foot:

As far as afterlife protection plans go, this one seems as good as any.