Terracotta Army Pit No. 3 is the result of the archaeological team’s drilling. On May 11, 1976, following the discovery of Terracotta Warrior Pits No. 1 and 2, a companion pit was discovered by drilling 25 meters north of the west end of Pit No. 1. According to the order of discovery, it was numbered as Pit No. 3. On September 27, 1989, Pit No. 3 was opened to the public. This pit has been fully excavated and a total of 68 terracotta figurines, 4 terracotta horses, 1 chariot, and 34 weapons have been unearthed.

Pit No. 3 is located on the north side of the west end of Pit No. 1 and is opposite Pit No. 2 from east to west. It is 25 meters from Pit No. 1 in the south and 120 meters from Pit No. 2 in the east. It is 17.6 meters wide from east to west, 21.4 meters long from north to south, and 5.2 – 5.4 meters deep. It is concave in plan and has an area of 520 square meters. It is the smallest of the three terracotta pits, only one-twenty-seventh of the area of Terracotta Pit No. 1 and one-eleventh of the area of Terracotta Pit No. 2.

It consists of three parts: the south wing room, the north wing room and the chariot house in the middle. To the east is a sloping doorway 11.2 meters long and 3.7 meters wide. A chariot house corresponds to the doorway, and there is an east-west room on each side of the chariot house, which is the south room and the north room. After entering the doorway, you are greeted by a chariot driven by four people. The two sides are connected to the two compartments through two north-south corridors. The south wing room is east-west, with faces facing each other and arranged in a passageway path; the north wing room is rectangular in an east-west direction, and is in the same situation as the south wing, also standing in a passageway path.

The arrangement of the terracotta figurines in Pit 3 is different from that in Pit 1 and 2. The terracotta figurines in pits one and two are arranged in battle formation, and these figurines stand opposite each other in a circle. The weapons held by the warrior figurines in pit three are also different from those in pits one and two. The latter were equipped with long-range bows and crossbows, spears, gores, battle-axes, swords, etc. for close-range combat, while only one kind of edgeless weapon, copper saber, was found in pit three. The bronze saber was a kind of weapon specially used for ceremonial warfare in the Qin Dynasty, and a piece of broken antler and a pile of rotten animal bones were also found in the north chamber. From the internal layout of Pit 3, archaeologists believe that Pit 3 was the command center of the Qin terracotta army. Some scholars also believe that it was a place dedicated to pre-war divination or prayer activities. It was a community and a clan where rituals were performed in the army.

Terracotta Army Pit 3 is the only pit that has not been burned by fire, so there are more remnants of painted terracotta figurines with brighter colors on their bodies when they are unearthed.