Centuries ago, Qin Shi Huang founded China’s first imperial era, a turning point that positioned belief in an afterlife as a central part of the culture. People buried what they needed for survival—food, vessels, and everyday goods—so that rulers could continue their status and comforts in the beyond. Warriors, slaves, concubines, and animals were often sacrificed to accompany emperors into eternity, making burial a grand statement of power and ritual.
When Qin took the throne, faith did not fade; it shifted toward symbolic representations that bridged the real and the imagined. Ceramic figures, guards, and charioteers began to stand in for the living, offering tangible clues about a world beyond death. These terracotta effigies reveal the ceremonial logic behind imperial burial and illuminate why the warriors were created in the first place.
A renowned academic perspective helps visitors understand this collection. A Cambridge professor explains the exhibit by guiding audiences through the display, alongside a regional leader who oversees the MARQ museum. The Warriors of Xi’an and the legacy of the Qin and Han dynasties come to life in this display, which opens its doors in Alicante.
The exhibit presents a unique array of more than 120 items sourced from nine Chinese museums, showcased together for the first time anywhere. It is not only a display of ancient objects but a dialogue across cultures and centuries, bringing together expertise and artifacts in a single world-renowned venue.
These items mark the return of the original seven warriors and a horse to public view, a comeback that marks their first appearance in Spain in nearly ten years. The organizers emphasize that the exhibit blends archaeology with scientific inquiry, offering a broader, more informed narrative about this remarkable period of history, beyond mere artifacts and dates.
Xi’an’s legendary figures—among the many thousands believed to exist—represent only a small portion that have been excavated from the vast burial complex. The site, a field spanning roughly 100 square kilometers, includes palaces, waterworks, and monumental architecture. The tomb itself soars about 60 meters high and remains unexcavated, guarded by an army of terracotta figures designed to secure the emperor’s afterlife. The concept of a living city built for the afterlife illustrates the scale of ritual and political power that marked Qin’s era.
At the heart of the MARQ exhibition, these terracotta warriors anchor a sweeping narrative of Chinese history spanning a thousand years. The curator notes that the show situates the warriors within a broader context, asking when, how, and why these figures were made, from a few centuries before the emperor’s reign to a few centuries after, to illuminate a long arc of cultural transformation.
three room tour
The Alicante museum unfolds in three temporary rooms that travel through time. The spaces juxtapose historical pieces with immersive scents and music, creating a multisensory journey. Room one uses the scents of cherry and rice to evoke ancient settings; room two introduces incense; room three fills the air with lotus flower and tea. This sensory approach is complemented by accessible educational resources that invite visitors of all ages to learn.
The first room focuses on pre-imperial China, from about 700 BCE to 221 BCE, when the Chinese state began to cohere under a central power. Because sound and ritual play a vital role in ritual life, the exhibition features examples such as bells, ceremonial bottles, and architectural elements that illuminate how communities expressed shared beliefs and identity.
In addition, the room explores how different cultures, languages, scripts, and religions within the same region were brought together under a unifying political project. Visitors see a variety of coins and artifacts such as oil lamps, censers, and belts that illustrate trade, economy, and ritual life across diverse communities.
The room ends with a replica of a stone inscribed during the Tang dynasty, a symbol of continuing linguistic and typographic development that extended into the Qin period. This replica weighs about 1,200 kilograms and comprises roughly 3,000 pieces. It is not a purely original piece, but a carefully crafted educational artifact intended to help visitors connect with ancient writing systems without traveling far from home.
The second chamber shifts focus to the world of the dead and to the warriors themselves. Here, visitors learn how these figures were crafted, from the selection of raw materials to production stages, pigment types, and the techniques used to shape and finish the clay. A notable detail is the extensive use of wood varnish—25 coats—to bring a single figure to life visually. A video demonstration mirrors the original color patterns of a terracotta soldier, using a replica to show how these pieces would have appeared in their original display.
The exhibit challenges a simple assembly-line narrative. It presents evidence of multiple autonomous production cells, with artisans contributing to several figures before they were placed in the tomb as a collective offering rather than a single, replicated process.
Tickets and guided tours
Tickets for the exhibition, ongoing through January 2024, can be purchased online. Standard admission is five euros for a self-guided visit, with eight euros for guided tours. Guided tours accommodate about 25 people and run every half hour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The MARQ museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 to 19:00 and Sundays and holidays from 10:00 to 14:00. From June 15, hours extend to 22:00.
Soldiers in the third room
The encounter includes the famous warriors alongside a horse, weighing roughly 200 and 350 kilograms respectively, displayed inside circular capsules that convey a futuristic sense of emergence from the ground. This presentation marks a shift from a strict historical display to a narrative that connects past and present, inviting viewers to interpret the warriors through new eyes. The curator notes that the storytelling moment invites everyone to view the figures in their own way.
Each warrior stands in distinct contrast with the others, offering variations in facial features, clothing, adornments, hairstyles, and postures. The display includes two additional terracotta figures: a barn helper and a fisherman, expanding the scene beyond the central militarized ensemble.
Other lesser-known Han dynasty warriors, dating a couple of generations after the first emperor, are also shown. They appear without arms and with practical garments, reflecting the transitional era when wood joints and simpler attire were common. In the final chamber, a tribute honors the countless workers who contributed to the creation and preservation of these figures as a World Heritage Site. It is a reminder that many were anonymous laborers, often under difficult conditions, whose names are known only through inscriptions on ceramic tiles seen within the exhibition. This tribute aims to honor those who made history visible and meaningful through their labor.