Asia

[Visited: April 2001]

More than 2000 years ago, the third Chu duke Liu Wu died. Not only was he buried in a decent tomb, but his tomb was also protected by a huge army of terracotta warriors on several sides of his tomb. The figurines were rediscovered in 1984 and have been on display in their original place since 1985. Bending down to the ground, you can take a closer look at the miniatures.
When you realize how elegantly the small statues have been crafted, and that they were all originally coloured, respect for the craftmanship and the dedication of the workers comes up. So far, six pits have been discovered containing thousands of these warriors, each one unique in length and appearance. Different functions of soldiers can also be distinguished: hand weapon soldiers, archers, chariot drivers, etc.
While the site in Xi'an is much more famous and contains much larger statues, I still fell for the charm of this smaller site and the delicate small statues. No tourist fair here: we did not see a single foreigner in Xuzhou and the staff of the museum was clearly pleased to have us as their guests. I was especially intrigued by the third pit. It is closed, marked on the floor, and underneath are more than a thousand figurines waiting to be unearthed with proper instruments. This will save their colours and therefore likely to be extremely beautiful!

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