The Great Wall Of China

The Great Wall of China is one of the most famous and greatest ancient architecture in the world.

The Number One Fort：Ju Yong Pass

                                               
Since its construction in third century BC, the Great Wall had stood as the longest wall that human ever built. Even today, while the other wonders of ancient world had been dwarfed by the Industrial Revolution, the Great Wall still proudly holds that title.

Technically, the Great Wall is not a wall. It is a giant military defensive fortification made up of a series of fortresses and built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe.

The prototype of the Great Wall dates back to the the Spring and Autumn Period(771–476 BC) in which some northern Chinese states built forts to defend their kingdoms. These forts later were connected by the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang(秦始皇), to protect his newly founded Qin dynasty (秦朝，221–206 BCE).

The Remains of the Great Wall built in Spring and Autumn Period

Following Qin, Han dynasty (202 BC – 220DC) continued to thought of the Great Wall as the most important frontier defense and successfully defeated the northern invaders. After that, however, the Great Wall experienced a more-than-thousand-year-long slump in which it was abandoned and sometimes even destroyed on purpose.

This situation ended in Ming dynasty(1369–1644) which again used the Great Wall as frontier defense against Mongolians and Jurchens.

Actually, the Great Wall we see today is just the one rebuilt in Ming dynasty which is made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials. As to the Qin Wall, it had long disappeared except for some ruins.

The Ming Great Wall stretches from Dandong in the east, to Lop Lake in the west and is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mile) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mile) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mile) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.

Jia Yu Pass

Nowadays, the Great Wall of China is one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.