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| The Only Terra Cotta Warrior that Was Found Intact - All the Rest were Broken |
I had a surprise when I visited the Terra Cotta Army in Xi'an, China. Only one clay soldier was found intact. When you see the sea of soldiers, what you see is thousands of figures that have been pieced together from broken pieces. Before touring the tomb, I had seen many photos and written accounts about the thousands of life size clay figures dating from the third century BC, buried to protect China's first emperor as he crossed into his afterlife. The collection of 8,000 clay soldiers, 130 chariots and 670 horses was discovered in 1974, along with the tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.
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Terra Cotta Soldiers buried in the tomb of China's First Emperor; Some are Headless
What was news to me was that in the throng of thousands of sculptured figures standing on display in the enormous pits, only one soldier was found intact. Except for him, every one of the other nearly 9,000 items has been pieced together and restored. It is like a giant, maddening puzzle. The amount of restoration work boggled my mind.
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| Details of Broken Soldiers Put Back Together Again |
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The Farmer who Discovered the Tomb, while searching for Water (see his poster above), posing with Random Tourists
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| Other Random Tourists Visiting the Tomb |
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Warrior Restorers
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