Terra Cotta Soldiers

Not everything was found in great condition. In fact a lot were in pieces
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The Terra Cotta Soldiers are affectionately known as the Eighth Wonder of the World or so the entrance sign proclaimed.  Actually they are pretty amazing.  The first emperor of China (he actually formed the country) had them built as part of his tomb.  The thought was that he wanted to continue fighting and/or provide himself protection in the afterlife.  Each soldier is different (the faces most notably so) which means that new molds had to be created for each one.  They were discovered in 1974 when a peasant was drilling a well.  According to the documentary movie we watched, the peasant brought up a soldiers head in his bucket.  We wondered what happened to the peasant whether he became famous or whether he was told that the Chinese government was taking over his land.  Then we realized he was onsite signing books.  He was the cutest little old Chinese man we had scene and he had these huge Hollywood style sunglasses on.  It made me chuckle.

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Currently they are still excavating the site.  Basically there are three pits.  Pit 1 is the largest with over 6,000 soldiers estimated.  All of these soldiers are in formation ready to fight.  Pit 2 is the second largest and most of the excavating is still being done.  Here there are more infantry and archery types.  Pit 3 is the smallest and has the officers and other higher ranking officials.  Many of the soldiers were found in pieces because the tomb had been previously raided and almost all of the weapons stolen.  They area where they are putting them back together reminded me of the old humpty-dumpty nursery rythme.  Luckily one section still remainded relatively unscathed.

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Once again there was an insane number of people at the site.  I guess we aren't the only people who want to experience the Eighth Wonder of the World.