XI'AN, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The museum of emperor Qinshihuang's mausoleum announced it will digitize the mausoleum's collections, including its famous army of terra cotta warriors.

The Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum and Northwest University have jointly established a lab for virtual archaeology to help restore the relics in digital form.

Zhang Weixing, director of the museum's archaeology department, said 3D modeling would be carried out for the terra cotta warriors and horses in more than 20,000 square meters of pits.

Panorama photos will also be used, Zhang said.

Located in Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the 56-square-km Mausoleum of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of a united China, is the world's largest underground mausoleum. An army of thousands of life-sized terra cotta warriors and horses was discovered at the site in 1974.