A large group of statues in a building. Terracotta warriors warrior.

Terra-cotta army, also called terra-cotta soldiers or terra-cotta warriors, life-size terra-cotta figures found in the tomb of the first Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huang (also called Shihuangdi), near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China. The buried army faces east, poised for battle, about three-quarters of a mile from the outer wall of the tomb proper, guarding it from Qin Shi Huang’s chief former adversaries, who had come from that direction. The tomb containing the terra-cotta army was found in March 1974, when farmers drilling a well discovered a subterranean chamber. There archaeologists later found the army of some 8,000 life-size terra-cotta soldiers (assembled from separately fired sections but given individually detailed faces) and horses. Alongside the terra-cotta army were richly adorned chariots of wood (now disintegrated) and of bronze; iron farm implements; bronze and leather bridles; objects of silk, linen, jade, and bone; and such weapons as bows and arrows, spears, and swords, cast from an unusual 13-element alloy, which are still shiny and sharp today.