At the age of just 13 (in 246 BC), the new Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, begun work on his mausoleum, a task that took 11 years to complete. The tomb lies outside Xian and has yet to be uncovered and is said to contain many buried treasures to accompany the emperor in his afterlife.

In 1974 when digging a well a farmer discovered fragments of pottery; archaeologists immediately recognised the significance and associated the finds with Qin’s tomb nearby. Work began and soon it was realised just what lay here – a vast army of ceramic warriors that were buried for the protection of Emperor Qin in the afterlife. Thus were the Terracotta Warriors revealed to the world.

The Terracotta Warriors are contained in 3 pits, named in the order of discovery. Here life-size terracotta figures of warriors and horses are arranged in battle formations, each individual and each a replica of what the imperial guard looked like at that time. Pit 1 is the largest and first opened to the public on China's National Day, 1979, and contains columns of soldiers at the front, followed by war chariots at the back. Pit 2 lies 20 meters northeast of Pit 1 and contains over a thousand warriors and 90 wooden chariots. Pit 3 is believed to be the command centre of the armed forces and has 68 warriors, a war chariot and four horses.

The entire site has over 7000 soldiers, horses, chariots and even weapons. The find was and remains sensational and is unmissable on a visit to central China.