It depicted the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China (he was 13 years old when he took power), in 233 B.C., their purpose was to protect the Emperor in his afterlife as China’s Royalty thought the statues would come to life when the Emperor rose from the dead. The reason the entire project was so large (over 38 miles of statues), is that besides the Terracotta Army the sculptors also replicated the Emperor's imperial compound around the tomb. It includes several offices, halls, stables, an Imperial park, and statues of people/officials that could serve him. It also included several rivers that were depicted by using mercury as the water. Once again all in an effort to make sure that when the Emperor rose from the dead that he’d have everything he needed to conduct his everyday life.
It took around 7,000 very amazing people and 15 years to build this terracotta miracle. Well worth Googling and checking out pictures.