Revisiting Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is an epic structure with an equally epic history – 13,000 miles of fortifications

built across mountain ranges and windswept deserts over a period of more than 1,800 years to defend

China’s northern frontier. It isn’t actually one continuous stone wall, consisting instead of trenches,

natural barriers and isolated chunks of wall in various states of decay, often in overlapping stretches. The

wall doubled as a means of communication and a way of taxing trade, but today it stands as China’s

proudest icon.

Amidst the popularity of this historical landmark, there are some facts that doesn’t entirely known to an

ordinary people, what are they? Check it out below:

Not served its purpose?

Believe it or not, historians consider the Great Wall of

China a failure in defensive terms. Enemies often

outflanked the fortifications or bribed sentries, with

the Mongols and the Manchu crossing the wall to

conquer parts of China in the 13th and 17th centuries

respectively. It proved equally unhelpful against

19thcentury European invaders arriving by sea.

Best Places to see the Great Wall

● JINSHANLING - A remote chunk of wall between

Beijing and Chengde, with fortifications traversing

scrubby, undulating hills – it’s well suited to hiking.

● JIANKOU - another one of the wildest and most

beautiful stretches of the Great Wall, entirely

unrestored and rising over pine forests near Huairou.

● MUTIANYU - A much touristy part of the wall, with

26 restored watchtowers some 40 miles from Beijing.

Bricks in the Wall

Most of the stretches of the wall that survive today

were made of brick during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when some 3,500 miles of wall and 25,000

towers were built. The oldest parts of the wall date back to the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). They were

made largely of earth and, legend tells, the bones of the unfortunate souls who perished building them.

Space Fact

Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall of China is not even slightly visible to the naked eye from the

Moon – a faction first promulgated by English archaeologist William Stukeley in the 18th century (how

would he know?). The equivalent would be seeing a single human hair two miles away.

Who built the Great Wall?

This is the first question often asked by a tourist such as yourself. Most of the wall was built by prisoners,

guards, disgraced noblemen, peasants and unemployed citizens. Forcing to work on the Great Wall is a

form of punishment for convicted criminals during that time.

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