This is the hilarious moment a hungry mosquito confuses an ancient sculpture of a warrior for a live human being and sits on its face trying to bite it.
An unnamed visitor filmed the insect that was apparently fooled by the life-sized terracotta sculpture, part of the world-famous Terracotta Army, located at the tomb of China’s First Emperor in Xi’an, in the north-western Shaanxi Province.
Phone footage shows the mosquito sitting on a soldier sculpture’s face, seemingly trying to bite him.
Although its attempt to poke through the thick clay is in vain, it made quite a few laughs after the video was shared on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
One user titled ‘Eyes full of stars’ asked in a comment: “Do mosquitoes also have to be arrested for damaging cultural relics?”
Another user titled ‘Light as a breeze’ commented: “Mosquito: How can this person be so thick-skinned?”
While user ‘QUR’ wrote: “It’s actually a bit scary. Maybe there is a rotting corpse inside it?”
The Terracotta Army, dating from the late 200s BC, depicts the armies of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor.
Discovered in 1974 near Xi’an, Shaanxi, they are funerary sculptures meant to protect the emperor in the afterlife.
The collection includes detailed life-sized warriors, chariots, and horses of varying heights based on their rank, with the generals being the tallest.
It has been estimated that there are over 7,000 terracotta warriors, horses, chariots and weaponry inside the vast burial site.