How many Terracotta Warriors are there, and what new secrets have they revealed?

The answer

The Terracotta Army, discovered in 1974 by farmers near Xi'an, China, guards the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who died in 210 BCE. An estimated 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses populate three major pits. Remarkably, no two faces are identical. Recent research published in 2023 revealed that the warriors' bronze weapons were coated with chromium, a technique not reinvented in the West until the 20th century, providing extraordinary rust resistance. The emperor's actual burial mound remains unopened; ancient historian Sima Qian described rivers of mercury inside, and modern soil tests have confirmed extremely elevated mercury levels surrounding it.