Abstract: The silty soils of Thar open pit slope were taken as the research object. Based on the preparation of remolded silty soils with different dry densities, the soil water characteristics curves of silty soils were tested using filter paper method in order to analyze the variation characteristics of matric suction with water content. The soil water characteristics curves were then fitted according to VG model. Furthermore, the functional relationships between the fitting parameters and the dry densities were analyzed in order to develop an empirical model of soil water characteristics curves for silty soils based on VG model with the parameter of dry density. Finally, the applicability of the empirical model was verified. The studies show that the shapes of the water characteristics curves of silty soils with different dry densities are nearly the same. With the reduction of volumetric water content, the matric suction of silty soils increases gradually, with the increasing sensitive matric suction to the variation of volumetric water content. Moreover, the VG model has a good effect on fitting the water characteristics curves of silty soils. Meanwhile, the fitting parameters are linearly related to the dry densities of silty soils. The developed empirical model is more suitable for the description of the water characteristics curves of silty soils with the matric suction less than 300 kPa.