Terracotta Warriors to be exhibited in Liverpool museum Published duration 7 December 2016

image copyright AP/Sergey Ponomarev image caption The Terracotta warriors are among 8,000 pottery soldiers and horses, created and buried 2,200 years ago to guard the tomb of China's first emperor

China's famous Terracotta Warriors are to be exhibited in Liverpool in 2018, the culture secretary has said.

Karen Bradley MP made the announcement while visiting the tomb of China's First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang.

She said she was "delighted" that a "selection of warriors" would be coming to Liverpool, home to the UK's oldest Chinese community.

It is the first time the warriors have been exhibited in the UK outside London since the 1980s.

image copyright Getty Images image caption A selection of the warriors will be on view from February to October in 2018 in Liverpool

The warriors were last displayed at the British Museum in 2007 and at Edinburgh in 1985.

Ms Bradley was touring the burial site and tomb complex as part of the UK-China People to People Dialogue (P2P), which celebrates the links between Britain and China.

"I am sure that the exhibition will be very warmly received by the people of Merseyside and beyond as Britain welcomes back the Terracotta Warriors," she said.

The Terracotta Army

image copyright AFP

More than 8,000 life-sized Terracotta Warriors have been unearthed in burial pits at the tomb complex of Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, since 1974 near Xi' in North West China

Each warrior has individual hair and facial features and archaeologists have located more than 600 pits around the emperor's mausoleum, covering an area of 22 sq miles (35km)

New discoveries are continually coming to light, which indicate that Emperor Qin wished to take the entire universe with him into the afterlife.

The tradition of burial practice was continued by the emperor's successors in the later Han Dynasty

Source: Liverpool World Museum

The exhibition will run from February to October 2018 at the World Museum in the city centre giving a glimpse into the story of Qin Shi Huang, who ruled from 221 to 206 BC.

The story of the tomb's Terracotta Warriors will be displayed alongside important artefacts and research relating to the formative years of the Chinese nation, from the pre-unification Qin Kings (307 to 221 BC) to the First Emperor's legacy in the Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220).

David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, said staff were hugely excited at the "unmissable opportunity to see artefacts of great historical importance in the flesh".

The exhibition will span three periods of more than 500 years and will include a number of objects that have never been displayed in the UK.

Liverpool has Europe's oldest Chinese community.

image copyright Getty Images image caption The warriors were last exhibited outside London in 1985

image caption The exhibition will run from February to October 2018 at the World Museum in the city centre

image copyright AFP image caption Visitors look at one of the Terracotta Warriors on display at the Terracotta Warrior Museum in Xian in north China"s Shaanxi province