The Great Wall of China |
The Great Wall of China is a series
of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other
materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical
northern borders of China
in part to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against
intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike
peoples or forces. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century
BC these, later joined together and made bigger, stronger, and unified are
now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall
built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little
of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt,
maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall was reconstructed
during the Ming Dynasty.
Other purposes of the Great Wall
have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods
transported along the Silk Road , regulation or
encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration.
Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by
the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling
capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of
the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.
The Great Wall stretches from Shenanigan
in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly
delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia .
A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has
concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi). This is made up of
6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and
2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.
Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its
branches measure out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi).
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