My visit to the Terracotta Army in Palma

The army is housed in a tented exhibition centre on the edge of Palma and has been travelling Europe since 2002 when it premièred in Frankfurt.

The exhibition is made up of faithful replicas, not the original artefacts. As I am no scholar of ancient Chinese history, I decided that this was not going to put me off as I probably couldn't tell replica from original anyway.

The first set of these replicas is housed in the first of five rooms where you can see clay figures from the time before, during and after the first Emperor's reign. This sets the tone for what is to come and introduces some of the history of the period.

The following rooms show a painted statue of the Emperor, his throne, the process by which the Terracotta Army was built and clothes from the last 200 years of Chinese history. Then you enter a room with replicas of a horse and carriage before entering a room with a scale model (1:100) of the pits where the warriors were discovered.

This was my favourite room as the model shows just one eighth of what has been discovered and it makes you appreciate how huge an undertaking it must have been to create such a mausoleum. The figures in this model, like the ones found in China, are made up of various standing, kneeling and driving bodies, but each of the heads, like the ones found on the 8000 originals are unique. The Emperor's initial wish was that his army be buried alive with him when he died and it was his advisors who suggested making clay replicas. So the faces, like the intended soldiers, are individual.

Behind the model there is a cinema where a short film explains more of the history and the processes involved in making the army.

The last room holds 147 life size replicas of the warriors. There is a light show that plays over the top of a narrated history and although the narration is very interesting the light show is pretty annoying. A budget version of a school disco that makes it hard to see the statues, it doesn't detract from the overall impression but does make the end of the tour a little anti-climatic.

The exhibition is the easiest way to get a glimpse of what is justifiably called the "8th Wonder of the World". As awesome as Andre the Giant was, a tomb filled with 8000 warriors, each handmade and individual is incredible and truly amazing. To see the original army in its pits and behold the enormity of what was created to appease one man's thirst for immortality would be a wonder. This exhibition gives you an idea about that wonder and obviously cannot come close to the scale of the original, but it is very interesting and has introduced me to a period of history that I knew nothing about and have been thinking about since I left.

If you are interested in seeing the exhibition then you can find out more about it on our "What's On" page.