Each answer names its source. Where sources disagree, the answer says so instead of choosing one.
What are the terracotta warriors?
They are life-size pottery soldiers, horses and chariots buried in pits around the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the emperor who unified China. UNESCO counts nearly 200 accompanying pits, with burial tombs and building remains, within a property of 56.25 square kilometres.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre
When and how were they found?
Villagers in Xiyang village, Lintong, found arrowheads and crossbow parts from Pit 1 on 29 March 1974. UNESCO notes that the site was not discovered until 1974.
Source: Xinhua, 2019; UNESCO
How many figures are there?
UNESCO says thousands of statues remain to be unearthed. Pit 1 is estimated to hold about 6,000 figures. Sources do not agree on the often repeated total of about 8,000, which some call an estimate for all the pits and others a count of figures already excavated.
Source: UNESCO; Xinhua, 2019
What are Pits 1, 2 and 3?
Pit 1 is rectangular, covers 14,260 square metres and is estimated to hold about 6,000 figures. Pit 2 covers about 6,000 square metres, and exploration shows more than 1,300 figures and horses. Pit 3 covers 520 square metres with 72 figures and horses, and some scholars see it as the command post of the army.
Source: Xinhua, 2019; Shaanxi government website; Qinshihuang Mausoleum Museum website
Why were they made?
They stand with the tomb of the emperor who unified China. UNESCO reads the army as testimony to the military organisation of the Warring States period and of the short-lived Qin empire.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Who built them, and for how long?
UNESCO says work on the mausoleum began in 246 BCE and, following the historian Sima Qian, that workers from every province laboured until the emperor died in 210 BCE. Sima Qian, who lived from about 145 to 95 BCE, writes that more than 700,000 convict labourers were divided between the Epang Palace and the tomb.
Source: UNESCO; Records of the Grand Historian
Were the figures painted?
Yes. Craftsmen laid a layer of raw lacquer and then pigment. After two thousand years underground the lacquer had aged, and once the figures met air the paint curled and flaked as humidity and temperature changed, so excavated figures often look like bare clay today.
Source: People's Daily; China News Service
Is every figure different?
UNESCO's description says the figures are all different, and calls them masterpieces of realism.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre
What are the bronze chariots?
Two painted bronze chariots were cleared from the ground west of the grave mound in 1980. Both were crushed when found. Chariot 2 was restored by 1983 and Chariot 1 by 1988. Chariot 1 is called a standing chariot and Chariot 2 a carriage with an enclosed cabin, and both were made at half the size of real chariots.
Source: China Daily; China Social Sciences Network
Who was Qin Shi Huang?
The Records of the Grand Historian says Zheng was born in the forty-eighth year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, which is 259 BCE in the usual reckoning, and came to the throne of Qin at thirteen. In 221 BCE, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, he united China and took the title of emperor. UNESCO gives his death as 210 BCE.
Source: Records of the Grand Historian; UNESCO
How did he die?
The Records of the Grand Historian says he died at Shaqiu Terrace in 210 BCE while on tour. His chancellor Li Si kept the death secret for a time. The record does not name a cause.
Source: Records of the Grand Historian
What is inside the tomb?
The grave mound is 51.3 m high today. Sima Qian describes rivers and seas of mercury in the tomb. A soil survey of the mound published in 1987 reported anomalous mercury levels, and a paper in 2005 applied mercury and radon measurements at the tomb. Surveys of this kind measure the soil above the chamber and do not show what lies inside.
Source: UNESCO; Records of the Grand Historian; Geology in China, 1987; Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration, 2005
Why is it called the eighth wonder of the world?
The phrase is credited to the French politician Jacques Chirac, who toured the site as mayor of Paris, according to an article by museum staff that dates the trip to 1978. Other sources date the remark to 1987. It is a popular label, not a title given by UNESCO.
Source: Museum staff article, Heidelberg University journal
What did the emperor change after uniting China?
Sima Qian records that the empire was divided into thirty-six commanderies, that weights and measures were standardised, that cart axles were made one width, and that one script was used for writing.
Source: Records of the Grand Historian
Where did the emperor leave stone inscriptions?
The Records of the Grand Historian lists inscriptions on Mount Yi, Mount Tai, Langya, Zhifu (twice), Jieshi Gate and Kuaiji. A fragment of the Mount Tai inscription is kept in Dai Temple.
Source: Records of the Grand Historian
