Qin's Tomb, Emperor

   He died in 210 BC and was buried in a huge earthen pyramid, located about 25 miles east of the present city of Xi an, in the Shan xi Province. In 1974, when villagers were digging a well three miles west of Qin's tomb, they discovered a life-size terracotta statue of a soldier. Archeologists excavated a pit 210 meters (689 feet) long and 60 meters (197 feet) wide. In the pit they found over 6,000 terracotta soldiers and six terracotta chariots drawn by four terracotta horses, all were life size, and each statue had a different face. Test excavations in two other pits have brought the total number of soldiers to over 7,500. This army of infantrymen, charioteers, cavalrymen, archers and officers guarded Emperor Qin's east flank. During his reign Emperor Qin unified the feudal states of China into one nation, and established a uniform system of writing, a universal code of law and standardized the system of weights and measures.