Finally....Warrior pics :)

When we arrived on the bus we were faced with the shopping zone! We have no idea why they were selling so much fur....


But then they route you into this peaceful zone on the walk to the Warriors :)


Three pits of warriors have been discovered - the first is a standing army, thought to be defensive, the second is more active with many horses, both calvary and charioteers, plus the archers and the third pit is thought to be the command center. The first pit is by far the largest, followed by pit 2, which is still quite large, pit 3 is much smaller. Here are the photos separated into pits and then the details of the warriors.

This is the view as you enter pit 1.....awesome, indeed!


And views form the walkway that surrounds the pit:








They think this is defensive (and not offensive) because only a few warriors are facing outwards (only the very outer soldiers), the rest are facing front.


Much of the pit has not been uncovered...they are waiting for a time when the technology has advanced enough for them to restore and preserve the warriors - now is good, but they are losing some of the color and other details.


Many of the warriors that we could see have just been left as they were found...




There was a section at the far end of the pit where you can see how the archeologists are putting the warriors back together - I think someone said only 1 warrior has been found totally intact.



Here are some of the closeups...good thing A's camera has a good zoom, as they don't let you very close to the action (for good reason, of course)





You can see some of the colors


On to Pit 2 - the horses and the archers. This pit has not been explored very much, much of it is still under the remains of the wooden roof.






Many of the warriors are left in situ...





And finally, pit 3 - the command center. This pit is tiny compared to the other two and it has been completely uncovered and just one section is left in situ.







And now for the details!!! There was a small museum section in the pit 2 building where we really got to get up close and personal with the boys and their toys :)

This is the first fellow...



Contestant number 2 :) This is thought to be one of the leaders, with many bows on his uniform.




Another of the warriors



Another head - apparently the bodies (of a type) were mass produced and the heads and hands were done individually, possibly to represent actual soldiers.


One of the kneeling archers...






Some of the remains of the weapons (these guys were armed to the teeth!) - some arrow heads and the release mechanism for a cross bow. They used both crossbows and the standard bow...and thousands of arrows!