The most grandiose defensive structure on the planet is the Great Wall of China, the Eighth Wonder of the World. This fortification is considered the longest and widest. There are still disputes how many km is the Chinese wall stretches. You can find many interesting facts about this structure in the literature and on the Internet. Even its location is of interest - this wall divides China into north and south - the land of nomads and the land of farmers.

History of the Chinese Wall

Before the appearance of the Great Wall of China, China had a lot of scattered defensive structures against the raids of nomads. In the third century BC, when Qin Shi Huang began to rule, small kingdoms and principalities united. And the emperor decided to build one big wall.

They started building the wall in 221 BC. There is a legend that construction of the Chinese wall abandoned the entire imperial army - about three hundred thousand people. Peasants were also attracted. At first the wall was in the form of ordinary earthen embankments, and only after that they began to replace them with brick and stone.

By the way, this structure can be called the longest not only wall, but also a cemetery. After all, a lot of builders were buried here - they were buried in the wall, and then structures were built directly on the bones.

Since its construction, there have been several attempts to destroy the wall and then restore it. Modern look This building was built during the Ming Dynasty. From 1368 to 1644, building towers were erected, bricks were laid instead of earthen embankments, and some areas were rebuilt.

There are many interesting facts about the Chinese Wall, which is considered the longest man-made structure in the world. Here are some of them:

• when laying stone blocks, sticky rice porridge was used, into which slaked lime was mixed;
• its construction took the lives of more than millions of people;
• this wall is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the greatest historical landmarks;
• in 2004 Chinese wall visited by more than forty million foreign tourists.

Most of the controversy is around the number how many km is the Great Wall of China. Previously it was believed that its length was 8.85 thousand. But then it turned out that archaeologists measured only those sections of the structure that were built during the Ming Dynasty.

But if we talk about everything Chinese wall, length it is 21.196 thousand kilometers. These data were announced by employees of the State Administration for Cultural Heritage Affairs. They began research back in 2007, and announced the results in 2012. Thus, the length of the Chinese wall turned out to be 12 thousand kilometers longer than the original data.

HGIOL Location Liaoning, Girin, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Gansu, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Qinghai And China

Description

Thickness Great Wall mostly about 5-8 meters, and the height is most often about 6-7 meters (in some areas the height reaches 10 meters) [ ] .

The wall runs along the Yinshan mountain range, skirting all the spurs, overcoming both high rises and very significant gorges.

Over the centuries, the wall has changed names. Initially called the "Barrier", "Revelry" or "Fortress", the wall later acquired more poetic names, such as "Purple Border" and "Land of Dragons". Only at the end of the 19th century did it receive the name that we know to this day.

Story

Construction of the first sections of the wall began in the 3rd century BC. e. during the Warring States period (475-221 BC) to protect the state from the Xiongnu. A fifth of the country’s then living population, that is, about a million people, took part in the construction. The wall was supposed to clearly fix the boundaries of Chinese civilization and contribute to the consolidation of a single empire, just made up of a number of conquered kingdoms. [ ]

Settlements developing on the plain of central China, turning into large centers of trade, attracted the attention of nomads, who began to frequently attack them, making raids from beyond Yingshan. Large kingdoms such as Qin, Wei, Yan, Zhao made attempts to build defensive walls on their northern borders. These walls were adobe structures. The Wei Kingdom builds a wall around 353 BC. e., which served as the border with the kingdom of Qin, the kingdoms of Qin and Zhao built a wall around 300 BC. e., and the kingdom of Yan around 289 BC. e. The disparate wall structures are later connected and form a single structure.

During the reign of Emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC, Qin Dynasty), the empire united into a single whole and achieved unprecedented power. More than ever she needs reliable protection from nomadic peoples. Qin Shihuang orders the construction of the Great Wall of China along Yingshan. During construction, pre-existing parts of the wall are used, which are strengthened, built on, connected with new sections and extended, while sections that previously separated separate kingdoms are demolished. The general Meng Tian was appointed to manage the construction of the wall.

Construction took 10 years and faced numerous difficulties. The main problem was the lack of appropriate infrastructure for construction: there were no roads, there was no water and food in adequate quantities for those involved in the work, while their number reached 300 thousand people, and the total number of builders involved under Qin reached, according to some estimates, 2 million . Slaves, soldiers, and peasants were involved in construction. As a result of epidemics and backbreaking labor At least tens of thousands of people died. Outrage against the mobilization for the construction of the wall caused popular uprisings and served as one of the reasons for the fall of the Qin dynasty. [ ]

The terrain itself was extremely difficult for such a grandiose structure: the wall ran straight along the mountain range, going around all the spurs, and it was necessary to overcome both high climbs and very significant gorges. However, this is precisely what determined the unique originality of the structure - the wall is unusually organically integrated into the landscape and forms a single whole with it.

Up until the Qin period, a significant portion of the wall was built from the most primitive materials, mainly by ramming earth. Layers of clay, pebbles and other local materials were pressed between shields of twigs or reeds. Most of the materials for such walls could be obtained locally. Sometimes bricks were used, but not baked, but dried in the sun.

Obviously, it is with building materials The popular Chinese name for the wall is associated with it - “earth dragon”. During the Qin period, stone slabs began to be used in some areas, which were laid close to each other over layers of compacted earth. Stone structures were widely used during the construction of the Wall in the east, where, due to local conditions, stone was not available (western lands, in the territory of the modern provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi) - a large embankment was erected.

The dimensions of the wall varied by area, the average parameters were: height - 7.5 m, height with battlements - 9 m, width along the ridge - 5.5 m, width of the base - 6.5 m. Wall battlements located with outside, have a simple rectangular shape. Towers are an integral part of the wall. Some towers, erected before the construction of the wall, were built into it. Such towers often have a width smaller than the width of the wall itself, and their locations are random. The towers, erected together with the wall, were located from each other at a distance of up to 200 meters (arrow flight range).

There are several types of towers, differing in architectural solution. The most common type of tower is two-story, rectangular in plan. Such towers had upper platform with loopholes. Also within sight of the fire (about 10 km) there were signal towers on the wall, from which the enemy’s approaches were monitored and signals were transmitted. Twelve gates were made in the wall for passage, which over time were strengthened into powerful outposts.

The Chinese and the Great Wall of China

The constant construction and restoration of the wall drained the strength of the people and the state, but its value as a defensive structure was questioned. Enemies, if desired, easily found weakly fortified areas or simply bribed the guards. Sometimes during attacks she did not dare to raise the alarm and silently let the enemy pass.

For Chinese scientists, the wall became a symbol of military weakness during the Ming Dynasty, capitulation to the next barbarians. Wang Sitong, a 17th-century historian and poet, wrote:

After the fall of the Ming dynasty, the Qing Emperor dedicated a poem to her, in which he wrote about the wall:

The Chinese of the Qing era were surprised by the interest of Europeans in a useless structure.

In modern Chinese culture, the wall has taken on a new meaning. Regardless of the failures associated with its military use, it turned into a symbol of the resilience and creative power of the people. On several sections of the Great Wall of China you can find monuments with the phrase of Mao Zedong: “ If you haven't visited the Great Wall of China, you are not a real Chinese"(Chinese: 不到长城非好汉).

The popular athletics marathon “The Great Wall” is held annually, in which athletes run part of the distance along the crest of the wall.

Destruction and restoration of the wall

Despite many years of efforts, the wall was systematically destroyed and fell into disrepair. The Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-), having overcome the wall with the help of Wu Sangui's treachery, treated the wall with disdain.

During the three centuries of Qing rule, the Great Wall almost collapsed under the influence of time. Only a small section of it near Beijing - Badaling - was maintained in order; it served as a kind of “gate to the capital”. In 1899, American newspapers started a rumor that the wall would be completely demolished, and a highway would be built in its place.

Despite the work carried out, the remains of the wall, removed from tourist places, are still in a ruined state today. Some areas are destroyed when choosing a wall site as a place to build villages or stone from the wall as a construction material, others - due to the construction of a highway, railways and other extended artificial objects. Vandals spray graffiti on some areas.

It is reported that a 70-kilometer section of the wall in Minqin County, Gansu Province in the north-west of the country is undergoing active erosion. Reason - intensive management methods Agriculture in China, starting in the 1950s, which led to the drying up of groundwater, and as a result, this region became the main source and center of powerful sandstorms. More than 40 km of the wall have already disappeared, and only 10 km are still standing; the height of the wall in some places has decreased from five to two meters.

In 2007, on the border of China and Mongolia, William Lindsay discovered a significant section of the wall, which was attributed to the Han Dynasty. In 2012, the search for further fragments of the wall by the expedition of William Lindsay culminated in the discovery of a lost section already in Mongolia.

In 2012, a 36-meter section of the wall, located in Hebei Province, collapsed due to heavy rains. No one was injured in the collapse. This happened on August 6, but the official message appeared only four days later.

Visibility of the wall from space

Visibility of the wall from the Moon

One of the earliest references to the myth of the wall being visible from the moon comes from a 1754 letter from the English antiquarian William Stukeley. Stukeley wrote: “This huge wall eighty miles long (we are talking about Hadrian’s Wall) is surpassed only by the Chinese Wall, which takes up so much space on the globe, and in addition it is visible from the Moon.” Henry Norman also mentions this. Sir Henry Norman), English journalist and politician. In 1895, he reports: “...besides its age, this wall is the only human creation that can be seen from the moon.” At the end of the nineteenth century, the theme of Martian canals was widely discussed, which may have led to the idea that long, thin objects on the surface of planets were visible far from space. The visibility of the Great Wall of China from the Moon was also featured in 1932 in the popular American comic strip Ripley's Believe It or Not. Ripley's Believe It or Not!) and in the 1938 book The Second Book of Miracles ( Second Book of Marvels) American traveler Richard Halliburton (eng. Richard Halliburton).

This myth has been exposed more than once, but has not yet been eradicated from popular culture. Maximum width the walls are 9.1 meters high and are approximately the same color as the ground on which it is located. Based on the resolving power of the optics (the distance to the object relative to the diameter of the entrance pupil of the optical system, which is a few millimeters for the human eye and several meters for large telescopes), only an object that is in contrast to the surrounding background and has a size of 10 kilometers or more in diameter (corresponding to 1 arc minute) can be seen with the naked eye from the Moon, the average distance from which to the Earth is 384,393 kilometers. The approximate width of the Great Wall of China, when viewed from the Moon, would be the same as that of a human hair when viewed from a distance of 3.2 kilometers. Seeing the wall from the Moon would require vision 17,000 times better than normal. It is not surprising that none of the astronauts who visited the Moon ever reported seeing the wall while on the surface of our satellite.

Visibility of the wall from Earth orbit

More controversial is the question of whether the Great Wall of China is visible from orbit (more than 200 km above the earth). According to NASA, the Wall is barely visible, and only under ideal conditions. It is no more visible than other artificial structures. Some authors argue that due to the limited optical capabilities of the human eye and the distance between the photoreceptors on the retina, the wall cannot be seen even from low orbit with the naked eye, which would require vision 7.7 times sharper than normal.

In October 2003, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei said that he was unable to see the Great Wall of China. In response, the European Space Agency issued a press release stating that from an orbit altitude of 160 to 320 kilometers, the wall is still visible to the naked eye. In an attempt to clarify this issue, the European Space Agency published a photo of part of the Great Wall of China taken from space. However, a week later they admitted the mistake (instead of a wall in the photo there was one of the rivers).

Legends

According to legend, a huge dragon showed the direction and place to build the wall to the workers. He walked along the borders of the country, and workers erected a wall at the site of his tracks. Some argue that even the very shape that the wall formed resembles a soaring dragon.

The most famous legend is the story of Meng Jiangnu, the wife of a peasant who was forced to work on the wall during the Qin Dynasty. When the sad news reached the woman that during the work her husband had died and was buried in the wall, she cried so bitterly that her crying caused the part of the wall where her husband’s remains were hidden to collapse, giving her the opportunity to bury them. In memory of this story, a monument was erected on the wall. [

China is among the countries with majestic architectural monuments. The Great Wall of China is a grandiose structure that is stunning in scale, especially if you imagine how old times it was under construction. The almost nine-kilometer monument stretches across the entire modern country, but in the area near Beijing it is beautiful in its own way. The length of the Chinese Wall is about 8850 km.

From the history of construction

The history of the large-scale structure is as amazing as its appearance. Try to imagine how many years and effort it took to build the Great Wall of China, the map of which runs as a border across the territory Ancient China. Large-scale construction has no analogues in the world.

The construction is led by Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (III century BC), the ancestor of the Qin dynasty. The wall was built during the Warring States years. The state then suffered from raids by nomadic peoples. A fifth of the total population of China at that time, that is, more than a million people, took part in the construction.

The Chinese planned to settle further north, so they decided to build a wall with an eye to the future. The leadership of the “Celestial Empire” warned against the transition of its people to a nomadic way of life and saved them from conquest by the barbarians. In addition, the Great Wall of China began to serve as a symbol of the monarchy and call for the unification of provinces.

Borders of the Chinese Wall:

During the reign of the Han Dynasty, which decided to expand the protective wall a little to the west. Many watchtowers were erected, and the protection of merchant caravans was thought out.

The sections of the huge wall that have reached us were created during the Ming Dynasty in the Middle Ages. Brick blocks were used during construction, which is why these parts of the fortification have survived to this day. The borders of the wall expanded again - from the Yellow Sea to Gansu province.

The Qing dynasty, which replaced the old rule, treated the main building of China with disdain. For three hundred years (XVII - XX centuries) the Great Wall of China was not repaired and was almost completely destroyed. Only the Badaling Gate near Beijing did not suffer from disregard, since it was a symbol of the entrance to the capital. Now this particular area is in greatest demand among tourists. Despite US President Nixon's proposal to build a highway on the site of the historical monument, the Chinese Wall remained on the map of attractions.

In 1984, the top management came to their senses, and Deng Xiaoping put forward an initiative to restore the ancient architectural monument. Investments made by local and foreign companies were completely justified.

Nowadays

Now the Great Wall of China is in different states along its length. For example, 60 kilometers of structures near Shanxi (northwest) suffer from erosion. Why did the wall suddenly start to collapse? It's all about harsh agricultural practices that have dried up groundwater. The climate changed, and the area began to be subject to regular sand storms. Most of the length of the Chinese Wall in this section has already been leveled to the ground, and the rest is gradually going underground.

The inclusion of the ancient architectural monument under the auspices of UNESCO improved things a little - they began to take care of the structure. Tourists traveling around the country bring in a good income, part of which goes towards restoring crumbling areas.

Legends

Over the centuries, the huge structure has acquired its own myths. The most implausible thing is that the wall was built entirely in one go. In fact, the length of the Chinese Wall is interrupted, it is a segmental line that was built in different parts during the reign of different dynasties.

There are also bloody stories. The construction of the defensive fortification claimed the lives of people who were engaged in hard physical labor without rest. About a million lives - this is the cost of the grandiose structure. But until now, the Chinese Wall on the world record map is the longest structure in the history of mankind.

There is a legend that the mortar for holding the bricks together was mixed with powder from human bones, and the dead were thrown directly onto the wall, under the next layer of cement. Modern research proved that the mortar was made from rice flour, and the presence of corpses in the wall would lead to the collapse of the structure.

Another myth is related to traditional Chinese folklore. It tells that a fiery dragon flew in front of the builders, and they built a wall in the wake of its flames. In reality, the workers had to get rid of obstacles along the way themselves.

The beautiful legend of Meng Jing Nu continues to this day. The wife of a farmer who was involved in the construction of the Great Wall of China learned of her husband's death at the construction site. She came and cried at the wall for so long that it collapsed and exposed the bones of her loved one, which she was able to bury with honor. But this legend is just a fairy tale. Those who died during construction were buried by their families with special honor. A white rooster sat on the coffin, crowing so that the spirit of the deceased would not fall asleep. The coffin was carried over the wall so that it would not wander along it.

1. The mentioned segmentarity of the structure led to the fact that the Mongol tribes of Genghis Khan conquered the north of the country in the 13th century. They even ruled China for more than a hundred years, but the Ming Dynasty drove out the invaders.
2. A person can see it from space. This belief was born more than a hundred years ago. It has now been proven that the wall cannot be seen from space.
3. It can be found in the list of new and old wonders of the world.
4. During construction, enterprising Chinese invented wheelbarrows.
5. In addition to the wall, workers had to dig ditches along the defensive structure.
6. Observation towers could reach high altitude. From them it was clearly visible what kind of enemies were going to attack Chinese civilians. A whole signaling system with torches and beacons was thought out.
7. The wall served as a defense during the Sino-Japanese War, when opponents left many bullets in it.

the great Wall of China- this is a recognized miracle, a symbol of the fortitude and greatness of the ancient people. In our time, the most important thing is to preserve the monument for posterity.

The company's website will solve your problems with selecting a tour. Here you will find various options trips to all parts of the planet. Compare prices, book plane tickets and hotels. The site is a place where you can easily plan an independent vacation. Our company encourages clients to share their impressions, comment on articles and keep abreast of all the news in the world of tourism!

ATTRACTIONSCHINA

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

the great Wall of China- a symbol of China, one of the most grandiose structures of all times. It is safe to say that there is not a single civilized person in the world who has not heard about the eighth wonder of the world - the Great Wall of China. Almost everyone who comes to China strives to see this ancient structure.

The wall starts near the Liaodong Gulf and runs through the mountains through Northern China and the Gobi Desert, the length of the wall from east to west is 6,700 km. Carts and columns of troops of 10 people in a row could move freely along the wall. Construction, begun during the Warring States era, continued for more than 2,000 years and cost the lives of several million Chinese, whose souls are said to still roam around. One of the restored sections of the Badaling wall is located 60 km from the Chinese capital and every tourist for a nominal fee in one of the towers you can receive a certificate of visiting the wall.

During the reign of the Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BC), Emperor Qin Shi Huang, known as the “unifier of the Chinese land,” sent about 500 thousand people to build the first Wall. The fact is that at this time there were wars known as the “Warring States Wars”, and it was necessary to erect defensive structures against attacks from neighboring principalities. The main feature of the construction was that each of the towers had to be in direct visibility of the two neighboring ones. This made it possible to transmit messages quickly and without much time by fire and smoke.

Three sections of the Wall were constructed from purple marble. Two are located in the city of Jiang'an, one is in the Yanyshan Mountains called Baiyanyu. These parts of the wall are famous as the strongest and most beautiful, but, unfortunately, not every tourist has access to them.

The construction of the second Wall (Han Dynasty 206 to 220 BC) is associated with constant raids by the Huns, who worked hard to destroy the structure. A whole million Chinese were sent to restore the third Wall (Ming Dynasty 1368-1644). The last imperial dynasty of China did not need the Wall. Due to the advent of gunpowder, it simply ceased to be relevant, as a result of which the destruction of the Wall over time began.

The wall is a symbol of China. Mao Tse Tung's inscription at the entrance to the restored part reads: "If you have not visited the Great Wall of China, you are not a real Chinese." It is a misconception that only tourists visit the Wall. It is a very common occurrence that there are more Chinese people there than travelers. And it is understandable; visiting the Great Wall of China is the duty of every self-respecting Chinese. If you want to feel like a part of Chinese culture, come to the Celestial Empire!

In 1987, UNESCO introduced Great Wall of China to the Register of World Cultural Heritage.

PLACES TO VISIT

Shanghaiguan Outpost.

Shanghaiguan Outpost is located northeast of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province. It is called the First Outpost of the Great Wall. The outpost has four gates: East, South, West and North. But when talking about the “First Outpost of the Celestial Empire,” they mean the Eastern Gate of the Shanghai Guan Outpost. The view of the eastern facade of the outpost is very impressive; at the top, under the very roof, there is a banner with the hieroglyphs “The First Outpost of the Celestial Empire.” An additional semicircular fortress wall was erected in front of the Eastern Gate; in addition, compacted earthen embankments were made at the base of the wall for greater strength; there is a ditch filled with water around the outpost. On the territory of the outpost there are barracks where troops were stationed and a signal tower. In short, the Shanghaiguan outpost is an example of a well-fortified defensive structure of the Ming era.


Zhangjiakou

On the route of the Great Wall near the village of Xuanfu in Hebei Province there is a strategically important mountain pass - Zhangjiakou. Here in 1429, under the Ming Emperor Xuande, a small fortress outpost was built. Under Emperor Chenghua (1480), the outpost was expanded, and as a result of work undertaken by Emperor Jiaqing (1529), the outpost was rebuilt into a powerful fortress. At that time it was called Zhangjiakou Outpost. In 1574, under Emperor Wanli, all buildings were rebuilt with bricks. Zhangjiakou is an important passage on the way from Northern China to Inner Mongolia. Due to its exceptionally important strategic importance (the "Northern Gate of the Chinese Capital"), Zhangjiakou Outpost was repeatedly a point of dispute between the warring parties.


Langyakou Outpost

Langyakou Outpost is located at the junction of Longxiutai Village (Lingqiu County, Shanxi Province) and Langyakou Village (Yilaiyuan County, Hebei Province). It was built in the Ming era. The outpost received the name "Lanyakou" (Wolf's Teeth) because it is located on a rugged, jagged mountain peak (altitude 1700 meters). The outpost was built in a saddle separating two powerful mountain peaks. On both sides of the outpost stretches a brick-lined, well-preserved fortress wall. The arched gate through which the route went from south to north has also been preserved.


Huangyaguan Outpost

Huangyaguan Outpost is located at the top of Chongshanling Peak, in the northern part of Jixian County near Tianjin. Based on the name of the county, the outpost is called "Northern Ji Outpost". The beginning of construction of the adjacent section of the wall dates back to 557, when the kingdom of Northern Qi was in these places. During the Ming period old wall was restored and faced with brick. In the east, the boundary of the Ji Wall section is a steep cliff in the mountain range, and in the west, a steeply rising mountain ridge. At this point the wall crosses the river. The outpost was well equipped with everything necessary for long-term defense: observation combat and signal towers, barracks for personnel, etc. were built in the surrounding area. Moreover, the difficult terrain made the local section of the wall difficult to reach the enemy. Unlike other sections of the Great Wall on this area Highly artistic architectural structures were built: the Fenghuang Tower, the Northern Gazebo, a grove of stone steles has been preserved, there is a museum, and “a city in the spirit of the eight trigrams - bagua.”


Badaling Outpost

Badaling Outpost is located north of Jiuyunguan Pass, 60 km. from Beijing. The beginning of construction of this section of the Great Wall dates back to the 18th year of the reign of the Ming Emperor Hongzhi (1505). A tourist who climbs to the highest point of Badaling has a beautiful view of the watchtowers and signal platforms rising along the wall to the north and south. The average height of the wall is 7.8 meters. The foundation of the wall is laid out with oblong blocks of granite; the width of the wall allows five horses or 10 pedestrians to pass in a row. On the outer side of the wall, ledges were erected to strengthen the wall; every 500 meters there is a watch tower and premises for accommodating personnel, storing weapons and performing guard duty.


Mutianyu Outpost

Mutianyu Outpost is located in Sanduhe Township, Huaiju County, 75 km away. northeast of Beijing. This site was built under the Ming emperors Longqing and Wanli. Here the route of the wall bends sharply, taking a direction to the northeast. The relief of the local mountains is majestic and formidable, replete with steep slopes and cliffs. On the southeastern edge of the site, at an altitude of 600 meters, there is a place where three branches of the wall converge. The Corner Tower rises here, nearby there is the Jiankou observation tower, behind it is a peak 1044 meters high, which is said to be inaccessible even to a soaring eagle.


Symatai

The Symatai section of the Great Wall is perhaps the only place where the wall has not been repaired and has retained its original appearance. It is located in the town of Gubeikou, which is northeast of Miyun County near Beijing. The length of the Symatai section is 19 km. East End The site, where the remains of 14 observation towers have been preserved at a distance of a kilometer, still amazes with its formidable inaccessibility. The stepped wall and the “Fairy Tower” stand out especially.


Wei Wall

During the era of the Warring States, the ruler of the kingdom of Wei undertook the construction of a fortress wall to block the path of the troops of the western kingdom of Qin, which by that time had strengthened and began to undertake campaigns against its neighbors. This section of the wall retained the name Wei. In the south, this section of the wall begins in the town of Chaoyuandong on the western bank of the Changjian River, not far from the northern spur of Mount Huashan (the city of Huayinish, Shaanxi Province). Further, the wall goes to the north; its route can be traced along the remains of the wall in the villages of Hongyan and Chennan. The best preserved Wei Wall is at a site in the village of Chennan.


Precipitous area

In historical documents this section of the Great Wall is called the “Western Section of the Wall”. It is located 8 km. north of the Jiayuguan outpost in Gansu Province. Built during the Ming period. Here the wall, following the curves of the mountainous terrain, descends steeply into a crevice, and in the crevice the wall was built so that it was impossible to climb onto it. In the crevice, the wall runs virtually straight, and does not meander, like neighboring sections, along a winding ridge. For this she was nicknamed "precipitous". In 1988, a section of the steep wall was restored and in 1989 it was opened to tourists. Climbing up the watchtower for the signal fire, you can see the panorama on both sides of the wall.


Steppe section of the wall

This section of the wall starts from the Jinchuan Gorge, which is located east of the county town of Shandan Prov. Gansu. The length of the gorge is 35 km. On a rocky cliff at a height of 5 meters from the bottom of the gorge, the hieroglyphs “Jinchuan Citadel” are carved. To the north of the exit from the gorge runs the Great Wall. Here it enters the steppe region, where the height of the wall is 4-5 meters. The length of the steppe section is 30 km. The parapet that supported the wall on both sides has been preserved.


Yangguan Outpost

75 km. southwest of the city of Dunhuang are the ruins of the ancient outpost of the Great Wall - Yangguan. In the old days, the wall on the Yanguan-Yumenguan highway had a length of 70 km. There were observation and sentinel-signal towers, now destroyed. Judging by the piles of stones and earthen ramparts near the Yanguan outpost, there were more than a dozen sentinel and signal towers. Of these, the largest and best preserved is the signal tower on the top of Dundong Mountain, north of Yangguan Outpost.


Jiayuguan Outpost

Jiayuguan Outpost was the western end of the Great Wall during the Ming period. Of all the outposts along the Great Wall route, Jiayuguan Outpost is the best preserved and also one of the largest. The outpost got its name from the name of the Jiayu Gorge, which stretches between the Qilianshan Mountains and the Black Ridge and is 15 km long. The Jiayuguan outpost was built right in the middle of the gorge on its western slope. Its construction dates back to 1372 (the 5th year of the reign of the Ming Emperor Hongwu). The fortification ensemble includes an internal wall, an additional wall located in a semicircle in front of the main gate, an earthen rampart on both sides of the wall, external adobe walls and a ditch dug in front of the wall.
On three sides of the outpost - eastern, southern and northern - there are strengthening adobe supports called " external walls"The Western and Eastern gates of the inner (core) wall have outer semicircles of additional walls that connect to the core of the inner wall. Of particular interest is the corner section of the wall at the junction of the watchtower, north of the Guanghuamen Gate, and the eastern section of the wall.


The first foundation tower of the Great Wall

At the southern end of the Great Wall of the Ming period, 7.5 km from the Jiayuguan outpost, there is a giant mortgage tower - a symbol of the beginning of the Great Wall. This tower was erected by military daotai Li Han in 1539-1540 (18th-19th reign of the Ming Emperor Jiaqing). This tower is also called Taolaihe after the name of the Taolaihe River flowing here. From the tower there is a majestic view of the ridge of the Great Wall stretching into the Gobi.

EXCURSIONS TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

• One-day excursion to the Great Wall of China.

TOURS TO CHINA

• Tour S-101. Beijing (6 days/5 nights). Best opportunity thoroughly and fully get acquainted with the ancient history of great China. You will discover the best in the traditions, culture and history of the great state - the ancient capital with its imperial palaces, the Temple of Confucius, the grand Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace and, of course, the Great Wall of China.
• Tour S-102. Beijing - Xi'an - Beijing (8 days/7 nights).
• Tour S-103. Beijing – Shanghai (8 days/7 nights).
• Tour S-104. Beijing - Xi'an - Hong Kong (Hong Kong) (10 days/9 nights).

PHOTO ALBUM PAGES

The colossal defensive structures known today as the “Great Wall of China” were built by those who, thousands of years ago, possessed technologies that we have not yet developed. And these were clearly not Chinese...

In China, there is another material evidence of the presence in this country of a highly developed civilization, to which the Chinese have no relation. Unlike the Chinese pyramids, this evidence is well known to everyone. This is the so-called The great Wall of China.

Let's see what orthodox historians have to say about this largest architectural monument, which has recently become a major tourist attraction in China. The wall is located in the north of the country, stretching from the sea coast and going deep into the Mongolian steppes, and according to various estimates, its length, including branches, is from 6 to 13,000 km. The thickness of the wall is several meters (on average 5 meters), the height is 6-10 meters. It is alleged that the wall included 25 thousand towers.

A brief history of the construction of the wall today looks like this. They supposedly started building the wall in the 3rd century BC during the reign of the dynasty Qin, to defend against raids by nomads from the north and clearly define the border of Chinese civilization. The construction was initiated by the famous “collector of Chinese lands” Emperor Qin Shi-Huang Di. He gathered about half a million people for construction, which, considering the total population of 20 million, is a very impressive figure. Then the wall was a structure made mainly of earth - a huge earthen rampart.

During the reign of the dynasty Han(206 BC - 220 AD) the wall was expanded to the west, strengthened with stone and a line of watchtowers was built that went deep into the desert. Under the dynasty Min(1368-1644) the wall continued to be built. As a result, it stretched from east to west from the Bohai Gulf in the Yellow Sea to the western border of the modern province of Gansu, entering the territory of the Gobi Desert. It is believed that this wall was built by the efforts of a million Chinese from bricks and stone blocks, which is why these sections of the wall have been preserved to this day in the form in which a modern tourist is already accustomed to seeing it. The Ming Dynasty was replaced by the Manchu Dynasty Qing(1644-1911), which was not involved in the construction of the wall. She limited herself to maintaining in relative order a small area near Beijing, which served as the “gateway to the capital.”

In 1899, American newspapers started a rumor that the wall would soon be demolished and a highway would be built in its place. However, no one was going to demolish anything. Moreover, in 1984, a program to restore the wall was launched on the initiative of Deng Xiaoping and under the leadership of Mao Zedong, which is still being carried out today, and is financed from Chinese and foreign companies, as well as individuals. It is not reported how much Mao drove to restore the wall. Several areas were repaired, and in some places they were completely rebuilt. So we can assume that in 1984 the construction of the fourth wall of China began. Usually, tourists are shown one of the sections of the wall, located 60 km northwest of Beijing. This is the area of ​​Mount Badaling, the length of the wall is 50 km.

The wall makes the greatest impression not in the Beijing region, where it was built on not very high mountains, but in remote mountainous areas. There, by the way, you can clearly see that the wall, as a defensive structure, was made very thoughtfully. Firstly, five people in a row could move along the wall itself, so it was also a good road, which is extremely important when it is necessary to transport troops. Under the cover of the battlements, the guards could secretly approach the area where the enemies were planning to attack. The signal towers were located in such a way that each of them was within sight of the other two. Some important messages were transmitted either by drumming, or by smoke, or by the fire of fires. Thus, the news of an enemy invasion from the farthest borders could be transmitted to the center per day!

During the restoration process the walls were opened Interesting Facts. For example, its stone blocks were held together with adhesive rice porridge with an admixture of slaked lime. Or what the loopholes on its fortresses looked towards China; that on the north side the height of the wall is small, much less than on the south, and there are stairs there. The latest facts, for obvious reasons, are not advertised and are not commented on in any way by official science - neither Chinese nor world. Moreover, when reconstructing towers, they try to build loopholes in the opposite direction, although this is not possible everywhere. These photos show the south side of the wall - the sun is shining at midday.

However, this is where the weirdness comes from Chinese wall don't end. Wikipedia has a complete map of the wall, where different colors shows the wall that we are told was built by every Chinese dynasty. As we see, there is more than one great wall. Northern China is often and densely dotted with the “Great Walls of China”, which extend into the territory of modern Mongolia and even Russia. Light was shed on these oddities A.A. Tyunyaev in his work “The Chinese Wall - the Great Barrier from the Chinese”:

“Tracing the stages of construction of the “Chinese” wall, based on the data of Chinese scientists, is extremely interesting. It is clear from them that the Chinese scientists who call the wall “Chinese” are not very concerned about the fact that the Chinese people themselves did not take any part in its construction: every time another section of the wall was built, the Chinese state was far from the construction sites.

So, the first and main part of the wall was built in the period from 445 BC. to 222 BC It runs along 41-42° northern latitude and at the same time along some sections of the river. Yellow River. At this time, naturally, there were no Mongol-Tatars. Moreover, the first unification of peoples within China took place only in 221 BC. under the kingdom of Qin. And before that there was the Zhanguo period (5-3 centuries BC), in which eight states existed on Chinese territory. Only in the middle of the 4th century. BC. The Qin began to fight against other kingdoms, and by 221 BC. conquered some of them.

The figure shows that the western and northern border of the Qin state by 221 BC. began to coincide with that section of the “Chinese” wall that began to be built in 445 BC and it was built exactly in 222 BC

Thus, we see that this section of the “Chinese” wall was built not by the Chinese of the Qin state, but northern neighbors, but precisely from the Chinese spreading to the north. In just 5 years - from 221 to 206. BC. - a wall was built along the entire border of the Qin state, which stopped the spread of its subjects to the north and west. In addition, at the same time, 100-200 km west and north of the first, a second line of defense against Qin was built - the second “Chinese” wall of this period.

The next construction period covers the time from 206 BC to 220 AD During this period, sections of the wall were built, located 500 km to the west and 100 km to the north of the previous ones... During the period from 618 to 907 China was ruled by the Tang dynasty, which did not mark itself with victories over its northern neighbors.

In the next period, from 960 to 1279 The Song Empire established itself in China. At this time, China lost dominance over its vassals in the west, in the northeast (on the Korean Peninsula) and in the south - in northern Vietnam. The Song Empire lost a significant part of the territories of the Chinese proper in the north and northwest, which went to the Khitan state of Liao (part of the modern provinces of Hebei and Shanxi), the Tangut kingdom of Xi-Xia (part of the territories of the modern province of Shaanxi, the entire territory of the modern province of Gansu and Ningxia-Hui autonomous region).

In 1125, the border between the non-Chinese Jurchen kingdom and China ran along the river. Huaihe is 500-700 km south of where the wall was built. And in 1141, a peace treaty was signed, according to which the Chinese Song Empire recognized itself as a vassal of the non-Chinese state of Jin, pledging to pay it a large tribute.

However, while China itself huddled south of the river. Hunahe, 2100-2500 km north of its borders, another section of the “Chinese” wall was erected. This part of the wall built from 1066 to 1234, passes through Russian territory north of the village of Borzya next to the river. Argun. At the same time, 1500-2000 km north of China, another section of the wall was built, located along the Greater Khingan...

The next section of the wall was built between 1366 and 1644. It runs along the 40th parallel from Andong (40°), just north of Beijing (40°), through Yinchuan (39°) to Dunhuang and Anxi (40°) in the west. This section of the wall is the last, the southernmost and the deepest penetrating into the territory of China... At the time of the construction of this section of the wall, the entire Amur region belonged to Russian territories. By the middle of the 17th century, Russian fortresses (Albazinsky, Kumarsky, etc.), peasant settlements and arable lands already existed on both banks of the Amur. In 1656, the Daurian (later Albazinsky) voivodeship was formed, which included the valley of the Upper and Middle Amur on both banks... The “Chinese” wall, built by the Russians by 1644, ran exactly along the border of Russia with Qing China. In the 1650s, Qing China invaded Russian lands to a depth of 1,500 km, which was secured by the Aigun (1858) and Beijing (1860) treaties...”

Today the Chinese Wall is located inside China. However, there was a time when the wall meant country border. This fact is confirmed by ancient maps that have reached us. For example, a map of China by the famous medieval cartographer Abraham Ortelius from his geographical atlas of the world Theatrum Orbis Terrarum 1602. On the map, north is on the right. It clearly shows that China is separated from the northern country - Tartaria by a wall. On the map of 1754 "Le Carte de l'Asie" it is also clearly visible that the border of China with Great Tartaria runs along the wall. And even a map from 1880 shows the wall as China's border with its northern neighbor. It is noteworthy that part of the wall extends quite far into the territory of China’s western neighbor - Chinese Tartaria...

Follow us