Terracotta Army Warriors (selected)

The massive tomb complex was discovered in 1974 by a group of local farmers digging a well in Lintong District, Xi'an, China. One of the original discoverers, Yang Zhifa, famously became a minor celebrity and spent years signing books at the site's museum.

The life-sized clay army was buried near the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, in the late third century BCE to protect him in the afterlife. The warriors were equipped with real bronze weapons, such as swords and crossbows, meant to serve as a spiritual garrison.

Archaeologists believe the statues were assembled using a standardized modular system for their bodies, but their faces were individually sculpted to represent the diverse ethnicities and facial features of the emperor's real army. Originally, they were also painted in vibrant colors, though the paint rapidly flakes off when exposed to air.

Since the site's discovery in 1974, archaeologists have excavated three main pits containing an estimated 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, and 520 horses. However, a large portion of the necropolis remains purposefully unexcavated to preserve the fragile artifacts.