The world's strangest army is now on view in Washington, D.C.

Terra cotta warriors — a life-size militia of about 7,000 clay figures created to protect China's first emperor in the afterlife — were buried for more than 2,000 years until their accidental discovery by Chinese farmers in 1974. Now 15 of the 1,000 or so figures that have been unearthed, along with more than 100 related artifacts from the grave site of Qin Shihuangdi (259-210 B.C.) in Shaanxi province, have arrived in Washington.

On view at the National Geographic Museum, "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" is the first time this many of the figures have traveled to the United States. And with this display, museum-goers are able to get within a few feet of the warriors, far closer than at the original archeological site, where visitors look down on the burial pits from a distance.

The proximity makes for one powerful visual punch. You can feel it the minute you step into the show's first gallery, in which there is a single ghostly cavalryman and his horse. That's it. No glass display cases.

Norton calls it the show's first "wow moment," and it is. But it's not the last. The show culminates in a 5,000-square-foot gallery holding eight terra cotta warriors in three groups: three officers, including a general; two archers; and two infantrymen and a chariot driver.

The exhibit also briefly summarizes the man who commissioned them: The first ruler to unite China's warring kingdoms, and the first to begin construction on what would become known as the Great Wall, Qin Shihuangdi is also credited with standardizing China's weights, measures and currency. There are examples of period money on display, some that look nothing like what we think of as coins. But that's standard museum fare.

More dramatic — and enigmatic — is a suit of armor a little further on. Made of limestone tiles wired together, the suit has a 40-pound tunic and seven-pound helmet. Heavier by far than most men could wear, it was not meant for mortal soldiers. Or even terra cotta ones. You'll notice that several of the clay soldiers are wearing their battle gear — a terra cotta evocation of the lacquered leather that real soldiers wore. But this suit of limestone armor, which would have been displayed on wooden racks in the burial pits, was left at the ready for someone else. Some spectral, disembodied soldier from beyond the grave.

Spaced judiciously throughout the exhibit are several non-military statues: a stable boy, a civil official, a strongman and two musicians. (Hey, someone had to entertain the emperor in the afterlife.) The strongman is among the coolest discoveries in "Terra Cotta." Built with an almost sumo-wrestler paunch, but missing his head, he's the most unusual of the 15 figures, no two of which are alike.