The Terracotta Army is a vast collection of life-sized clay soldiers, horses and chariots buried near Xi'an in northern China to protect the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China, in the afterlife. Work on the emperor's tomb complex began early in his reign and employed a huge labor force. The figures were made in sections, then individually finished so that faces, hair and armor differ, and were once painted in bright colors. Farmers digging a well found the first pits in 1974, and excavations have since uncovered thousands of figures in several pits. The emperor's own burial chamber, described by the historian Sima Qian, remains unopened. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Before and after
- 258 BCEBattle of Sulci
- 3rd century BCEArchimedes' principle
- c. 250s BCEThe Hebrew Torah is translated into Greek at Alexandria
- c. 250 BCEEruption of Raoul Island
- 248 BCEConstruction of Terracotta Army
- from 247 BCE to 224 CEParthian Empire
- 247 BCEBirth of Hannibal
- c. 241 BCEEratosthenes measures the size of the Earth
- 241 BCEChinese astronomers record Halley's Comet
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- 13th century BCEAncient Celts
- from c. 753 BCE to 476 CEAncient Rome
- 7th century BCEConstruction of Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- from 312 BCE to 63 BCESeleucid Empire
- from 279 BCE to 1480Construction of Lighthouse of Alexandria
- from 285 CE to 1453Byzantine Empire
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 3rd century BCE.