The famous clay soldiers of the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di are one of the most intriguing mysteries for researchers.

In the III century BC. China, at that time - the Celestial Empire - ruled Ying Zheng who took the name Shi Huang Di, which means "first emperor". Immediately after accession to the throne in 221 BC. (at a very young age) he decided to take care of his afterlife.

By his order, over 700 thousand slaves and convicts were driven to the nearest mountain from the capital, Li Shan. Having broken through the rock mass, they built a giant crypt with bronze walls in the mountain. In the middle was a place for a sarcophagus. Under the vaults, on the floor, they drew a map of the earth's surface, where seas and rivers spilled like mercury. The sky was depicted on the ceiling.

But the ruler could not go to the next world without an escort. In the Chinese other world, the table of ranks had to be observed even more precisely than in life. The divine person of the emperor was supposed to be guarded by a numerous guard with weapons, horses, war chariots. Thank God, to kill or bury alive the warriors of Shi-Huan-Di after his death in 246 BC. they did not, they only fashioned life-size copies of them from clay.

Centuries have passed. In the spring of 1974, residents of the Chinese province of Shenxing, on the outskirts of the city of Xi'an, were digging a well and stumbled upon a failure. A tunnel was opened that led to huge underground halls with clay sculptures.

The discovered army consists of more than seven thousand full-size statues of warriors and horses, which were buried in 210-209 BC. together with the Chinese ruler Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of feudal China. For the first time, he was able to unite under the rule of one ruler seven separate states on the territory of the country and founded a dynasty that ruled from 221 to 207 BC.

Historians believe that Qin was one of the most powerful and important rulers in Chinese history, but his tyranny and incredible cruelty led to a large-scale peasant uprising shortly after his death, which ended the dynasty. The terracotta army, buried with its ruler, was supposed to provide him with the opportunity to satisfy his imperious habits in the other world, just as he did in life. And although instead of living warriors, contrary to the usual tradition, their clay copies were buried with the emperor, which is regarded by some experts as a very progressive step, we should not forget that in addition to the statues of warriors, according to various estimates, up to 70 thousand (!) Workers were buried together with Qin with their families, as well as about three thousand concubines. And these people, unlike the soldiers, were quite real.

The army of clay warriors rests in battle formation in parallel crypts 1.5 kilometers east of the tomb of the emperor himself. The latter, in turn, is located 33 km east of Xian, the modern administrative center of Shaanxi Province, one of the central provinces of China. The crypts, having a depth of 4 to 8 meters, are now located on the territory of the corresponding museum. The first of them was opened to visitors back in 1979, and the museum became fully accessible only in 1994. To date, archaeologists have freed about 1,500 statues from the ground.

The fact that these are copies made from living people is confirmed not only by facial expressions, but also by anthropological features. They have a clear resemblance to the inhabitants of the central part of Shaanxi province: a wide forehead, a large mouth with thick lips, a short mustache ...

Thousands of artisans were invited to the court to "populate" the imperial burials with clay warriors. The molded statues were fired in a kiln. After that, for several days they cooled down in a special room. Then they were painted, dressed in silk clothes, wooden hands were attached to them and weapons were attached. Wooden arms freely rotated in the shoulders - it was easier to wield weapons in the afterlife battles.

All statues are hollow inside. Masters Qin Shi-huang-di painted them in accordance with the table of ranks. The soldiers are dressed in short robes and unadorned breastplates; their hair is tied in a knot, on their feet they have windings and shoes with a rectangular toe. Officers - in chest armor with decorations, high hats, boots on their feet. Generals - in scaly armor with decorations and hats in the form of two birds. Arrows - with bows and crossbows, in bibs and short robes.

Riders, riders, shooters with weapons in their hands seem to be alive. The one and a half meter horses froze in anticipation of a swift throw ... Despite the fact that the colors have faded greatly, the appearance of the figures testifies to a very high level of skill and talent of ancient Chinese craftsmen. And there are about 6 thousand such statues!

Thousands of terracotta warriors restored by experts and put on “combat readiness” made up an amazing exposition, which began to be called the “eighth wonder of the world”.

The figures of warriors are real works of art, as they were made individually, manually and using various techniques. Each individual statue has its own unique features and even facial expressions. After giving the required shape, the statues were baked and covered with a special organic glaze, over which paint was applied. The presented warriors differ in rank (officers, ordinary soldiers), as well as in the type of weapon (spear, crossbow or sword).

In addition to clay statues, in 1980, two bronze chariots were discovered 20 meters from the tomb of the emperor, each of which consists of more than 300 parts. The chariots are harnessed by four horses, the harness of which contains gold and silver elements. Shortly after the death of the emperor, his tomb was plundered, and the fire caused by the robbers led to the collapse of the ceiling, burying thousands of clay troops in wet ground for more than two thousand years (it should, however, be noted that the looted tomb could actually be only one of the "dummies" created to divert eyes, and the real tomb still needs to be looked for. However, this is a slightly different story).

At the very first attempts to excavate the statues, scientists encountered a very sad phenomenon: in the air, the outer layer of the sculptures quickly degraded. According to Heins Lanhols, an archaeologist at the University of Munich, "after being removed from the ground, the statues immediately begin to dry out, and in just five minutes their coloring begins to peel off and peel off." This happens when the relative humidity drops. environment already up to 84%. To explain the reason for the observed phenomenon, scientists conducted a chemical analysis of the statues. It turned out that the reason for the instability of the paint is due to the fact that the organic composition used before painting underwent irreversible chemical changes during a long stay in moist soil. Therefore, now, when it dries up, it begins to flake off from the underlying base along with the pigment applied on top. To avoid skin degradation, Lanhols and his colleagues proposed the following technology.

The statues removed from the ground are immediately placed in containers, the humidity in which is maintained at the same level as in the ground. Next, the entire surface of the sculptures is treated with an aqueous solution of a substance called hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). The latter is the monomer of some plastics produced today. HEMA molecules are small and penetrate into tiny pores filled with moisture. After this treatment, the statues are sent to the nearby city of Linton, where the particle accelerator is located.

With the help of the latter, the warriors are irradiated with high-energy electrons, which causes the polymerization of molecules and the formation of a "glue" that firmly binds the statue's covers to the underlying terracotta. The advantages of this method are that the HEMA molecules are water soluble and small enough to penetrate even the smallest crevices, and that the resulting polymer does not alter the appearance of the statues as many other formulations do (for example, many of these substances are applied like varnishes and , hardening, cause some gloss of the surface).

British scientist Maurice Cotterell believes that in the facial expressions of the clay warriors, the hieroglyphs of the Chinese alphabet are encrypted, with the help of which Shi Huang Di tried to convey Taoist wisdom to his descendants. According to Cotterell, each constituent element of the clay army - from the order of construction to the smallest details of the vestment - has a strictly defined meaning.

In essence, the terracotta army is a kind of ancient book, and by deciphering its secret symbols, people will not only comprehend the meaning of life, but also learn about the future. According to Cotterell, "ciphering" contains information about the location of the signs of the Zodiac and astrological events, on the basis of which horoscopes can be compiled at any time. Who will undertake this work?

Yuri Suprunenko

June 4th, 2011

The burial complex of Emperor Qin Shi Huang is the most important tourist attraction in China. He is located in ancient city Xi'an, the former capital of China for a millennium. Many come to this city just to look at the famous Terracotta Army, which today is the most significant part the tombs of the First Emperor, since the burial complex itself is very rarely visited by tourists. Clay warriors, found in 1974, attract all the attention. At the same time, the Terracotta Army is only a secondary element of the burial, located 1.5 km from the tomb itself, outside the line of the ancient defensive walls that surrounded the entire necropolis.

Getting to the Terracotta Army from Xi'an is easy, there is a constant bus number 306 or 5 from the main city railway station square.
The entire area around the tomb of the First Emperor is defiled by the Chinese in the way that only they can do. There is no strength to describe the kilometer-long rows of shops and stalls, I even got lost in this labyrinth of meaningless structures. All this evil is poked so much that it is difficult to find the entrance to the complex itself.

Main excavation.

The Terracotta Army dates back to the 2nd-3rd century BC. and is logically attributed to the burial complex of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, although it is located at some distance from it.
More than 8000 clay warriors have been excavated so far, and their number is constantly increasing. Warriors have a height of 180-190 cm, the weight of one soldier is about 130 kg.

Almost all the faces of the Terracotta Army are individual.

The entire army was equipped with real weapons - crossbows, pikes and swords, most of which may have been borrowed by the rebellious peasants in ancient times, but even now tens of thousands of arrowheads and other types of weapons have been found.
Photo from the Terracotta Army Museum.

The attention to detail is simply amazing.

It is assumed that there may be thousands and thousands more warriors in the ground. Figures of officials, musicians and acrobats were also found.

Not all warriors arrived in perfect condition, most of the figures were crushed by a heavy roof that collapsed in ancient times.

All the figures were very brightly painted, but the colors died from contact with oxygen when the warriors began to be taken to the surface.
Photo from the Terracotta Army Museum. I just don't understand why they have blue noses? :)

There are many versions that answer the question why all these figures were needed. As you know, during the earlier Chinese dynasties of Shang, Zhou, it was customary to bury living people, but here they seem to have decided, out of the kindness of their hearts, to replace them with clay copies.
"A warrior who wishes us well."

The figure of the general is the tallest of all, there is something about 2 meters in it.

But there is one nuance here. Previously, the number of people buried with the rulers was relatively small - 100-200 people. The number of Qin Shi Huang's warriors is already more than 8,000, and it is not known how many more will be found. Burying an entire army corps alive was probably beyond the power of even the great First Emperor. So we can talk not so much about the "great kindness" of the ruler, but about his increased desires.
In this sense, Qing Shi Huang's wives were unlucky; according to Sima Qian, they were buried in the same way - in in kind. Apparently, the Chinese had a correct understanding of this issue - a clay woman cannot replace a real one) As a result, all the childless concubines were buried, there were harsh times.

Bronze models of Qin Shi Huang's chariots. They are made almost life-size, many parts of the harness and the chariots themselves are made of gold and silver.

Sima Qian also testifies that many craftsmen who worked on the mausoleum were buried together with the emperor. Of course, it was just as problematic to bury everyone as it was for the soldiers, because up to 700,000 people worked during the construction of the tomb. Recently, a mass grave of people was found to the west of the Qin Shi Huang pyramid, but there are only about a hundred people there, perhaps they are workers who died on construction. They died like flies, it was a well-known all-China penal servitude.

"Tai Chi Warrior"

It is probably appropriate to cite the text of Sima Qian here, since this is the main source of our knowledge about the tomb of Qin Shi Huang.

“In the ninth moon, the [ashes] of Shi Huang were buried in Mount Lishan. Shi Huang, having come to power for the first time, at the same time began to break through Mount Lishan and arrange a [vault] in it; having united the Celestial Empire, [he] sent over seven hundred thousand criminals there from all the Celestial Empire. They went deep to the third waters, filled [the walls] with bronze and lowered down the sarcophagus. The crypt was filled with [copies] of palaces transported and lowered there, [figures] of officials of all ranks, rare things and extraordinary jewelry. The masters were ordered to make crossbows, so that, [installed there], they would shoot at those who would try to dig a passage and make their way [to the tomb]. Large and small rivers and seas were made of mercury, and mercury spontaneously overflowed into them. On the ceiling they depicted a picture of the sky, on the floor - the outlines of the earth. The lamps were filled with ren-yu fat in the expectation that the fire would not go out for a long time
Er-shi said: “All the childless inhabitants of the back chambers of the palace of the late emperor should not be driven away,” and ordered all of them to be buried along with the deceased. There were many dead. When the emperor's coffin was already lowered down, someone said that the craftsmen who made all the devices and hid [values] knew everything and could blabbed about the hidden treasures. Therefore, when the funeral ceremony was over and everything was covered, they blocked the middle door of the passage, after which they lowered the outer door, tightly walling up all the artisans and those who filled the grave with valuables, so that no one came out of there. [Above] grass and trees were planted [so that the grave] took the form of an ordinary mountain”

The text is interesting and really, very mysterious.
I am not an expert in Chinese translations, but I believe that the meaning of the passage is accurately conveyed. It is noteworthy that Sima Qian does not mention the construction of a giant pyramid in the text. The crypt is pierced in an already supposedly existing mountain. At the same time, most modern scientists recognize the artificiality of the Qin Shi Huang mound. This is such a contradiction..
The road from the Terracotta Army to the actual burial complex passes through very rugged terrain, everything is pitted with pits for some kind of flooded agriculture. I thought that with such a furious digging of the territory by local peasants, it’s not a sin to find the very burial place of the emperor ..

This is what Qin Shi Huang's pyramid looks like now.

The height of the pyramid at the moment is about 50 meters. It is believed that the original structure was twice as large, different height data are given from 83 meters to 120. The length of the side of the base of the pyramid is 350 meters (For reference, the length of the side of the base of the pyramid of Cheops in Egypt is 230 meters)

Do not think that Qin Shi Huang's pyramid is such a heap of earth. Below is one of the reconstructions of the tomb. The pyramid was made of the same material as the Great Wall and almost all houses in China and Central Asia, that is, from pressed earth. This material can be as strong as concrete. For example, some earthen sections of the Great Wall of China, built at the turn of our era, during the Han Dynasty, are still standing, and the later walls of stones and baked bricks, from the Ming era, have already collapsed.

The only thing I don't like about this reconstruction is that there are three large steps. In the photo of the French explorer Victor Segalen, taken in 1909, the first and second large steps are clearly visible, then the pyramid, like the entire landscape, was "bald" and the separation of the steps was well read.

According to Sima Qian, it is possible that at the base of the pyramid there was some kind of natural mountain, where the burial of the emperor was arranged. But maybe, as many researchers think, the First Emperor was not buried in his pyramid, his tomb is somewhere nearby.
The base of the pyramid, hidden by trees.

The top platform of the pyramid of Qin Shi Huang. Now access here has been closed so that tourists do not go "on the head" of the First Emperor of China. It can be seen that the Chinese are trying to mask the upper platform with freshly planted trees. Why is not very clear, probably to completely destroy the brain of various ufologists and other experts on aliens and pracivilizations.

The staircase was dismantled and the opening was planted with trees, so that from a distance it was imperceptible that there was a passage here.

Approximately 200 meters south of the pyramid, I found in the thickets a very decent vertical shaft dug by Chinese comrades. Apparently, they are not sitting idly by, and the search for the entrance to the burial, albeit slowly, is underway ..

This photo clearly shows at what distance from the pyramid the Chinese made this mine in the ground.

The mine is located inside the perimeter of the fortress walls that surrounded the entire burial complex. There were several such perimeters. The fortress walls of the tomb of Qin Shi Huang are not much inferior in size to the medieval walls of the city of Xi'an, the total length of the walls of the tomb is 12 km, the average height is 10 meters.

Reconstruction of the funerary city of Qin Shi Huang.

Now the entire courtyard of the burial complex is overgrown with trees and shrubs, and once there were many structures of a ritual nature, only the foundations remained of them. But the walls of the Inner Burial City are visible even now, they are especially well preserved in the south.

Ruins of the southern gate of the complex. There were 10 of them in total.

The photograph, taken from the height of the pyramid, clearly shows the southeast corner of the fortifications.

In some places the walls were preserved to a height of two or three meters.

These bricks are at least 2210 years old...

I wonder why the pyramid is so significantly reduced in size. Of course, time and natural disasters did their job, but most likely the tomb of the First Emperor of China was simply not completed.
This is also pointed out by Sima Qian:
“The throne was succeeded by the [declared] heir of Hu Hai, who became the second emperor-ruler - Er-shi-huangdi”…..
“After the death of Shi Huang, Hu Hai showed extreme stupidity: without completing the work at Mount Lishan, he resumed the construction of the Epan Palace in order to fulfill the plans previously outlined by [his father].”

Those. for the son, the palace was more important than the father's tomb. By the way, the Epan Palace is one of the colossal structures of ancient China, unfortunately, it has not reached us.

It is for this simple reason that Qin Shi Huang's pyramid is somewhat different from, for example, the more geometrically correct later pyramids of the Han Dynasty. And the point is not even in size, but in the shape of the structure, which just does not exist. The man-made mountain has a square only at the base, and then I have a suspicion that the Chinese designed this on purpose, cutting off part of the loess rock.

Here you can clearly see the first step of the base of the pyramid.

Here the first high step is carefully hidden by planted trees.

At the top, the mound is rounded, the edges are almost completely absent. Because of this, I even got lost there - I went down not from the south, but from the west side, and for a long time I could not understand where I was. Do not forget that one side of the Qing Shi Huang pyramid is 350 meters. And only from the air you can see what is there and how, on the ground only one can see a dense forest and a gradual rise of the soil to the center of the structure.

The general view of the southern courtyard of the burial complex is complete emptiness, although a small line of ancient walls can be discerned.

I originally took this loess terrace, in the photo below, for a dam that protected the burial city of Qin Shi Huang from floods, but the dam is most likely located to the south. The entire province of Shaanxi consists of such loess terraces, so it is not surprising to get confused.

As in many other places in Shaanxi, Chinese peasants have been digging their houses and barns in the terraces for centuries. The photo shows one of them.

The surrounding mountains look much more "pyramidal" than the largest Chinese pyramid. No matter how hard you try, the creations of nature will always be more majestic than any human deeds.

The ancient capital of the Qin Empire - the city of Xi'an still stands in its place. The mausoleum is located 10 kilometers east of it. The city of Xian itself is located 1100 kilometers southwest of.

If you want to see the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum and the Terracotta Army guarding it, there are two ways. The first is to fly from Russia to Xi'an, to this city. The second is to get to Xi'an by train or fly there by plane from Beijing.

Regarding the second option, we want to warn you that it may be more expensive than it seems. will take you from Beijing to Xi'an in just 6 hours. The ticket price is 516 (1032 yuan round-trip) for one passenger. The price of air tickets is comparable to the price of high-speed train tickets.

For lovers of budget travel, there is an option to buy tickets for a regular train for sitting or standing (this is common in China) seats. The journey will already cost about 300 yuan per person, but you will spend up to 30 hours on the road (up to 15 hours one way).

A bit of history

For about 260 years, a great war of 7 states lasted in ancient China. Everyone was at war with everyone. This period of the country's history is called the “Era of the Warring States”. It ended in 221 BC, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang conquered all the kingdoms. He became the first ruler of a unified China, founding the Qin Dynasty.

In the summer of 210 B.C. he died, and the cause of death is not known to us for certain. There is a very funny version that he drank a mercury-based drink, which was presented to him as the “elixir of immortality”. According to the second version, he was poisoned with poison.

Qin Shi Huang was very concerned about gaining immortality. Based on the description of his reign, we can say that he was obsessed with this idea. During his reign, expeditions were organized to search for the elixir and studies were carried out on the problems of prolonging life.

However, he understood that the chances of gaining immortality were small, and paid no less attention to the problem of his afterlife.

Even in the event of death, he did not want to lose a luxurious life and the opportunity to fight, conquer and rule. He ordered the creation of a huge army of clay warriors to serve him in the next world, which we now know as the Terracotta Army.

He also ordered the construction of a huge tomb with a whole palace. This palace is located inside a hill, which tourists now climb with pleasure.

/ The Terracotta Army is a find that shocked the world

Our land is full of ancient mysteries and mysteries. Every people and every country has a history, the roots of which go far into the past. A good example is China. China is such an ancient country that its rich history begins many centuries before our era. And every archaeological excavation there leads to finds that stagger the imagination of mankind. One of these finds was the terracotta army.

Terracotta Army called one of the wonders of the world. She has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. And US President Ronald Reagan said about her: "The great miracle that belonged to mankind." No one has seen such beauty, such strength and power underground before.

This historical heritage is located in the city of Xi'an, Shenxi Province, located in the east of China.
Terracotta Army- This is a burial of 8099 statues of warriors made of clay. The peculiarity is that all these products are made in full human growth. Chinese warriors with cavalry were buried in 210 - 209 BC with Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

How was the terracotta army found?

For centuries, the inhabitants of Xi'an constantly found pieces of clay - shards. They were afraid to pick them up, because they believed that a curse might follow. The Chinese then did not even suspect that under their feet, just a few meters underground, there was a whole layer of historical heritage.
The mystery of clay shards was discovered in 1974, when Yan Ji Wang, a man who cultivated the land, decided to dig a well on his plot near Mount Lishan. Digging only to a depth of 5 meters, the farmer stumbled upon something strange. Having examined his find, he discovered that it was the head of a warrior, made of terracotta. Archaeologists and historians were shocked by the found object. A long series of archaeological works followed.

Archaeological excavations began in 1978 and are still ongoing. Work is progressing very slowly. Firstly, in order not to damage the figures, and secondly, due to the lack of state funding. The third reason is the ancient belief that rivers of mercury should accompany the emperor to the other world, and in order not to harm the inhabitants of nearby areas and the scientists themselves, everything has to be carefully and carefully checked. So we can safely say that many more secrets lie underground at the foot of Mount Lishan.

Excavations of the clay army have been going on for 40 years. During this time, a whole city grew up on the site of the find. Many pavilions protect the army from rain, wind, which can immediately destroy shaky clay statues. Also, security guards and scientists are constantly on duty to protect the heritage from vandals.
Archaeological expeditions are divided into several stages. The first stage was from 1978 to 1984, the next stage lasted from 1985 to 1986, and the third stage, which began in 2009, continues to this day.

Emperor Qin Shi Huang ruled from 246 to 210 BC, and was one of the most cruel and bloody rulers. Qin Shi Huang is the most significant person in the history of China, and not only because he is the founder of the great Qin dynasty. The great commander was able to unite the 7 kingdoms of China, which waged a fierce war for many decades. Mass destruction and murder, high mortality, chaos and looting ended when the brutal conqueror Qin Shi Huang came to power. The Warring States Period, which lasted 250 years, is over. For the first time, the title of "emperor" was proclaimed, which rose to the level of God. China became a single state, and its power was unmatched.

Also a significant imprint in history, which was left by the first emperor, is the completion of construction and strengthening of the Great Wall of China. The narcissistic emperor declared the entire previous history of China irrelevant, and destroyed all historical monuments, literature, scientists. Thus wiping out all history before the Qin Dynasty.

This historical period is famous for the fact that people sacredly believed in the afterlife. They built tombs, mausoleums, crypts, pyramids and tombs, buried their whole family, servants and army alive with them, filled their tombs with gold, wealth and decorations. In general, they did everything to provide themselves with a decent afterlife. One of the richest emperors, Qin Shi Huang, was no exception.
From the moment of ascension to the throne, and more precisely from the year 246, when the emperor was 13 years old, he actively began the construction of his tomb. Initially, to match his ambitions, Qin Shi Huang planned to bury 4,000 warriors alive with him. But due to the fact that over the past 250 years of the most brutal wars, the population of China has declined catastrophically, it would not be reasonable to bury such a number of life-hungry young people with them. Moreover, there would be a danger of a big riot.
Then, for the first time in history, the Chinese ruler came up with the idea to replace living people with clay statues.

Construction of the tomb lasted 38 years, with the efforts of 700,000 workers. They worked on the construction of the mausoleum day and night. The construction of the tomb with tombs and with all adjacent compartments in the perimeter takes 6 kilometers. The territory occupied by the famous terracotta army is 1.5 kilometers.
Together with the army, 70,000 workers with all their families were buried, as scientists think, so that no one would know the secret of the clay army. Also, 48 concubines were buried alive with the great commander. But don't get upset about them. In those days, people were happy to be buried with their owners, and it was considered a great honor.
The Terracotta Army includes more than 8,000 warriors, but this is far from the limit, as excavations are still ongoing, and their number is increasing every decade.

Each statue of a Chinese warrior is approximately 2 meters tall, which once again speaks of the emperor's desire to exalt himself, and weighs about 150 kilograms. Horses weigh 200 - 300 kilograms.
Chariots were also found in the tomb, which amaze with their wealth and luxury. Each bronze chariot consists of more than 300 parts, and is decorated with gold, silver and drawn by four horses.

Clay warriors were deployed to the east, and they stand on the eastern side of the Qin mausoleum, and all because it was on the eastern side that the emperor indulged in the most cruel conquests.
The warriors are arranged in three rows, clearly one behind the other. They stand as if they are ready to start a fight at any moment. The fighters of the terracotta army are lined up in battle order, first the infantrymen go, followed by horsemen, archers, officers and commanders. Next to them were found statues of musicians, officials, acrobats.
All warriors have different forms, different faces, uniforms. The work was done so subtly and jewelry that even after 2 thousand years, we can see that each statue has its own facial expression. There is not a single warrior who would be exactly like another. Among the terracotta soldiers, one can easily see the whole multinationality of China. The Terracotta Army includes Chinese, Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongols and so on.
Soldiers are dressed exactly according to the laws of that time. Clothing, hairstyle, mustache or beard, uniforms, armor are made with incredible accuracy. Even on the sole of the shoe you can see the corresponding pattern. Each terracotta soldier was equipped with real weapons. It was believed that warriors were made from life, and after death the soul of a warrior moved into a clay statue.

How exactly the soldiers of the terracotta army were made is still a mystery. One thing is clear, all the work is done by hand. Masters used completely different techniques. Some scientists believe that all parts of the body were performed separately, then connected, a face was cultivated from an additional layer of clay on the head, and the whole creation was sent to the oven for several days. But where did the Chinese of the first second century BC get so many stoves? After the work done, the warrior was painted. But unfortunately, for 2 thousand years underground, the paint has worn off. And those sculptures on which the remains of paint were still found, as soon as they were in the fresh air, the entire coating was peeled off.

Material for the soldiers was taken from Mount Lishan. However, according to the pollen on the statues, scientists of our time were able to determine that the statues were made in different parts of China.
From above, the army was protected by whole tree trunks, zinc, cement and earth.
Unfortunately, the terracotta army was defeated very quickly. Immediately after the death of Qin Shi Huang, his successor's mismanagement sparked a rebellion. The people of China needed weapons. Having broken open the crypt of the army, they burned some of the soldiers, and replaced all real weapons with bronze ones.
Interestingly, for such a long period underground, the bronze weapon did not become dull and did not lose its luster, but all because it was covered with chrome. This technique was developed only in the XX century.
We can safely say that the terracotta army qualitatively performed the functions of protecting its master. Many dead vandals and robbers were found on the territory of the army, how exactly they died there is not known.

The great emperor built a whole city of the dead around his crypt. The beauty of the burial complex is not inferior to the real imperial palace. Many burials alive of people, animals, luxurious decorations, untold wealth, all this was transferred to the earth along with the emperor. But to this day, unfortunately, these complexes have not survived.
Scientists of our time suggest that this terracotta army, a plundered tomb, is just a dummy of the real tomb of the emperor. Qin Shi Huang was very cunning. And according to legend, together with the great commander, they put such riches into the ground that even our imagination cannot draw. There is a possibility that the real complex has not even been found yet.

Yes, the earth is full of secrets. And perhaps someday we will find the real mausoleum of the emperor, and the terracotta army will turn out to be artifacts to divert attention. Nevertheless, the terracotta army is the heritage of mankind, a rich heritage left to us by our ancestors.
Historians believe that even two hundred years will not be enough to fully open the tomb of the emperor in Xi'an.