Currently, at Discovery Times Square in New York City, the exhibition Terracotta Warriors – Defenders of China’s First Emperor is on display. The good news is that this is an amazing exhibit. The bad news is that the last day for the exhibit at Discovery Times Square is August 26th, so if you are in the NYC tri-state area put it on your things to do list for the weekend!
The Terracotta Warriors is known as one of the greatest archaeology finds, and it is amazing to me that Chinese emperors and their full-size army were buried together for the afterlife. It is hard to believe that farmers stumbled upon the site by accident and discovered the 8th Wonder of the Ancient World. Each one of the 8,000 terracotta warriors recovered is unique. Only nine are on exhibit. Getting up close and personal with the life-size soldiers that guarded the tomb of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang Di who lived over 2000 years ago gave us a better understanding of China’s First Emperor’s life and the afterlife.
Like many of the exhibits at Discovery Times Square, the exhibition started with a brief movie that 
provided an excellent overview. The exhibit itself was broken down into three chronological sections, starting 600 years before the emperor’s birth and ended 200 years after his death. The first part told the story of how the First Emperor’s ancestors rose to power. The second section, which had many artifacts from the latest archeology discovery, focused on the afterlife. The last section presented the life of the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).
My son loved King Tut a couple of years ago and enjoyed this exhibit too. I am sure the First Emperor would never have thought that his terracotta soldiers would travel to New York City 2200 years later. We are sure glad they did and are happy that we were able to learn about the emperor’s legacy before they return home to China.
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