China Day 15: The Bits that were Left

The last building we visited housed an inexplicably dark exhibit of some reconstructed bronze half-scale war chariots and horses. Because of the sepulchral darkness my pictures are crummy, but you can see a bit:


The horses are original, if I understood correctly, but the chariots were all burned by the same folks who wrecked the rest of the place, so they are rebuilt. The umbrella you see over the charioteer is not to shade his delicate skin; it was armored and helped protect him from the debris of battle.

A Godfatherlike horse head in another corner modeled a bridle for us:

At this point, I realized I have seen enough terra cotta for today. Dad and I have looked at everything that stood still, and taken pictures of most of it, and the only opportunity we declined was a chance to be photographed standing among a group of fake Terra Cotta Soldiers. With exquisite timing, Fred and Mark showed up to bear us off to lunch!