Museumof Qin Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses

The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century. In March 1974, some farmers happened to dig up what turned out to be a large-scale pit with terra-cotta soldiers and horses, belonging to the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, or the Founding Emperor of the Qin. Excavation of the vault revealed thousands of terra-cotta warriors and their horses, an entire army designed to follow its emperor into eternity. The emperor's terra cotta army was found in three underground timber lined vaults.

In order to keep the terra-cotta warriors and horses well-protected, a museum was built on the site of the terra-cotta warriors and horses pits in the Emperor Qin's Mausoleum. The museum is located at the northern piedmont of Lishan Mountain 7.5 kilometers east of Lingtong County in Shaanxi Province and 37.5 kilometers west of Xi'an City. In the last 20 years, the Museum of Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses has developed and become the largest on-site museum in China.

Three main buildings of the museum, which were named Pit 1, Pit 2 and Pit 3, were constructed on their original sites. A building was put over the Pit 1 which has a bow-shaped steel framework, to form a vast exhibition hall. The building is 230 meters long, 72 meters wide and 22 meters high. The Museum of Qin Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses was officially inaugurated and opened to the public in 1979.The exhibition hall of Pit 3 was built in 1987 and opened to the public in 1989. Later in October 1994, Pit 2 was opened to the public.

The museum covers an area of 190,000 square meters. Among all, Pit 1 has an area of 14,000 square meters for exhibition halls and Pit 3 with 1,200 square meters, and the exhibition hall of copper vehicles and horses and the auxiliary exhibition hall cover over 600 square meters each.

Standing inside the hall of Pit 1, there are over 1,000 of the horses and soldiers that have been excavated and cleaned up; the rest of the 5,000 are in the process of being cleaned, one by one. The army is arrayed in a rectangular formation, all facing east. In front are three rows each with 210 warriors making up the front ranks, after them are marching soldiers and horses drawing war chariots, making up the main body of this army. The two sides of the army and the rear each have a line of warriors, divided to face south, north, west - this was perhaps to maintain a contingent for the sides and the rear of the hall, to guard against rear attack. Pit 2 held fourteen hundred figures of cavalrymen, horses and infantrymen, along with ninety wooden chariots. Pit 3 contained about seventy figures. Excavating them has been a massive undertaking. To date, more than a thousand warriors have been reassembled.

To the east of Pit 2 lie the multiple exhibition halls, covering a series of exhibits, such as two sets of bronze chariots and horses, the new findings from the Emperor Qin's Mausoleum, the history of the museum and all kinds of temporary exhibits. These displays systematically depict the history of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) and can help the viewers to have a better understanding on the terra-cotta warriors and horses. The south of Pit 1 is a circle vision hall. The movie inside lasts 20 minutes and provides vivid materials for telling the story of Emperor Qin and his Terra-cotta Army 2,200 years ago. The halls on the northwest of Pit 3, which covers 4,282 square meters, are the multiple service halls where the visitors can have meal, do shopping and take a rest.

The museum is not only a treasure house, but also a main scenic spot of Xi'an city. Today the eighth wonder of the world has almost become synonym of the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses in 1987; the Emperor Qin's Mausoleum was put on the list of the UNESCO as a world-class cultural heritage site. Now the museum is widely known as a huge modern site museum and it is going to be one of the best in the world.