In the spring of 1974, a group of farmers in Xiyang Village, outside Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, were drilling a well through dry, hard-packed ground. A few meters down they struck something that was neither rock nor root: fragments of fired clay, shaped like human limbs and torsos. They had broken into a pit that had been sealed for more than two thousand years, and the pieces in their hands belonged to what is now counted among the great archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century.
Half a century later, that accidental hole in the ground sits at the center of the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, one of the most visited heritage sites in China. This is what archaeology has actually established about the Terracotta Army — how it was found, how it was made, why it looks gray today, and what a first-time visitor should look at first.
March 29, 1974: The Discovery
The date recorded in the official accounts is March 29, 1974. The villagers were digging for water, not treasure. The fragments they turned up were reported, and by July 15 an archaeological team led by Yuan Zhongyi had arrived in the village with a plan to finish the work in about a week. That plan did not survive contact with the site. The burial underneath their feet proved far larger than the sample trenches suggested, and the excavation has continued across generations of archaeologists ever since.
What they had found was not a single building but an entire funerary complex. It lies at the northern foot of Lishan Mountain, about 35 kilometers northeast of Xi'an. UNESCO, which inscribed the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor on the World Heritage List in 1987, records that the burial mound still stands 51.3 meters high inside a rectangular, double-walled enclosure, and that the property contains nearly 200 accompanying pits and more than 600 sites in total, spread across 56.25 square kilometers.
Three Pits, One Army
The soldiers are distributed across three main pits, cut in different shapes and evidently built for different purposes. Together they cover more than 20,000 square meters.
- Pit 1 is the largest: an oblong trench roughly 210 meters east to west and about 60 meters north to south, between 4.5 and 6.5 meters deep, holding the long rectangular formation of infantry and chariots that most visitors recognize from photographs.
- Pit 2 is smaller but more varied, with cavalry, archers, and chariot units arranged in an L-shaped plan.
- Pit 3 is the smallest and appears to have served as a command post.
Across five decades of work, archaeologists have recovered more than 2,000 life-size terracotta figures from the three pits. Li Gang, director of the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, has estimated that Pit 1 alone accounts for roughly 6,000 figures and horses, and that the total across all three pits is expected to approach 8,000. That number is an estimate drawn from the excavated area and the density of finds, not a finished count — and the museum says so openly.
Two bronze chariots and their teams of horses, unearthed in 1980 to the west of the burial mound, show how much labor sits behind a single line in a museum case. They were recovered in more than 3,000 fragments, and restoration took eight years. The finished vehicles are assembled from more than 6,500 parts using 17 different joining techniques.
How an Army Was Made
The figures were not stamped out of a single mold. Excavation has clarified the production sequence: craftsmen built large clay models first, then refined and sculpted the details, working through the problems any monumental clay project creates — finding the center of gravity, keeping the clay from collapsing or deforming as it dried, and holding the proportions of a body close to 1.8 meters tall.
Faces, hair, and armor differ from figure to figure. Researchers have catalogued a range of face shapes, and they note that the figures unearthed so far are dominated by single eyelids. That trait is still debated: one explanation points to the regional features of Qin-era soldiers, another to a deliberate choice meant to convey a stern military bearing. The weapons recovered alongside them are real bronze rather than props, and it is the objects found in place — lances, swords, halberds, crossbows, and arrows — that earned the site its World Heritage listing.
Why the Warriors Look Gray
The most persistent misunderstanding about the Terracotta Army is that it was always monochrome. It was not. The figures were painted from head to foot in more than ten colors, among them vermilion, pink-green, and ochre.
What destroyed the paint was not the two thousand years underground. It was the air. According to conservators at the museum, surviving pigment begins to change within about 15 seconds of exposure and can dehydrate, curl, and flake away within roughly four minutes. The loss was compounded by the collapse, fire, and flooding the pits suffered in antiquity, which had already damaged most of the painted surfaces.
Conservation teams now treat painted fragments on the spot, applying a moisture-retaining agent and a consolidant to stabilize the surface before the pieces are lifted and moved to a laboratory. Analysis of the pigments also identified something unexpected: a purple made from barium copper silicate, a synthetic compound that does not occur in nature and was produced by heating mineral mixtures to high temperatures. The paint conservation research carried out at the site has been recognized with national science and technology awards.
Why the Emperor's Tomb Is Still Sealed
The burial mound itself, roughly 1.5 kilometers from the pits, has never been opened. Construction is recorded as having begun in 246 BCE, the year the future First Emperor took the throne of Qin; he died in 210 BCE.
Two considerations keep it closed. The first is technical, and the Terracotta Army is the cautionary example: the tools to excavate and preserve whatever lies inside do not yet exist with confidence. The second is policy. After the difficult excavation of a Ming imperial tomb in the 1950s, whose textiles deteriorated once removed from the ground, Chinese cultural heritage authorities adopted a standing rule against initiating excavations of large imperial tombs, formalized in State Council guidance in 1997. Work at such sites is limited to rescue archaeology — intervention only where construction, looting, or natural damage forces it.
Ancient histories describe rivers and seas of mercury inside the tomb, and geophysical surveys have produced supporting evidence: measurements indicate that mercury concentrations in the burial mound are far above the natural background of the surrounding soil. Wu Yongqi, honorary director of the museum, has put the figure at more than 70 times background levels and has argued publicly that the tomb should be left undisturbed. For a visitor, that is the honest state of the question — the tomb is mapped, monitored, and deliberately unopened.
How to Visit: A Walking Order That Works
The museum is an active excavation site as well as an exhibition, and crowds move through it in a predictable pattern. A few practical choices make a large difference.
- Start with Pit 1. Go there first, while the hall is still manageable, then work through Pit 3 and Pit 2, which are quieter and reward slow looking.
- Look for the working archaeologists. Excavation in Pit 1 has continued since 2009, and in Pit 2 since 2015. Visitors can often watch cleaning and conservation in progress, which is the part of the site most photographs leave out. The renewed work in Pit 1 has clarified weapon types and deployment, recovered the pit's first shield, and confirmed the production sequence of the figures.
- Do not skip Lishan Garden. The bronze chariots and the smaller pits holding acrobat and civil official figures are at the burial mound site, a short shuttle ride away, and they are covered by the same ticket.
- Book ahead and bring your passport. Entry is by timed, real-name reservation through the museum's official channels, and the passport used to book is the document checked at the gate. Ticket prices and seasonal opening hours change; confirm them on the official site in the week you travel. The standard adult ticket is 120 RMB and covers Pits 1 to 3 plus Lishan Garden.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the Terracotta Army discovered?
On March 29, 1974, when farmers in Xiyang Village near Xi'an were digging a well and unearthed fragments of terracotta figures.
When did the site open to the public?
The exhibition hall over Pit 1 opened on October 1, 1979. Pit 3 opened in 1989 and Pit 2 in 1994.
How many warriors are there?
More than 2,000 life-size figures have been excavated over five decades. The total buried across the three pits is estimated at close to 8,000, but no one has an exact number.
Were the warriors originally painted?
Yes. They were fully painted in more than ten colors. Surviving pigment deteriorates within seconds to minutes of exposure to air, which is why nearly everything on display today has the color of bare clay.
Why has the emperor's tomb never been excavated?
Because preservation technology is not yet equal to the task, and because Chinese heritage policy prohibits initiating excavation of large imperial tombs. Survey work continues from the surface, but the tomb itself remains sealed.
Seeing the Terracotta Army with LinkedTours
The pits reward preparation more than almost any site in China, and the difference between a memorable visit and a rushed one usually comes down to timing: which hall you enter first, which shuttle you take to Lishan Garden, and whether anyone is beside you to explain what a repair mark, a bronze halberd, or a patch of surviving pigment actually means. Our tailor-made China itineraries handle the reservation window for you, pair the Terracotta Army with the Xi'an City Wall, the Shaanxi History Museum, or the Muslim Quarter on a sensible rhythm, and put an English-speaking guide with you who can read the excavation as it stands today. Send us your dates and we will build the days around them.
