Terracotta Army (Emperor Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Site Museum)

The Terracotta Army occupies the excavated pits east of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's burial mound in Lintong District, roughly 40 minutes from central Xi'an. Construction began after Qin Shi Huang unified China's warring states in 221 BCE and continued until his death in 210 BCE; the buried force of an estimated 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, and 670 horses was meant to protect the emperor in the afterlife. Farmers digging a well uncovered the first fragments in 1974, and archaeological work has continued at the site ever since, making it one of the longest-running active excavations in China. The Site Museum is organized around three excavation pits housed under separate vaulted structures. Pit 1, the largest, displays close to 2,000 standing infantry and chariot warriors arranged in battle formation across a floor the size of several football pitches, viewed from raised walkways along its edges. Pit 2 holds the best-preserved individual figures, including the kneeling archer and the cavalryman, displayed in glass cases at close range, along with sections still under active excavation. Pit 3, the smallest, is interpreted as the command post, with officer figures grouped around a war chariot. A separate exhibition hall displays two bronze chariots and horses found near the tomb mound, cast in half-scale and considered among the finest bronze work to survive from the Qin period. Each terracotta figure was originally painted in bright pigments and assembled from separately molded heads, torsos, arms, and legs, giving individual soldiers distinct facial features; most pigment flaked away within minutes of exposure to air after burial, and conservators now use chemical stabilization to preserve traces of paint on newer finds. The museum presents the pits largely as excavated, with interpretive panels explaining Qin-era metallurgy, ceramics, and military organization rather than a chronological gallery walk.