The Terracotta Army

Yesterday we left for a long journey through the history and secrets of the most iconic places in Xi’an, the ancient capital of the Chinese Empire. Today we will focus on another very famous attraction of the city: the Terracotta Army, sometimes called the eighth wonder of the world and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

By Alessandra Ivaldi / 7.08.2026

Xi’an is today the capital of Shaanxi Province in Central China and a centre of immeasurable historical, economic and cultural value. It was the capital of the Chinese Empire for many imperial dynasties and also represented the starting point in China of the Silk Road, the long route that in the past allowed trade between the Chinese Empire, the Middle East and Europe. This made Xi’an a very important meeting place between extremely distant cultures and profoundly influenced the city’s development in terms of customs, traditions and architecture. If you want to better understand the importance of Xi’an and discover some of its main attractions, then you can find my article from yesterday at this link. Today we will focus on one of the most impressive archaeological finds in the world, namely the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his army of terracotta warriors.

First of all, who was Qin Shi Huang? He is considered the first emperor of China. In 221 BC, through a series of military campaigns, he conquered and unified under his command the entire Chinese population, which until then had been divided into seven distinct states. In doing so he founded the Chinese Empire, which would survive over the centuries until 1912, the year of the abdication of the last emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Qin Shi Huang established the capital of his new empire in Xi’an and officially introduced the title of Huangdi (emperor) to China. Moreover, he standardized the writing, weight and measurement system and introduced a single currency to allow trade between the different territories of his vast empire. His choice to build a defensive barrier was also fundamental, since it gave rise to what we know as the Great Wall of China. Its construction work naturally continued over time and did not concern a single imperial dynasty.

And beyond all this, what has made Qin Shi Huang a legendary figure in the collective imagination around the world is his impressive terracotta army. But before we get to this point, we need to provide some explanations, necessary to understand the reasons that pushed the great emperor to order the creation of such an extraordinary work.

View from above of part of the Terracotta Army

In his last years of life Qin Shi Huang devoted himself with great diligence to the search for the source of immortality. The desire to defeat death became his obsession. He sent numerous explorers and he himself undertook long and perilous journeys in search of the place where the coveted source must have been located. Ironically, he died during one of these trips. There are of course several theories regarding the possible causes of his death. According to some scholars he fell ill with an incurable disease during his dangerous travels, according to others he was killed by his son Huhai, eager to ascend the throne. The most fascinating and widespread theory, however, concerns the possibility that Qin Shi Huang may have poisoned himself by ingesting mercury. In fact, he used to take mercury on the advice of court alchemists as a method of prolonging life.

Before his death, Qin Shi Huang had ordered the construction for himself and his family of the first large imperial mausoleum in Chinese history, a complex of impressive size. Construction work was said to have lasted for more than 38 years. Qin Shi Huang’s project was extremely ambitious: the mausoleum, located underground, was to be a true underground replica of the capital of the Empire, where the emperor would continue his work of government even after his death. Hence its incredible size.

The mausoleum was divided into distinct areas, so as to recreate the spaces of a city and the layout of an imperial palace. The main body of the mausoleum is located under a tomb mound approximately 76m high, in the shape of a truncated pyramid. The layout of the entire complex is based on the structure of ancient Xi’an, divided into an internal area of the fortified bastion and an external one. Of course, the actual tomb, where Qin Shi Huang’s body still lies today, is located in the interior area and faces east, in the direction of sunrise.

The mausoleum is so large, that some areas have not yet been explored by archaeologists. Among these is the tomb of Qin Shi Huang himself, which still remains a mysterious and unreachable place. According to surviving testimonies, the ceiling of this area of the mausoleum is thought to be dotted with gems reproducing the sun, moon and stars in the sky. Below this, large areas filled with mercury would simulate China’s rivers, lakes and seas. Finally, the tomb was to be lit by oil candles that, according to the beliefs of the time, would never go out, in such a way as to forever illuminate the emperor’s resting place. According to data provided by modern remote sensing systems, the underground depths of the mausoleum do indeed contain an unusually high amount of mercury, which would confirm the veracity of the surviving description of Qin Shi Huang’s spectacular tomb.

Inside the mausoleum the emperor had to be surrounded by faithful servants and an army ready to defend him even in the afterlife. This is why the construction of the very famous terracotta army became necessary. This is an impressive work, which seems coming straight out of a dream: a multitude of life-size terracotta warriors, dressed in armour and equipped with bronze weapons. To date, around 8,000 warriors have been unearthed, but originally there must have been many more. Added to them are 18 chariots and about 100 horses, also made of terracotta. All these statues were originally coloured, which made them even more realistic. However, upon contact with air the lacquer used for the colours came off and for this reason today all the warriors appear the same shade.

What makes the army particularly fascinating, or almost disturbing, is the realism of the details. Each statue has its own expression and different characters. Each warrior is an individual in his own right, but he is part of a single gigantic body. Such an army represents a unique example in the world and is also one of the first historically attested cases of life-size human statues in China. Some scholars speculate that Qin Shi Huang observed and took inspiration for his work from Greek statues, which were introduced to Asia with the conquests of Alexander the Great. In fact, life-size statues of men, precise in the representation of anatomical details, were a characteristic element of ancient Greek art, but were not yet present on Chinese territory at the time of Qin Shi Huang.

Close-up view of a terracotta warrior

In addition to the very famous warriors, however, inside the Qin Shi Huang mausoleum there are also statues depicting characters of a completely different kind, such as courtiers and jesters, who were supposed to entertain the emperor in the afterlife.

The visual impact of the imposing and silent terracotta army on any visitor is undeniable and it’s no wonder that a wide variety of legends have spread about it over the years. There are countless adventure movies and novels inspired by Qin Shi Huang’s army. However, few know that inside the mausoleum are not only the remains of the emperor. Around the heart of the mausoleum, several burial pits have been found. Inside, human remains of people who were probably part of the imperial family were found. And it is precisely here that a new chapter full of mystery opens, because inside one of these pits some remains of women, brutally mutilated, were found. It is speculated that they belong to the numerous concubines of Qin Shi Huang, who never officially chose an empress among the many women in his harem. But why did their remains suffer such violence?

The answer to this question remains a great mystery, even if scholars have advanced several theories. Upon the death of Qin Shi Huang, to avert the risk of a revolt by the enemies of the Qin dynasty, Chancellor Li Si, the emperor’s right-hand man and advisor, initially kept the news of his death secret. In his desperate quest for immortality, Qin Shi Huang had never drawn up a will, but it was expected that after his death the throne would pass to his eldest son, Fusu, who was averse to Li Si. The latter then devised a plan to get rid of Fusu and hand over the throne to Huhai, a younger son of Qin Shi Huang.

The plan worked: Huhai eliminated his brother and through a false will became the second emperor of the Qin dynasty, taking the name Qin Er Shi. According to some theories, for fear of facing other contenders for the throne, Huhai had all of his father’s concubines secretly slaughtered. Those women in fact constituted a potential danger to him, since they could have carried other male children of Qin Shi Huang, or tried to assert the right to succession of other children already born.

We will never know what really happened, and much of the mystery surrounding Qin Shi Huang’s astonishing mausoleum is destined to remain an enigma, continuing to captivate the popular imagination well into the future.

Do you think our journey through the wonders of Xi’an is over at this point? Well, you are very wrong, as tomorrow the third chapter of this long and fascinating journey through time awaits us. Don’t miss the next article!