Terracotta Warriors

Wow. Is that eloquent enough?

No, I agree, it isn't.

I've now been to a few world museums, seen a few exhibits and have been lucky enough to see a few utterly amazing things, like King Tut's mask, all his gold and grave goods. Having been to Athens, we''ve seen the mask of Agamemnon, the treasures of Troy. Countless amazing things.

Yet walking through the exhibition today, looking at these immaculately crafted, larger than life statues, taking in their intense detail, and learning about how they were created, what the Emperor had in mind when he had them made, how grandiose his design was...and you can only stand in awe.

I previously thought that the Egyptians took the flag with their pomp, ceremony and obsession with the afterlife. They could not hold a candle to the Emperor of China. They are still excavating the complex, having only uncovered a small part of it all. They have not touched the actual mound of the Emperor's tomb. It will not be excavated in our lifetime - the task is too immense, but also, because it is not something the Chinese are keen to do. Which I think is pretty cool, in a way. Like Lara said at the end of Tomb Raider 2 - "Some things are not meant to be found."

What really amazed both FG and myself: how very many young kids there were, dragging their parents around this exhibition. There is an entire diorama about how the warriors were made and put together. FG overheard one of these little ones say to his dad: "But dad, are they still alive in the inside?" When the dad said no, they are just hollow, the little boy shook his head and muttered. "They're still alive." We were in there for over an hour, wandering about. Admittedly, there were a lot of people, but somehow you don't mind being jostled by people who tend to like the same thing. We came away with a handful of classy photographs which we intend to frame.

I can't wait to visit it again - I am wondering if the amount of people will peter out the longer the display is held?