China Day 15: This morning is the pits!

After the movie and the gift shop, we got to see two more pits. These are much smaller than Pit 1, and contain more specialized terra cotta troops. Pit 3, Mark says, represents the army's headquarters. A lot of the soldiers are still in pieces,


but there are also a number of ones in very good repair:

This pit also has a nice set of chariot horses:



While walking from Pit 3 to Pit 2, we saw some beautiful trees I had never seen before:

They are covered with pink flowers that look like feathers.

Mark tells me they are mimosas.

Pit 2 contained mostly cavalry soldiers plus some infantry, and is only partially excavated. I like how they stopped halfway through uncovering this horse:
rear view

side view

The nice thing about this building, though, is that they have several especially well-preserved soldiers in cases where you can see them up close. I posed with one of the generals

and then Dad snuck into one of my photos of the groom and his horse!


I spent quite awhile admiring the two beautiful archers, the Kneeling Archer



and the Standing Archer


There is so much detail on every part of them, including the Kneeling Archer's boot soles that we were just agog.