6 million visit British Museum in 07-08

LONDON, July 2 (UPI) -- More than 850,000 people visited the British Museum in London last year to take in an exhibition of China's famous Terracotta Army, the museum said.

The BBC said so many visitors wanted to see the 2,000-year-old figures, which were built to protect the First Emperor Qin Shihuang in the afterlife, that the museum temporarily extended its hours.

The exhibition helped increase the museum's total visitor figures for 2007-08 to 6 million. It was the most popular display since the King Tutankhamun showcase of 1972, the BBC noted.