I
had to be ready for the tour at 9AM. I got up early enough, so I had
time to have breakfast. I ordered a müsli and a cappuccino,
unfortunately, at that time there were many other tourists ordering
breakfast and I think there were only 2 guys serving the breakfast.
At 5 to 9, I went up to the guy to ask for my money back, because I
hadn't gotten my breakfast yet and I needed to go.
The
tour guide brought us from the hostel to a bus where other Western tourists were
waiting. Chelsea was our enthusiastic tour guide and on the way to
the terracotta warrior factory, she told us a little bit about the
history of this very famous sight:
The
Terracotta Army was created by the first emperor named Qin to
accompany him in his tomb. He started the construction as soon as he
ascended the throne. Qin believed that statues will became alive in
the afterlife and he wanted an army at his side when he entered it. The construction of the tomb lasted from 246 to 206 BC.
The army consists of thousands of warriors, horses and chariots in
original man size (6,000 pieces), and many other treasures were
buried with him. They were covered by a wooden roof.
It
was discovered in 1974 by a farmer and archaeologists are still
working on this amazing archaeological site. Two years later, another
two parts were discovered. Many statues though are destroyed. A big
area in each room is still uncovered, because they discovered that
the statues were colored and when they uncovered them, the colors
faded. This is why all of the statues that can be seen now (around
2,000), are plain. They haven't discovered the technology yet to
keep this from happening, this is why they left a big part buried. It
has been selected as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The
first stop was at the factory of the terracotta warriors. They showed
us how they make those clay statues of different heights. You could
also have one with your face, there was an example of Obama. They
told us that on the market, they sold fake ones, made out of a
material that breaks easily. This was in one room and then 4 rooms
followed filled with different products they sold, from statues to
furniture and paintings. I grabbed a coffee which finally woke me up.
Back
on the bus, we headed to the Terracotta Warriors Museum. There are 3
different displays of which Pit 1 was the biggest one and the most
complete one. The Terracotta Army is staged in a battle formation and
each figure faces east and every single statue has a different facial
expression, clothing and hair. The structure of the pits is always
the same: the figures were placed in the corridors, 5 meters below
the ground, and covered by a wooden roof which was covered by fiber
mats and earth fill.
Then
we went to Pit No. 2 and No. 3 which contains more soldiers on
chariots of which most were burned and destroyed.
After
lunch, the bus drove us to the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin. His tomb is
supposed to be a huge underground palace but it hasn't been uncovered
yet, the appropriate technology hasn't been discovered yet and there
is some toxic material inside. People have known of its existence for
a long time thanks to written documents but the Terracotta Army
wasn't mentioned anywhere.
In
the end, it is a beautiful park with a head stone. No wonder that
many tourists skip this place...
No comments:
Post a Comment