Located in the Tsars’ Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, the Hermitage has rightly garnered itself the reputation of one of the world’s foremost art museums. A common tourist complaint is that there is just far too much to see among the collections and exhibitions for a single visit to suffice.
12. Terracotta Army, Xi'an, China
Many kings place guards around their tomb, but only one mustered an army. Up until the 3rd century BCE, there was no single China, rather seven kingdoms vying for supremacy. The king of Qin, Qin Shi Huang, changed all of that and was the first emperor to unify China into a single nation. His empire lasted a mere 15 years, as his son was an inept military leader who allowed China to fall into chaos, and yet the legacy of his social reforms lives on in China to this day. A testament to his importance is the very name “China”, named after his dynasty.
His mausoleum covers a huge area with pits full of thousands of life-sized terracotta warriors, horses, and chariots