The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China covers a distance of approximately 6,400 kilometers. From the Liaotung Peninsula westward to the last fortress in Central Asia, it runs across the northern part of China.

In the eastern section, its height varies from 15 to 30 feet. Its width varies from about 25 feet at the bottom to 15 feet at the top, where there is a pathway wide enough for six horsemen to ride side by side. When the wall was first built, it had about 25,000 towers, each 40 feet in length, with holes from which the defenders could shoot at attackers. There are also many watchtowers on the enemy side, outside the wall on hilltops or passes. These and the towers of the wall were used for signaling, with smoke or flags by day, and with fire by night. The core of the wall is earth and stone.

The Great Wall of China was in fact, three frontier walls. The great Emperor Qin Shi Huang Ti joined the three walls to form a single great wall, which would act as a boundary between China and the north, and keep out the feared Mongolian tribes. The wall was designed to make the nation safe. Later, in Ming times, it became a substitute for a strong army.

Construction began in about 881 BC. The work went on in spite of icy winds, snowstorms, and dust storms. So many men died while at work, that the wall was sometimes called the longest cemetery in the world. The work was almost complete when Shih Huang Ti died in 210 BC.

Emperor Wu Ti (140-86 BC) resumed work on the Great Wall and extended it to its greatest length. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1386-1644) carried out more work on the wall. They repaired its whole length and established new walls, west of the Yellow River. The wall which now exists, dates back to the Ming Dynasty, but many of the foundations are nearly 2,000 years old.