Legend has it that in 206BC the first emperor of unified China, Shi Huang-te, decreed that after his death his body should be clothed in jade, cast adrift in a lake of mercury within a pyramid, and protected by an everlasting army. In 1974, archaeologists discovered the first of more than 7000 lifesize terracotta warriors buried near the pyramid tomb of Shi Huang-te, confirming that the legend was more than a myth. But why were the massive soldiers, each weighing more than half a tonne, buried there at all? Was it simply to guard the emperor in the afterlife? Or was there more to the legend?

Legend has it that in 206BC the first emperor of unified China, Shi Huang-te, decreed that after his death his body should be clothed in jade, cast adrift in a lake of mercury within a pyramid, and protected by an everlasting army. In 1974, archaeologists discovered the first of more than 7000 lifesize terracotta warriors buried near the pyramid tomb of Shi Huang-te, confirming that the legend was more than a myth. But why were the massive soldiers, each weighing more than half a tonne, buried there at all? Was it simply to guard the emperor in the afterlife? Or was there more to the legend?