Terra Cotta Warriors
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In 221 B.C, for the first time in its history, China was united under one emperor, Qin Shihuang of the Qin dynasty. The Qin emperor's influence far out lived his short dynasty. His most important achievement was unifying the various warring kingdoms and integrating writing, money, weights and measures into one centralized and standardized bureaucracy. Like many autocrats, Qin Shihuang had an early start on his own mausoleum; construction began when he was only 14 and continued for 36 years.
The emperor's tomb complex is masive memorial to a man that his tory remembers as both brilliant and brutal. Many parts of hsi rich tomb remain unexplored because current archeological technology isn't advanced enough to preserve the priceless artifacts held within.
The tomb of the Qin emperor, at 56.25km2, is best described as an underground palace with stables and an inner and outer city. Han dynasty historian Sima Qian detailed the construction effort, he wrote of the vast dffort required to build the emperor's final resting place. Over 700,000 conscript and slave laborers built the tomb to hold the numerous treasures within, rivers of mercury, constellations of pearls and gems embedded into the ceiling, plus an assortment of valuables the emperor would require in his afterlife, including live soldiers, concubines and servants-plus the artisans who worked on the mausoleum lest they reveal its secrets.
Today Qin Shihuang's unopened vault, 1.5km from the Terracotta Warriors and 30km from Xi'an, still grards its secrets. The non-descript grassy tumulus is surrounded by trees. On peaceful sunny days, the wind blows yellow earth across the countryside, what may lie underneath belies the humble surroundings and tantalizes the imagination.
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Three pits containing warriors are open, a nearby fourth pit was fund empty. The pits zre still being excavated and in many; warriors lay toppled as if they fell in combat. Shattered and headless statures give the errie sense of viewing the carnage of an ancient battlefield. Though a daunting task, archeologists continue to piece together the broken remains of those warriors who lost their battle against time.
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