X is for... Xikes... n ... Xood Xrief!

 

Hello and welcome! to another A-Z series on M-i-V... 

All through April I'm posting on the broad theme of Museums & Monuments Across the World - mostly those I've been to and a few on my bucket list that I haven't been able to visit yet. Museums are one of my favourite ways to get to know a culture, they sum up what those peoples want to preserve and pass onto their grandchildren, the facets they want to show their foreign visitors, how they perceive, present and preserve their own storyline and that of their interactions with the world. Come museum hopping with me!

OK, here comes the toughest of the tough cookies... For this I'm dipping into the bucket list - China has been on it for the longest time. And as it happens, it has just the attractions for today's posts.

X is for Xian and the Terracotta Army of Xianyang

The Terracotta Army is located at the mausoleum of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, who built it in his own lifetime, around 215 BCE. His capital was known as Xianyang, some 30 km from modern day Xian. 

The Army consists of thousands of terracotta soldiers and officers, each with individually distinct features, standing as per rank. It is effectively a funerary monumental army to guard the Emperor's afterlife. Along with the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army is one of the top tier tourist attractions of China. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987 and gets over 11 million visitors annually.  

Image source

The tomb of the Emperor has not been fully excavated for fear of exposure destroying delicate materials like silk or paper if they are there. It is said that the mausoleum is constructed as a replica of the palace and court of Xianyang.  There are exotic birds,  musicians, government officials and all the paraphernalia of the Imperial Court interred with the Emperor, even rivers of mercury mimicking the great rivers of China, flowing past mountains cast in bronze. Probes have indicated very high levels of mercury at the site, so the stories may be true.  The entire necropolis is estimated to cover an area of 98 sq km with around 8000 terracotta figurines and several hundreds of bronze chariots, horses and weapons. Only a quarter or so of the number have been excavated, restored and exhibited. Watch a short  video on the discovery of the Terracotta Army, the site museum and the story of how they were discovered.

In 2007 and 2008 the Terracotta Warriors were part of a touring exhibition that went to the British Museum from 13th September 2007 to April 2008. We were in London that summer but missed that exhibition by days.  There were 20 or so warriors and a total of 120 objects from the Xian site that were exhibited in London. 

The travelling exhibition also went to Santa Ana, Atlanta,  Washington, DC and Houston  in the US during that tour. Subsequently the Warriors have been to other countries as well. 

At the time when I missed it in London I was mega disappointed, but whatever happens happens for the best. When and if I do get to see them, it will be in their natural home and they won't just be a handful but the whole lot together. Fingers crossed!

Read more about the Terracotta Army/Warriors by clicking the link here and here. 

Incidentally, the National Museum of China located in Tiananmen Square, Beijing is the largest museum in the world with 200,000 sq  m of space, 48 galleries and a collection of 1.4 million artefacts spanning I.7 million years of human history and prehistory. Top on the bucket list too! 

Have you been to any of the touring exhibitions of the Terracotta Army? 

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Thank you for visiting and reading. As the Challenge winds down into its last days now, I hope you've had a wonderful A-Z if you are taking the Challenge and a wonderful April if you're not!

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2026