The Great Wall Of China 
| The Great Wall Of China |
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The Great Wall of China crosses the plains in the North-East of Beijing, all along of the borders North and North-West of China, extending from Qinhuangdao Pitchili in the gulf of Bohai in the East, to outskirts of Gaotai, in the province of Gansu in the West. A wall was also built towards the South, from the area of Beijing to Handan. It moves at first about a series of fortifications, connected ones to the others during the IIIrd century before Jesus Christ. Hundreds of thousands of workers toof part in the construction of stone ramparts and in masonry, used not only in a defensive aim but also like routes. During centuries, the wall has been rebuilt and renovated repeatedly. One regards it today as one of the wonders of the world. It remains nowadays the only human construction visible from the space. The Great Wall represents one of symbols the strongest of the the history of China. |
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The events of its sa construction have harboured a quantity of popular stories and legends describing the sufferings and the suddens of those who have worked on it. Since its origins, the Wall have had for function to protect the frontier North of China from nomadic cavalries doing all along of the frontier. And, as the centuries and dynasties of emperors go by, the Great Wall won't cease to extend in the landscape.
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One attributes to the Great Wall the reputation to be the biggest cimetery of the world, which is exact insofar as the many died workmen during works have been buried in its immediate surroundings. It shouln't of course suppose that they have been buried in the wall itself, a military work so important, whose the resistance constitutes one of the essential charateristics, hardly being able to be a party to this kind of imagination. |
The first sections of the Wall were built under the order of sovereigns of Chunqiu-Zhanguo, 800-400 before Jesus Christ. The building allowed them to protect themselves from peoples of North, particularly the Xiongnu, tribe united with the Huns. The main part of the Wall was however erected under the Qin dynasty, at the IInd century before Jesus Christ, at the time of the unification of the China by the First Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, then evolved repeatedly in step with needs of defense. Its aim was to stop Mongols and Mandchus knights, nomadic peoples from steppes of the North. More than 300 000 men would have taken part in building.
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The Han, 206 before Jesus Christ, then the Sui, 589-618 continued its construction. The Ming dynasty, 1368-1644, contributed towards its extend and towards its consolidation, substituting the works of clay by the masonry. The fortification finally reached a lenght of 6 700 km, currenting all along of rivers and making the outlines of mountains and valleys it own. The Wall, constructed in clay and in stone, was covered up of bricks on its face East. |
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It is broad from 4,6 m to 9,1 m at its base and grows narrow in its top at 3,7 m. Its height oscillates between 3 and 8 m. Patrol towers of 12 m height are placed about all the 200 m. The part East of the Great Wall is intact on several hundred kilometers, the rest of the building is more or less in ruin. In spite of its size, it never constituated a sure mean of defense against the threat of nomads. Only the campaigns of Qing emperors, XVIIIth century, who themselves descend from invaders of North, allowed to the country to protect itself from invasions. |
Studies by satellite have showed that many segments, about 1000 km, were burried under ground.
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