China

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor

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The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is known for its life-size terracotta statues of warriors.

The hyperrealistic sculptures are seen as major works in the history of Chinese sculpture and are valuable for the insight they provide into the social and military history of the period. Qin Shi Huang in 246 BCE arranged for this burial site for himself. The Terracotta Army was to be buried with him to help him rule another empire in the afterlife. The three main pits have uncovered over 8,000 figures of warriors and horses and a large number of exquisite funeral objects.

Community Perspective: “The longer you spend around the warriors the more impressed you become.”

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (ID: 441)
Country
China
Status
Inscribed 1987 Site history
History of Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
1987: Inscribed
Inscribed
WHS Type
Cultural
Criteria
  • i
  • iii
  • iv
  • vi
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
Related Resources
News Article
  • May 31, 2025 theguardian.com — Tourist damages two of China’s terracotta warriors after jumping fence
  • April 23, 2017 news.xinhuanet.com — Facelift of China's major museum to raise bronze chariots above ground
  • May 6, 2015 news.com.au — Excavations reveal new terracotta army
  • Nov. 15, 2014 news.nationalgeographic.com — Ears of Ancient Chinese Terra-Cotta Warriors Offer Clues to Their Creation
  • Dec. 19, 2013 globaltimes.cn — Qin armor unearthed at Terracotta site
  • June 13, 2012 ibtimes.co.uk — More than 100 New Terracotta Warriors of Qin Dynasty Unearthed
  • Dec. 3, 2011 foxnews.com — New Research Casts Doubt on China's Terracotta Warriors' Roles
  • Sept. 10, 2010 chinadaily.com.cn — Terracotta army emerges in its true colors
  • Sept. 8, 2009 theartnewspaper.com — Terracotta Army Museum denies major discovery of 100 new terracotta warriors
  • July 18, 2009 news.xinhuanet.com — Archeologists report new findings at terracotta army site
  • June 13, 2009 upi.com — Third phase of excavation to begin on the largest of three pits containing the terra cotta army in Xian
  • May 31, 2008 english.people.com.cn — Seven terracotta warriors and horses suffered slight damage in the May 12 earthquake

Community Information

  • Community Category
  • Secular structure: Burial
Travel Information
One million visitors or more
One million visitors or more
received 11 million visitors in 2023, hitting a record-high number since its opening // …
Recent Connections
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Connections of Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
Geography
  • Yellow River Basin
    Situated south of the Wei river, a major tributary of the Yellow River
  • Antipodes points
    SEWELL MINING TOWN=MAUSOLEUM OF THE FIRST QIN EMPEROR S34 05 04 W70 22 58 = N34 22 60 E109 5 60
Trivia
History
Ecology
  • Liquid Mercury
    The actual tomb has not yet been excavated but is believed to contain an underground "Palace". An account of the construction of the mausoleum and its description was created by the Chinese Historian Sima Qian (c145BC - 86BC) in his "Records of the Grand Historian" (Shi ji), which contains the biography of Qin Shi Huang (Chapter 6), This states that "Mercury was used to simulate the hundred rivers, the Yangtze and Yellow River, and the great sea, and set to flow mechanically". Whether this was the case remains unproven. Various attempts have been made, however, to identify what might be inside via soil analyses, sonar etc and these claim to have discovered indications of a large chamber whose overlaying soil contains anomalously high levels of Mercury

    See books.google.co.uk

World Heritage Process
Religion and Belief
  • Horse Burials
    "Almost one hundred pits containing the skeletons of horses and terracotta grooms constituted the emperor's stables. Even hay was provided." See "Stable Pits" under

    See www.travelchinaguide.com

Human Activity
  • Chariots
    Ca. 130 chariots were buried together with the soldiers
Constructions
Timeline
  • Built in the 3rd century BC
    "The figures, dating from 3rd century BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi province, near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor Qin Shi Huang)." - wiki
Science and Technology
WHS Names
  • Microcosm
    "... is a microcosm of the Zhongguo (Middle Country) that Qin Shi Huang wanted both to unify (he imposed throughout the land a single system of writing, money, weights and measures) and to protect from the barbarians that could arrive from any direction (the army which watches over the dead emperor faces outward from the tomb)."(OUV)
18
News
theguardian.com 05/31/2025
Tourist damages two of China’s ter…
news.xinhuanet.com 04/23/2017
Facelift of China's major museum t…
news.com.au 05/06/2015
Excavations reveal new terracotta …
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Community Reviews

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First published: 12/11/24.

Tony H.

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Tony H.

Visited in June 2024. As most visitors, we also visited only the Terracotta Army during our visit to Xi'an and skipped the actual mausoleum site. We arrived to the Terracotta Army site by a taxi which we took from Xi'an. The drive takes quite long so it isn't much faster option than taking the bus from Xi'an. We had bought the tickets online so there was no need to queue for tickets. As it was Saturday the site was very busy with Chinese tourists. The information signs around the entrance showed that this Terracotta Army site is just a small section of the whole mausoleum and there were signs towards the actual mausoleum, if you want to walk over there. We were only visiting the army as the weather was way too hot to walk over the mausoleum site.

From the entrance gate you have option to either walk to the museum site or take a shuttle bus. The walk isn't long so I wouldn't waste my time waiting for the shuttle. The actual museum area is divided in 4 buildings that you can visit. The famous Terracotta Army, which you see in all the photos, is located in the largest building, Hall 1, which is located right opposite the entrance. However, as we were hungry, we went first to eat and then decided to check out the exhibition halls from the smallest to the biggest. By the way, don't waste your time eating inside the museum area unless …

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First published: 03/07/21.

Nan

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor By Nan

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Nan

On my last visit to China in early 2020, I finally managed to see the Terracotta Army. The scale of the site is hard to fathom. When you are standing in front of the main host, it really feels like you are facing an army, a ghost army from the past. And then you go around and there are so many unique details to explore on each statue. Each of the 8.000 statues on its own would feature prominently in a Western museum. It's weird to think about it that a ruler would spend this much time and effort on a fake army. But the result is incredible.

Why not five stars, you may wonder? I think the site is not large enough to warrant five stars. It's an afternoon visit, nothing to dive into for multiple days.

Getting There

There are plenty of busses to take from Xian. You can find direction at chinatravelguide. However, the two connections I took aren't listed it seems. Coming from Xian airport I connected by bus to east Xi'an and took a local bus. Quite fun. On my return, I used a tourist bus shuttle going to Xi'an train station. Be aware, that the mausoleum is a mass tourism site, organized very efficiently and very Chinese.

While You Are There

I am a glowing fan of Xian. The city contains several silk road sites and several well deserving tentative sites (the walls, the mosque). Being an imperial …

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First published: 27/10/13.

Clyde

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Clyde

I visited this WHS in October 2013. I went as early as possible to the pits, yet still there were already lots of groups of tourists and locals. This meant that it was quite difficult to take photos in the central part of pit 1 but with some patience I managed to get some good close-ups, while the sun rays randomly lit some of the warriors' faces up. The sidewalks of pit 1 were much more easy to enjoy and the same applies to pits 2 and 3. The bronze chariots and the individual warriors displayed here are in great condition. Apart from the terracotta warriors, Xi'an has quite a lot to offer (neverending city walls, bell tower, drum tower, wild goose pagoda, muslim quarter, etc).

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First published: 14/09/12.

Kyle Magnuson

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Kyle Magnuson

The highlight of any trip to Xian, the world famous Terra Cotta Warriors are magnifient to behold. The only downside is the sites are relatively quick to "view" and then you are basically on your way. There are some sites of historical interest nearby, but nothing spectacular.

Xi'an is a city of contrasts, an incredibly dynamic and beautiful history. The City Wall is enormous and a tentative world heritage site. Numerous properties inside and outside the city are now part of the "Silk Road" world heritage site. On the other hand, Xi'an is a city of rapid development (even more than many other Chinese cities), and the noise and pollution is obvious. Within the city I could not escape the sound of jackhammers or the sight of numerous cranes. Really though, a small complaint to an overall fascinating destination.

The Terra Cotta soldiers are well-known and essential to any visit to Xian, but the city offers much more than meets the eyes or ears. I would also recommend the Shanxi History Museum, which is far better than the museums in Beijing.

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First published: 12/07/09.

Frederik Dawson

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Frederik Dawson

Forgotten for more than 2,000 years until accidentally rediscovered in 1974, Qin Bingmayong or famously known in English “the Qin Terracotta Army” was maybe the second most famous world heritage site of China after the Great Wall, strangely that both sites were built by the order of the same man, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified Chinese Empire.

Another long bus journey from Xi’an train station, the tourist bus took me to the city of Lintong famous for its local persimmon and where Qin Bingmayong was located. After Longmen, I was not surprised to find another tourist complex welcomed me, but this one was bigger and more commercialized with American fast-food shops and mini army of souvenir factories. Later I found out that there was electric car service that directly transported you to the inner gate of Qin Bingmayong skipping those entire crazy things!

Qin Bingmayong was the large complex of four modern exhibition halls as the Chinese had nicely transformed this archaeological site to be a well displayed museum. The largest look liked gym building or called pit 1 was where the famous terracotta army situated, under the protective roof the image of countless rows of clay soldiers and horses were astonishing, even though I had seen many pictures of this site before, I still surprised to see the real one, and I was overwhelmed by the grand size and the realistic faces of each soldier, I just wondered how could they did this amazing …

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First published: 25/10/07.

Els Slots

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Els Slots

Xian's Terracotta Army belongs to the 10 or 20 most iconic sites that have been placed on the World Heritage List. Most people will have seen images of it. One can even come across some of these terracotta warriors outside of China: currently (2007-2008) a number of them are on display in a large exhibition at the British Museum in London. I saw a few myself last year in the Art Museum in Bonn, Germany. So what they look like is no surprise. To see them in their original surroundings, as the statues are left in situ, is another story.

Although I had been in Xian already for a couple of days, I had deliberately chosen early Monday morning as the time of my visit: the quietest time of the week that I could think of. And I proved to be right as I had plenty of freedom to look around and take pictures. I've read somewhere that the site can see 50.000 visitors on a busy day. For me personally, after weeks of visiting Chinese WHS as one of the few foreigners, it was remarkable to notice that western visitors almost outnumber the Chinese here.

After watching the elementary explanation video, I started my round at Pit 3. This is believed to have been the army headquarters. It has only a few statues but all the features including horses. Wandering here I realized that these statues weren't found intact, a lot of them were (and are) just …

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First published: 13/03/06.

Zack Culvert

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Els Slots

Most people just fly into Xian, see the terra cotta soldiers and leave,for which they miss a lot. It's like seeing only the Sphinx and being finished with Egypt.

Xian had been the capital of China for over 2,000 years under various rulers/kingdoms. Therefore there are a lot more to see than just the terra cotta soldiers. The Xian provincial museum (30 RMB) is well worth two hours to learn enough history to put the Mausoleum in context. A side trip on the way to the airport would be the newly (02) finished museum housing the burial items (thousands)of Han Jingdi, in which the soldiers are one-third size, along with a large group of civil servants and the entire court; farmers and farm animals, etc. This was an involuntary excavation discovered when they were building the road to airport. Give you a sense of the incredible amount of stuff yet to be uncovered. I would skip the trips to the Buddahist temples and towers (although they are 1,300 years old), unless you are into the religion, and go for the Forest of Stele. The muslim street is worth a trip even if you are squeamish about the food. The muslim population and their wares evokes the Middle East.

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First published: 01/05/05.

Anonymous

Mausoleum Of The First Qin Emperor

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Inscribed)

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor by Els Slots

The Terracotta Army itself is a truly wonderful site. Upon first glance the army in hall 1 appears to be interesting, but nothing amazing. After a few moments the astonishing scale of the site and the incredible detail of the work becomes clear. The longer you spend around the warriors the more impressed you become. At 90 yuan the site is good value, and you won't regret the hours spent wandering around the site.

The burial mound of Qin is 1.5km away and is unexcavated. It is of limited interest compared to the Terracotta army.

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