Thousands of soldiers

Terracotta leger
Originally uploaded by Petra Bos.

Once upon a time, about 2200 years ago, there was an emperor. This emperor was convinced that after this life, there would be another life. To make sure this next life would be pleasant, he started to build a home for him to live in, when he was 13 years old. Of course he did not do the building himself. He employed about 60.000 of his citizens to ‘voluntarily’ do the building for him. This emperor liked a spacious home with all kinds of luxury. So his mausoleum became 150 meters high and all luxuries, like golden and silver statues, precious stones and even a river, were present. There were also some separate tombs for all kinds of animals to make the next world a little bit more lively.
To make sure the emperor would be safe in his new world, an army was prepared to be buried besides the emperor’s mausoleum. The army consisted of over 10.000 life-sized terracotta soldiers! Each one of them with it’s own unique face! Most of the soldiers had real bronze weapons. Some 35 horse-drawn carriages accompanied the soldiers.
The emperor died at the age of 40. The work was not yet completed. His eldest son became the next emperor. The new emperor obeyed his fathers orders and buried him is his brand new mausoleum. To accompany the emperor into his new life, most of his wives and officers were buried with him, some alive, some were killed first. The new emperor ordered also for his younger brothers and sisters to be buried jointly with their father, some dead, some alive. This old emperor must have loved himself very much!
The old emperor and his accompanies remained buried in their new world until 1974 when some local farmers were digging a waterhole and they found out about the terracotta army.