These thousands of life-size clay soldiers, either on foot or on horseback, their faces imbued with great solemnity, watch over the imperial necropolis of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, who ordered their production. The project took 700 000 artisans forty years to complete, the virtuosity of which can still be admired twenty-two centuries later. Discovered by chance in 1974, this major archaeological treasure occupies several pits, the most spectacular of which is n° 1, which contains 6 000 warriors in close ranks.