Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty（221-206 B.C.） established the first centralized feudal dynasty in China. After his death, he was buried at the northern foot of Lishan Hill in the east of Lintong county. The tomb has been reduced to half its size after 2,000 years of water and soil erosion, but still impressive--76 meters high and a fundamental space of 120,000 square meters. The construction of the tomb was started when the emperor becoming king of Qin at the age of 13.

The tomb took 39 years and 700,000 workers to reach completion. It had pearls embedded in the ceiling to represent the stars, and rivers and lakes were modeled with liquid mercury. The tomb itself has not been opened yet.

In 1974 the Terra-Cotta Warriors was discovered when local farmers digging a well broke into a pit containing 6000 life-size terracotta figures. Excavation in 1976 revealed two further pits both filled with terracotta warriors. On the eastern side of the tomb a number of small pits have been found containing the bones of horses and smaller size terracotta figures of grooms. Since then discoveries have been continued at the site and to date the remains of nearly 8000 terracotta figures have been recovered. Although the faces of the individual warriors all have different expressions (lifelike and colorfully painted), it is known that some were mass produced in large workshops.

In 1978, a fourth pit was discovered; it is shaped as the Chinese character zhong (middle). In 1980, two bronze chariots with four horses were discovered.

The main tomb of Terra-Cotta Warriors has still to be excavated – due to archaeologists are still uncertain of its exact location. By reason of Emperors amassed huge burial mounds simply to divert robbers' attention from the true site of their tomb. So the artificial mound that today marks the Emperor's tomb does not necessarily indicate the location of its wondrous central chamber. However, because high mercury levels have recently been reported nearby, archaeologists think they may, at last, have discovered it.

There are four main categories of figures: chariot warriors, infantrymen, cavalrymen, and horses. There are generals, middle ranking officers, lower ranking officers, ordinary soldiers, and armored warriors. The construction of the hollow statues upon solid legs show that how the Ancient Chinese craftsmen solved the perplexing problem of making a statue free-standing. Hollow heads, arms and legs, made of coiled earth, were joined together with strips of clay and set upon the solid legs. After this rough model was assembled, a fine clay slip was added, and details such as eyes, mouth, nose and of dress were carved into the clay while it was still pliable. Additional pieces such as ears, beard and armor were modeled separately and attached, after which the whole figure was fired at a high temperature. Although all the warriors were in the pits they had been buried in, many of them were in pieces and have had to be restored. The museum technicians and craftsmen who undertook this difficult task often had to remodel parts to restore areas of the figures that were too badly damaged to be reconstructed.