The Terracotta Army Guards the First Emperor's Tomb
Thousands of individually detailed clay soldiers are discovered near Xi'an in 1974
Quick facts
- Discovery date
- 29 March 1974
- Location
- Near Xi'an, Shaanxi province
- Main pit figures
- c. 6,000 infantry, chariots, and horses
- Tomb status
- Unexcavated
What happened
Qin Shi Huang began building his mausoleum soon after taking the Qin throne, forcibly relocating 30,000 families to establish an administrative district around the site and eventually conscripting hundreds of thousands of laborers to complete it before his death in 210 BCE. The tomb complex, covering an estimated 35 to 60 square kilometers at the foot of Mount Li near modern Lintong, remains unexcavated, but farmers digging a well nearby on 29 March 1974 discovered one of its guardian pits by accident. The main excavated pit alone measures 230 by 62 meters and holds around 6,000 life-size or larger terracotta infantry, chariots, and horses, each figure individually detailed in face and armor rather than mass-produced from a single mold.
Why it matters
The Terracotta Army gives historians a physically detailed record of late Warring States and early imperial Chinese military equipment, from armor patterns to chariot fittings to command structure, that no surviving text describes in comparable detail. Because the tomb itself remains sealed, the site continues to generate new evidence as archaeologists slowly work through the surrounding pits.
How we know
The pits have been under continuous archaeological excavation since their 1974 discovery; UNESCO inscribed the mausoleum complex as a World Heritage Site, citing the terracotta figures' individualized realism as unique evidence for the military organization of the unification period.
Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor · Primary source (author-declared)whc.unesco.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Terracotta Army · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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