/ 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 cruel 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 uniforms, 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.

The life of people on the vast lands of the ancient province of China - Shaanxi at all times required the daily hard work of the peasants. In order to grow at least something in their fields, it was necessary to apply a considerable amount of time and effort. The main problem of the region is water, or rather its lack. Since ancient times, the wealth of a peasant economy was measured by the presence or number of wells on the site. So it was in the old days and so it was in March 1974.

On one of the sunny spring days, the peasant and the son of the peasant Yan Ji Won decided to take a new step towards the well-being of his family - to dig a well on his plot. The work progressed quite hard, because Vaughn had no assistants, and the earth was in no hurry to open its treasures. At the fourth meter, miracles began at all, instead of the usual clay, the shovel began to draw an amazing mixture of black earth and wood residues. And soon the work had to be completely stopped, the peasant stumbled upon a mysterious find.

When the first fear and surprise had passed, Vaughn examined his find. What he pulled out of the ground turned out to be a human head made of strange dark clay. The head was distinguished by high accuracy of the smallest details, it is not surprising that a simple villager initially mistook it for a real one. Vaughn did not dig further, instead he took the mysterious head to the head of the village.

On this day, the amazing story of the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century and the greatest discovery in the history of China began - the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his terracotta army. Since then, excavations at the former site of Yan Ji Won have not stopped for more than forty years, an amazing find managed to become the first historical monument of China, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and acquire the title of the eighth wonder of the world. But to reveal all the secrets of the Qin terracotta army today is as far away as in March 1974.

A simple peasant Yan Ji Won began to dig his well back in 1974, but in fact he took the first small step on the long journey of the legendary terracotta army and its creator, the first emperor of a united China, to the light. Since then, three stages of archaeological work can be distinguished. The first stage began directly in 1974 and ended in 1986. Later it became known that Vaughn found the first fighting squad of warriors. Over the next twelve years, another 6,000 soldiers from this detachment were dug up.

The second stage of excavations was much shorter in time and lasted from 1985 to 1986. During this period, scientists were mainly engaged in the study of already open premises. However, more than 2,000 more Terracotta Army warriors were discovered, who were later identified as a statue of wealthy horsemen and the army's high command.

Finally, the third stage of excavations began in 2000 and continues to this day. During this time, numerous additional rooms and halls were opened, in which scientists were able to find numerous objects of art and everyday life of that period. Here, scientists were waiting for a more terrible discovery, we are talking about the bodies of 48 concubines of the emperor and the remains of other courtiers.

Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

In order to understand the scale and significance of the tomb of the first emperor of China, it is necessary to get acquainted with the owner of the mausoleum himself. A lot of documentary evidence has been preserved about the life, deeds and death of this historical character. Most of them are written by the Emperor's personal historian Sim Qian.

The future emperor was born in 259 BC and at birth received the name Ying Cheng. At the age of thirteen, thanks to court intrigues, young Cheng ascended the throne. According to the tradition of those times, the young emperor adopted the new name Qin Shi Huang, which means “the first emperor of the Qin dynasty”. In those distant times, seven disparate kingdoms were located on the territory of modern China, which continuously waged bloody internecine wars. The situation was complicated by the constant raids of nomadic tribes from the north and west.

The young Emperor Qin was the first to realize the need to unite all Chinese kingdoms. Qin Shi Huang decided to realize his plans with the cruelty and treachery inherent in that time. His army conquered one kingdom after another, and soon the whole of Ancient China submitted to the young ruler. In the occupied territories, a strict regime was established to suppress any unrest and destroy all dissenters. Thus, more than five hundred Confucian scholars were killed by the emperor's warriors, just because they considered Qin Shi Huang's desire to gain immortality as barbaric.

The theme of immortality runs like a leitmotif throughout the life of the ruler. One of the first steps of the young emperor was the beginning of the construction of his tomb. Later, he was equipped with many expeditions to all corners of his country and neighboring states to search for a recipe for the elixir of immortality. According to the emperor himself, the Qin dynasty was to rule for ten thousand generations.

However, not only this became famous for the first emperor of a united China. In different years, more than one million people worked on the implementation of his grandiose plans, despite the fact that the population of the entire empire barely exceeded twenty million. Among the most significant projects, it is worth noting the completion of the construction of the Great Wall of China, the construction of the majestic Epan Palace in the new capital of Xi'an, as well as the construction of the Lingqu Canal. Unfortunately, most of the emperor's projects were either not completed or were destroyed by ungrateful and warlike descendants.

The last years of Qin Shi Huang's life were marked by the ruler's fruitless attempts to gain eternal youth. This is evidenced by both historical chronicles and a significant expansion of the future mausoleum. Surrounded by countless courtiers and concubines, the emperor was at the center of numerous conspiracies and court intrigues, he became unusually suspicious and cruel. In the last years of his life, the ruler of China personally led expeditions in search of the elixir of eternal life. On one of these sea voyages, Qin Shi Huang fell seriously ill, and after taking a large amount of mercury-based medicines, he died. It happened in 210 BC, and three years later his empire collapsed under the onslaught of external and internal enemies.

Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

It would not be correct to consider the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang as a classical structure of this type. The tomb of the emperor has practically nothing in common with classical examples of European or American architecture. This is not just a room that contains everything necessary for its owner on a journey to the afterlife. This is the embodiment of the afterlife itself, in the form in which it was represented by the ancient inhabitants of the Celestial Empire.

First of all, the size of the structure is striking, the entire memorial complex had an area of ​​​​about 55 square kilometers and the length of the perimeter of the outer walls was more than six kilometers. It should be noted that all dimensions and descriptions refer only to the studied material of the tomb, archaeological work here is still ongoing.

It is assumed that the scientists of the memorial complex consisted of several rooms, which had their own individual purpose. The central place in the complex is occupied by the main chamber. The design of this hall strikes the imagination even of historians and archaeologists who have seen a lot. Here, on a reduced scale, the entire Qin empire is represented, as the emperor knew. Mountains, valleys and cities are made of stone, metal and clay, rivers and lakes are pools filled with mercury. According to some assumptions, on the vaults of this chamber, an image of the starry sky was skillfully made, with all the luminaries and stars known at that time, but confirmation of this legend has not yet been found.

As already mentioned, at least seven hundred thousand workers worked on the construction of the burial tomb. Many of them remained here forever, some due to exhaustion and illness, others from poisoning with mercury vapor, others were deliberately destroyed by soldiers because of the emperor's fear of revealing the location of his tomb.

According to the ideas of all ancient peoples, the ruler in the afterlife should be accompanied by all the servants, concubines, warriors, as well as all the pieces of furniture, household items, and clothes familiar to him. Similar ideas reigned in ancient China, hence the huge amount of jewelry and art objects that were discovered by scientists. During their work, archaeologists continually found numerous remains of people, many were identified by clothes and objects found nearby. Among the bones found were the remains of imperial concubines, nobles, servants, in total more than a hundred people were identified, buried alive.

Among other rooms, scientists discovered richly decorated stables, a kitchen, a harem and halls for terracotta warriors, the last rooms will be discussed below. The findings have turned the existing knowledge of historians about the culture and technology of ancient China. Numerous artifacts testify to the high development of metallurgy, jewelry, blacksmithing, and architecture in China. From his numerous military campaigns, Qin Shi Huang managed to extract not only rich trophies, but also the necessary knowledge and skills.

To protect the mausoleum from the adverse effects of winds, rains, sun and frost, according to the plan of the creators, there was a roof, which was made of logs connected by mats soaked in clay mortar. A mound of earth three meters thick was made on top of this flooring. Over time, the forgotten tomb turned into a man-made mound or mountain.

Terracotta army of the great emperor.

Nowadays, when people get most of their information from the Internet, Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his mausoleum are inferior in popularity to the legendary terracotta army - the guards of the first emperor of a united China. The newest history of this monument began with these warriors, these warriors today have become real symbols of a great country.

Speaking with dry scientific facts, we will establish that the terracotta army is a sculptural group consisting of more than eight thousand figures of people, more than two hundred figures of horses, and several dozen chariots. All figures are not accurate, since the entire memorial complex has not yet been discovered and studied. All the sculptures are arranged in a strict geometric order in two halls: six thousand in one and two thousand warriors in the other. Nearby, scientists discovered another hall, which turned out to be empty, according to one version, this indicates that the emperor’s plan was never fully realized.

According to the records of the aforementioned imperial historian Sim Qiang, initially Emperor Qin Shi Huang intended to take real, living warriors with him to the grave. It cost the court advisers a lot of work to dissuade the ruler from this idea, the main argument that tipped the scales in favor of the advisers was the threat of a popular uprising, when the fact of burying the country's best warriors alive would become public knowledge. Then the emperor decided that on his last campaign he would be accompanied by a real terracotta army, each warrior of which is an exact copy of real soldiers.

Archaeologists have been able to establish that all the warriors of the terracotta army have different origins. By radiocarbon analysis, it was found that the plant pollen found on the statues belongs to different natural areas of China. This fact indicates that the duty to make warriors was assigned to all provinces of the empire. Since all the statues were made using the same technology, it can be concluded that along with the order of the emperor, detailed instructions for making soldiers were transmitted to the provinces. This is also confirmed by the fact that in the appearance of the soldiers of the terracotta army one can easily recognize the facial features and garments inherent in both the Chinese and the Mongols, Uighurs and other tribes of the empire.

A few words about the manufacturing technology of the terracotta army. All figures were made of clay and had proportions of 185 - 195 cm. After being made, the warriors were fired at a temperature of more than 1000 degrees. After that, artists took over the work, covering the statues with organic varnish, and after the varnish had completely dried, they were painted with natural paints. The composition of varnish and paints is still a mystery to scientists. The work is complicated by the fact that when exposed to fresh air, the paint surprisingly collapses after a few minutes.

Special admiration of scientists and tourists is caused by the unique accuracy to the details which the ancient architects sought to achieve. Each warrior of the terracotta army has individual facial features, this is expressed in the smallest details of hair, lips, nose, eyes. No less skillful
the clothes of the terracotta soldiers were made. The thoroughness of the reproduction of elements of armor, belts, jewelry, helmets is amazing. According to contemporaries, initially the soldiers were equipped with real weapons. Each soldier received a weapon according to his rank and type of troops. There were swords, spears, bows, crossbows and daggers. However, after the death of the emperor, the peasants revolted, in order to arm themselves, the rebels opened the tomb of the emperor and disarmed the terracotta army. A little more than half a century passed before the new emperor of China ordered the terracotta army to be re-equipped. This time, the legendary soldiers did not receive real weapons; now they were decorated with swords and spears made of bronze and tin.

As mentioned above, in addition to the soldiers in the tomb, there are sculptures of war horses. The weight of each sculpture exceeds 200 kilograms, for comparison, warriors weigh an average of 135 kilograms. All statues of horses were made at the site of the mausoleum from local stone. Some horses are harnessed to beautiful ancient chariots made of bronze and decorated with gold and silver objects. Each chariot is made up of over 7,000 parts and each one impresses with its craftsmanship.

The great secrets of the terracotta army.

It would seem that after so many years of scientific research and excavations, and even in a country like China, all the secrets of the terracotta army should be revealed. But paradoxically, the years go by, and the secrets and mysteries of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang only multiply.

Scientists still do not understand why the great ruler needed to use almost all the resources of his state, undermined by a bloody war, to build such a large-scale structure. The unprecedented secrecy with which the work was carried out is not entirely clear, and they took 38 years and required the involvement of more than 700 thousand workers.

And finally, the main secret of the mausoleum, which excites the minds of scientists from all over the world, is where the emperor himself is buried. To solve this mystery, scientists will have to solve problems related primarily to the preservation of the found material and the safety of workers who will have to come into contact with tons of mercury and many harmful organisms. As you can see, the great emperor Qin Shi Huang and his terracotta army managed to keep their secrets.

Terracotta Army, ticket price and how to get there?

Today, thousands of tourists from all over the world come to Xi'an to see the famous terracotta army and the equally famous tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang with their own eyes. A visit to the mausoleum is included in the mandatory program of official visits of high-ranking foreign officials. So over the years, they have been here: Russian President Vladimir Putin, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, King Albert II of Belgium, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Presidents Reagan and Obama, as well as many other officials.

Many will be interested in the fact that the famous terracotta warriors even managed to act in films. They can be seen in the famous Hollywood movie "The Mummy III. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The past and present of the Qin Terracotta Army is the subject of a 2004 documentary by Australian filmmakers, Mystery of the Disorderly Warriors.

In order to preserve this unique monument of the past, the Chinese authorities created a museum called "秦陵兵马俑 (Qínlíng Bīngmǎyǒng)" or "Qin's Tomb and the Terracotta Army". The museum is open to visitors all year round daily from 08-30 to 17-00. The standard ticket price is 150 yuan.

The museum is located thirty kilometers from the city of Xi'an. You can get to the sights on one of the tourist buses or by city bus, you should choose the bus routes: 915, 914 and 306. If you prefer to travel by taxi, then the cost of the trip will be 120 - 150 yuan.

Address of Qin's Tomb and Terracotta Army Museum: Qinling North Road, Lintong District, Xi'an 710600, China.

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Passage of the quest in China "Elders must be respected" in the Tomb of the First Emperor.

Elders must be respected

An interesting quest with the passage of the tomb under the historical monument of the Terracotta Army. It can be found on the adventure board.

"My grandfather, Gao Rei, who lives in another part of China, wants to get Shang Simla rarities. Our family will pay good money to whoever gets grandfather them."

If you are already an experienced tomb explorer, then you probably have a couple of unnecessary rarities lying around. If suddenly not, then they can be bought on the market. One way or another, everything will fit. When we bring what we want to the customer, we will know that we are only at the very beginning of a difficult journey.

One more service

"Grandfather has one more request. Lu Ji - do you know this name? Lu Ji is not going to return the thing once borrowed to grandfather. Return it, and grandfather will tell you something interesting."

We go to this same Louis and with all our charm and friendliness we persuade her to return the loot. It shouldn't be difficult.

Better late than never

"Ah, my head is full of holes! Indeed, this artifact that I needed for one study belongs to a character named Gao Rei. Please return it to its owner."

Naive, underestimate the memory of older people. Even if they don't remember, they at least write down their debtors. We'll be back as soon as we're booked somewhere.

Descendant of the Ancient Guardian

"Thank you again! My grandfather is a direct descendant of one of the First Emperor's guards. He knows the history of the imperial family, their secrets, and the fate of their treasures perfectly. He sent this key so that you can explore the First Emperor's tomb."

That's nice, we already miss real adventures! The Tomb of the First Emperor is located at the foot of the Terracotta Army. We're heading there.

1. We go down the ladder at the foot of the mountain.
2. We insert the key-stone into the well, a secret staircase opens down.

3. We descend into a spacious hall.
As soon as we enter it, we will immediately receive a message that we have explored the tomb, in which there are still many secrets. Gao Rei knows where the treasures are hidden in this huge dungeon. But since we've only just arrived, let's stay here a little longer.

The tablet reads:

4. There are a couple of chests in the center of the hall. Hidden around them are 4 dart traps. They can be found, and can be neutralized automatically. For this you need:
5. Move the statue to the floor switch - a secret staircase will open in the other corner of the room.
6. The stairs lead down to a U-shaped corridor, at both ends of which there is a floor slab.
7. We get up on top of the first, next to the stairs.
8. A staircase will appear upstairs right there, it leads to gold coins, enclosed by a fence.
9. A floor panel will also appear at the top. If you stand on it, then some of the traps will turn off.
10. The plate at the other end of the corridor shows us another staircase up.
11. The floor switch at the top disables the second pair of traps. The hall is now safe.

12. The locked door in the hall requires another key.

Now back to the customer, for sure the key is already waiting for us.

Plan of the tomb

monk's blessing

"Grandfather is worried that you won't be able to fully explore the First Emperor's tomb. He sent a key that opens the door to another part of the tomb. But for the key to work, you need to cast a special spell. Ask a monk named Liang Yat-Sen to cast this spell."

We go to this miracle monk, involve him in our adventure, and having received the blessing of higher powers, we hasten back to the customer.

Cache of the First Emperor

"Anything you can do! We've talked to Grandpa. Now that the key is working, you can enter the very heart of the First Emperor's tomb. Bring me the ancient spear that belongs to our family and you will receive a generous reward."

Armed to the teeth, we return to the Terracotta Army in our tomb.

12. Now we have a second key. We open the cherished door and go through it.

Signs in front of the entrance read:

"The First Emperor has always said that the path of the righteous is carved in jade."
"Forget the reverence in the First Emperor's tomb, for even now he guards and protects his people."

13. Let's remember about the green color - this knowledge will be useful to us.
14. In the chest just outside the door you can find canned food.
To the left and right there are secret doors in the wall, they will open automatically when we open the chest. Another door is locked. Requires Key to the Heart of the Emperor's Tomb.
Let's pay attention to the floor and what was in the first tablet. It is logical that the safe path is laid out in green.

15. The room on the left has one turnable statue, several floor tiles and switches, and three obvious traps.
16. First, let's take a look at the chest. In the chest is the key-stone star.
Carefully! We move only along the green path - hidden traps cannot even be identified, but they are there, and they do not discharge.
Then again we follow the logic of the green path.

17. We push the turning statue to the farthest plate between the two traps - all explicit and hidden traps in the room will turn off. The rest of the plates are of no interest to us here.
18. In addition, a secret staircase opened down.

19. The small door at the bottom is locked, you need the key stone star, which we already found in the chest. We open, go through and get into a room with a well and a large boulder.
20. We break the boulder with the Pangu ax, open the chests.
21. One of them contains a collectible figurine of dangerous creatures.
22. We study the well.
23. We move through the tunnel to the next room.
The tablet on the wall again reminds us of Jade, with which the path of the righteous is carved. What do we see? Several sarcophagi, one of them is green.

24. ABOUT! There we find the very key-stone from the heart of the tomb!
We return to the first room.
25. Behind the right secret door is a small room with a hole in the wall. We carefully move towards it along the green tiles.

June 4th, 2011

The burial complex of Emperor Qin Shi Huang is the most important tourist attraction in China. It is located in the ancient city of 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 of the tomb of the First Emperor, since the burial complex itself is 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 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. [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 clearly visible.

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.

There are 3 capitals in the world known for their ancient values ​​- Rome, Athens and Xi'an. There is a whole army in Xi'an whose purpose was to guard the tomb of the emperor. More than two thousand years have passed, and the immovable soldiers are still standing, silently fulfilling their destiny. Their name is . All the figures are made so realistic that you doubt that they are made of clay: each has its own facial expression. At the same time, absolutely everyone is different - there is not a single soldier who would be similar to another.

The Terracotta Army is located in the Xi'an province near the city of Lintong. A stone army accompanies the burial of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It was on his initiative that they began to build and. There is no doubt that the purpose of this army was to guard the emperor and fight for him in the Realm of Death. So far, 8,000 figures have been found in underground halls or pits. That's what it is .

Foot soldiers, archers, crossbow shooters, cavalrymen, war chariots with horses are lined up in battle order. The height of the warriors is from 1.6 to 1.7 meters, and none is like the other. Everyone is in different poses - someone is standing like a pillar, someone is holding a sword, as if repelling an attack, and someone, kneeling, is pulling a bowstring. The statues themselves are hollow, except for the legs, otherwise they would not have been able to stand for so long.
Previously, the entire army was painted in bright colors, but over time, the paint, of course, came off. Not all figures of warriors depict the Chinese, there are also Mongols, Uighurs, Tibetans and so on. All details of clothing or hairstyle strictly correspond to the fashion of that time. Everyone has their own weapon, by the way, for many it is not stone, but the most worthless. True, most of the swords and bows were stolen in ancient times by marauders.

Terracotta Army: Interesting Facts

In 246 BC, after the death of King Zhuang Xiang-wang, his son Ying Zheng, known in history as Qin Shi Huangdi, ascended the throne of the Qin kingdom.

By the middle of the 3rd century BC, the Qin kingdom occupied a rather vast territory. By the time of accession to the throne, Ying Zheng was only thirteen years old, until he came of age, the first adviser to the king, Lu Bu-wei, actually ruled the state.

In 230 BC, Ying Zheng sent a huge army against the neighboring kingdom of Han. The Qin defeated the Han troops, captured the Han king An Wang and occupied the entire territory of the kingdom, turning it into a Qin district. This was the first kingdom conquered by the Qin. In subsequent years, their army captured the kingdoms of Zhao, Wei, Yan, Qi.

By 221 BC, the Qin kingdom had victoriously ended the long struggle for the unification of the country. In place of scattered kingdoms, a single empire with centralized power is being created. Since Ying Zheng became the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, he ordered himself to be called Shi Huangdi - "the first highest emperor." He was in fact an unlimited head of state and was distinguished by a special despotism.

The first emperor did not doubt for a minute that his dynasty would rule forever, and therefore tried to create attributes appropriate for eternity. Especially rapid development during the period of the empire was the construction business. During his reign, beautiful palaces were built (the largest palace was the Efangong Palace, erected by Qin Shi Huang near the capital of the empire, on the south bank of the Wei-he River). In order to protect the outskirts of the empire from enemies, Qin Shi Huang decided to start building a grandiose structure - a defensive wall along the entire northern border of the empire, which is known to our contemporaries as the Great Wall of China.

In 210 BC, the almighty Qin Shi Huang passed away, his body was buried in a special mausoleum. A detailed description of the grandiose underground palace and the colossal mound above it belongs to the father of Chinese history, Sima Qian, the chief court historiographer of the emperor. 700 thousand slaves, soldiers and forced peasants participated in the construction of the mausoleum for 37 years.

So many people built and.

The records indicate that the perimeter of the mound was 2.5 kilometers, and its height reached 166 meters (now the preserved earthen hill, resembling a pyramid, is 560 meters long, 528 meters wide and 34 meters high). Qin Shi Huang sincerely believed that he could rule his empire even from the underworld. For this, he believed, he would need an army - this is how the terracotta army appeared. Even during his lifetime, the emperor wanted clay idols to go to another world with him after death, as he believed that the souls of imperial soldiers would move into them (at least, this is what an old Chinese legend says).

The warrior statues were made from the casts of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's elite bodyguards. The manufacturing technology was as follows. The main material for statues is terracotta, that is, yellow or red fired unglazed clay. First, the body was molded. The lower part of the statue was monolithic and, accordingly, massive. It is on it that the center of gravity falls. The top is hollow. The head and arms were attached to the body after it had been fired in the kiln. At the end, the sculptor covered the head with an additional layer of clay and sculpted the face, giving it an individual expression. That is why each warrior is distinguished by his individual appearance, the authenticity of the details of clothing and ammunition. The sculptor accurately conveyed the hairstyle of each warrior, which was the subject of special attention at that time. The firing of the figures lasted several days, at a constant temperature not lower than 1,000 degrees Celsius. As a result, the clay from which the warriors were fashioned became as strong as granite.

The tomb of the emperor stands 100 meters west of the pits with terracotta soldiers. Qin Shi Huang himself died in 210 BC, this date should be considered the approximate date of the construction of the terracotta army. The tomb itself also deserves attention. It is assumed that more than 70,000 people were buried with the emperor: courtiers, servants and concubines, who could serve their master in another world as well as during his lifetime.

Why "assumed"? The fact is that no one knows where to look for the entrance. It may very well be that those workers who built the tomb were then killed and buried there - so that the secret would never be revealed. And now the pyramid is under a large earthen rampart. By the way, a clay army would have been under the same rampart if scientists had not dug it up.
It is not entirely clear why Terracotta Army of China and the tomb turned out to be buried under a large layer of earth. Scientists doubt that they were deliberately buried. Most are still inclined to another version: most likely, this happened due to a big fire (traces of fire were found). Perhaps the robbers either could not get into the tomb, where, in their opinion, there should have been a lot of treasures. Angry, they started a big fire. It is possible that they nevertheless got inside the tomb, and they needed a fire to eliminate the traces of the crime. One way or another, the fire led to a collapse, burying thousands of clay troops in wet ground for more than two thousand years...

Terracotta Army: Discovery Story

Until 1974, the existence of the terracotta army was not even suspected. It was in this year that several peasants began to dig a well, but were forced to suspend their work - suddenly, right from the ground, they began to dig statues of soldiers in human height, horses and whole chariots appeared in addition to people.

The well, of course, was no longer dug; archeological excavations began here, and the most unusual in recent times. Thousands of soldiers and animals were taken into the world.

In total, 3 holes were dug, slightly distant from each other. The first contained statues of foot soldiers, chariots and archers. This pit is the deepest - 5 meters, and its area is 229 by 61 meters. In the second pit, smaller in size, there were not 6,000 soldiers, as in the first, but only 100. The smallest depression hid 68 figures, obviously depicting the command headquarters. Nowadays, everyone can look at the terracotta army. True, only the first pit is reserved for the museum, but the main part of all the statues is located there.

The museum shows videos of the excavations, and other figures are on display, including two miniature bronze chariots with horses harnessed to them and half-life-size charioteers. The latter were discovered in 1980 and are exactly the vehicles used by the emperor, his concubines and courtiers. In order to further preserve this miracle, a pavilion with a vaulted ceiling was built above the terracotta army. Its dimensions are 200 by 72 meters. In shape, it resembles an indoor pool or stadium.

The excavations are not yet fully completed, they are still ongoing. And they probably won't end soon. The reason for this is not only the size of the tomb and not the lack of financial assistance to archaeologists from the state. To a greater extent, this is the eternal fear of the Chinese before the world of the dead. Even today they treat the ashes of their ancestors with trepidation, fearing to defile it with their unholy touch. So, according to Professor Yuan Jungai: "Many more years will pass before we can finally continue excavations." The find in Xi'an Province is of great historical significance. It made it possible to learn about how the ancient Chinese army was equipped. And besides, it is a real sculptural miracle.

Terracotta Army: how to get there

Usually, the attractions depart from Beijing or Shanghai, but you can fly directly to Xi'an. If you go through the first 2 cities, then from there you can get to Xi'an by car (11 hours drive), by train (6 hours) or by plane (2.5 hours on the way).
From Xi'an, the Terracotta Army can be reached by buses No. 306, 914, 915. They will take you to the place in an hour. Ticket price within 12 yuan.