The Great Wall of China: An Impressive Architecture

                                                                        

 INTRODUCTION

We all have known that the Great wall is in China, but do we know the history of why the Great Wall was constructed? If not, no need to worry because this article will provide you a brief knowledge about its history, construction, and significance.

ABOUT

• The Great Wall of China is an ancient wall in China. The wall is made of cement, rocks, bricks, and dirt.
• It was completed in 1878 and it was meant to protect the north of the empire of China from enemy attacks.
• The land in some parts of China was too easy to cross, so Qin Shi Huang started building the Great Wall to make to increase the difficulty levels for Xiongnu to invade China.
• The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang also called Shihuangdi, started the Qin Dynasty and the Xiongnu tribes in the north were the enemies.
• It is about 21,196 kilometers (13,171 miles) long, 9.1 meters (30 feet) wide, and 15 meters (50 feet) high.
• The earlier sections of walls are made of compacted dirt and stone but later in the Ming Dynasty, they used bricks.
• There are 7000 watchtowers, blockhouses for soldiers, and beacons to send smoke signals.
•  The other Dynasties in China had worked more on the wall and made it longer. The Han, Sin, Northern, and Jin Dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, and expanded the Great Wall.
• During the Ming Dynasty, major building work took place and sections of walls were built with bricks and stone instead of earth.
• There is a combination of 19 walls for making a complete wall of China and took more than 2000 years for building and completion of Great Wall.

  

EARLY WALL

• The Chinese were already familiar with the techniques of wall-building by the time of the Spring and Autumn period between the 8th and 5th centuries BC.
• During this period and the subsequent warring states period, the states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Han, Yan, and Zhongshan all constructed extensive fortifications to protect their borders. These walls were made mostly of stones or by stamping earth and gravel between board frames.
• The King Zheng of Qin, who conquered his last opponent and unified China as The First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, ordered to build new walls to connect the remaining fortifications along the empire’s northern frontier.
• Transporting the large number of materials required for construction was so difficult, so builders used local resources. Stones from the mountains were used in the mountain ranges while the rammed earth was used for construction in plains.
• Most of the ancient walls have eroded over the centuries and very few sections remain today.
• The human cost of the construction is unknown, but it has been estimated by some authors that hundreds of thousands of soldiers were died because of falling of giant rocks, exhaustion, disease, animal attacks, and starvation.

MING ERA

• The Great Wall concept was revived again under the Ming in the 14th century. The Ming had failed to gain a clear hand over on the Mongolian Tribes after successive battles
• So he adopted a new strategy to keep nomadic tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China.
• Unlike the earlier fortification, the Ming construction was stronger and more elaborate due to the use of bricks and stones instead of rammed earth.
• Mongol raids were continued over the years, the Ming devoted considerable resources to repair and reinforce the walls. The section near the Ming capital of Beijing was especially strong.
• During the 1440s-1460s, the Ming also built a so-called “Liaodong Wall” similar in function to the Great Wall, but more basic in construction.
• The Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong province, protecting it against the potential incursions by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north.
• Towards the end of Ming, the Great Wall helped to defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600.
• The Manchu were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644 after Beijing had already fallen to Li Zicheng’s rebels.
• The Manchu had crossed the Great Wall several times to raid, but this time it was for conquest.
• The commanding Ming general, Wu Sangui, allied with the Manchus hoping to use Manchus to expel the rebels from Beijing.
• The Manchus quickly seized Beijing and eventually defeated both the rebel-founded Shun Dynasty and the remaining Ming resistance, establishing the Qing Dynasty rule over all of China.    

FOREIGN ACCOUNT

• None of the Europeans who visited China or Mongolia in the 13th and 14th centuries, such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, William of Rubruck, Marco Polo, Odoric of Pordenone, and Giovanni de’ Maringolli, mentioned the Great Wall of China.
• The North African traveler Ibn Battuta, who also visited China during the Yuan Dynasty 1346. He wrote that the wall is ”sixty days’ travel ” from Zeitun in his travelogue. He associated it with the legend of the wall mention in the Qur’an.
• Soon after European reached Ming China by ship in the early 16th century, accounts of the Great Wall started to circulate in Europe even though no European was to see it for another country.  
• The first recorded instance of a European entering China via the Great Wall came in 1605 when Portuguese Jesuit brother Bento de Gois reached the northwestern Jiayu Pass from India.
• When China opened its borders to foreign merchants and visitors after its defeat in the first and second opium wars, the Great Wall became a main attraction for tourists.

SIGNIFICANCE

• It is generally recognized as one of the most impressive architecture.
• Badaling(located 70km northwest of Beijing) is the best-known section of the Great Wall Of China which attracts thousands of tourists every day.
• It is a recognizable symbol of China’s victorious, powerful & influential dynasties & Kingdoms, culture, & history.

MYTH- Can it be seen from the moon?

It is believed by people that the Great Wall of China can be seen from the moon even the Sinologist Joseph Needham, author of Science and Civilisation in China, said that “the wall has been considered the only work of man which could be picked out by Martian astronomers”. The truth was revealed once and for all during the first Chinese space flight in 2003 when astronaut Yang Liwei said he couldn’t see anything of it from orbit.