The great Wall of China. Interesting China Symbol Facts. About the Incredibly Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China - to this day, this architectural structure impresses with its mighty grandeur and deservedly takes the place of the largest and most ancient architectural monument on the entire planet. The structure stretches across China for 8851.8 km. One of the gaps of the structure runs very close to Beijing. Most likely, each of us has heard about this miracle of architectural thought, but not everyone knows what history the wall went through during its construction. The construction of the Great Wall of China can shock any historian with its scale. Today, our travel site invites you to immerse yourself in the history of the construction of the Wall, as well as learn new interesting facts that largely influenced the progress of work and the current appearance of the structure.
Most likely, you cannot even imagine correctly how much time and resources were spent on creating such a huge architectural object. And how many people suffered and died during the construction of the Wall - these are just huge numbers. Nowhere else in the world is there a structure that can compete with the Great Wall of China in its length.
Construction history
The study of the Great Wall of China will not be complete if we do not delve into the history of the creation of this powerful structure. They began to build the Wall in the distant years of the 3rd century BC. In those turbulent times, the country was ruled by Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, who was a descendant of the Qin dynasty. The period of his reign was the years of the Warring States (475 - 221 BC).
For the state, this period of history was very dangerous, since the nomadic people of the Xiongnu regularly carried out their raids. Of course, their members were not the only ones who did not mind taking easy money. Then it was decided to build a huge fence that would enclose the state and protect it reliably. More than a fifth of the population of all of China was called to build the wall. In those years it was about one million people.
Great Wall had one of its main tasks to protect the subjects of the "Celestial Empire" from the fact that they would be involved in a nomadic lifestyle. It could also guarantee the absence of assimilation with the barbarians. At that time, China had only just begun its formation into one state out of many small ones conquered by it. It was critically important to designate and protect their territories and possessions. The wall was supposed to be that help that would help unite and keep the empire as one. The boundaries of the wall on the map can be indicated by the following scheme:
Year 206 BC. The Han dynasty comes to power, and it was during this period that the Wall conquered new numbers in length. To the west, it is increased to Dunhuang. A large number of guard armed towers are erected on the structure to protect trade caravans from attacks by nomads. Of course, not all sections of the great wall have survived to this day, but most of those sections that nevertheless appear to us today belonged to the Ming dynasty, which ruled from 1368 to 1644. It is during this period that the structure becomes the most durable, as it is already being built from bricks and concrete blocks. During this period, the wall runs from east to west from the territory of Shanhaiguan on the coast of the Yellow Sea up to the lands of Yumenguan, which are located on the border with Gansu province.
In 1644, the Qing Dynasty from Manchuria came to power. Representatives of this dynasty had conflicting opinions about the need for the existence of this structure. During the Qing period Great Wall was more destroyed than during the reign of other dynasties. This factor was affected by its influence and time as well. A small section from Beijing to Badaling was used as a gate that opened the entrance to the capital. This area is the best preserved. Today, this particular segment of the structure is the most popular among tourists from all over the world. It has been open to the public since the distant 1957. Interestingly, this section also served as the finish line for cyclists who took part in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. In 1899, the United States wrote that the remaining section of the wall would be completely dismantled, and a freeway would be built in its place. The wall was visited by President of the United States of America Richard Nixon.
Great Wall today
Yes, at a certain period of the last century, it was really decided to dismantle the Wall, but after rethinking the situation a little, the government decided, on the contrary, to reconstruct the wall and leave it as a legacy Chinese history.In 1984, the architect Deng Xiaoping organized a fundraiser that was needed to carry out work to return the wall to its former glory. Funds were attracted from both Chinese and foreign investors. Funds for restoration were collected even from ordinary private individuals, so everyone could contribute to the history of the restoration of a unique architectural heritage.
Let's stop for a second now and think about the next sentence for a moment. The length of the Great Wall of China is 8,851 kilometers and 800 meters! Think about this number! It is simply unbelievable how such a giant could be built by human hands.
In China, agriculture is very active, and sometimes even aggressive. For this reason, since the 1950s, the waters that provided the bowels of the earth began to dry up in the country. As a result, the entire region has become a place where very gusty and strong sandstorms originate. It is because of these factors that today more than 60-kilometer section of the Wall in northwest China is subject to severe erosion and active destruction. 40 kilometers of the section have already been destroyed, and only 10 kilometers still remain in place. However, the effects of the elements and natural factors also changed the height of the wall on some segments. Where previously the wall reached 5 meters, now it does not exceed 2 meters.
In 1987, the Wall was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It has rightfully taken its place in the category of the greatest historical sights of China. By the way, today this area is one of the most visited in the world. More than 40 million tourists choose this point on the map as the main object of their travels.
Of course, such a significant architectural structure could not but leave its traces throughout the history of the state and the planet as a whole. There are many legends and superstitions around the Wall to this day. For example, there is a version that the wall was built in one piece in just one go. However, if we turn to the facts, then it immediately turns out that this is just a myth. In fact, the wall is not something that in one go - it was built even by different dynasties. In addition, separate sections of a certain length were erected in the works. The length of the section was determined by various factors, taking into account the relief, weather conditions and other factors. They built it as reliably as possible in order to secure and protect China from the north.
All the dynasties that built the wall created their own specific area, which eventually united with the previous already the next dynasty. All this happened at different times, sometimes separated by decades. For the period of turbulent times in which the wall was built, such defensive structures were an objective necessity, they were built everywhere. If we reduce all the defensive structures of China over the past 2000 years into one statistic, then we get a figure in the region of 50 thousand kilometers.
The wall, as I have already described above, had discontinuous segments in many places. As a result, in 1211 and 1223, this was used by Genghis Khan and his Mongol invaders, who eventually took possession of the entire northern part of the country. Until 1368, the Mongols were the rulers of China, but the representatives of the Ming dynasty expelled them by fasting.
In the framework of this paragraph, let us dispel another common myth. No matter what anyone says, the Great Wall of China is not visible from space. This assumption or just fiction came to light in 1893. Then the magazine The Centuries (Centuries) was published in America, and such a fact was mentioned there. Later in 1932, noumenon Robert Ripley stated that the Wall was visible from space, namely from the Moon. This fact was amusing, considering that there were still many decades before the first landing of a man on Ken. Today, space has already been explored to some extent, and our cosmonauts and satellites can provide high quality photos from orbit. see for yourself, it is quite difficult to notice the wall from space.
You can also hear about the wall that the mortar used to fasten the bricks was based on a powder based on the bones of the dead workers of this construction site. And the remains of the bodies were buried right inside the wall. Thus, the structure allegedly became stronger. But in fact, none of this happened, the wall was built using standard methods for those times, and ordinary rice flour was used to make the bonding solution.
For obvious reasons, this miracle was not included in the 7 ancient wonders of the world, but the Great Wall of China is rightfully included in the list of 7 new wonders of the world. Another legend says that a large fire dragon paved the way for the workers, indicating where to build the wall. Builders subsequently followed in his footsteps
There is also a legend that will tell us about a big dragon that showed the way for the builders with his flames. As a result, the workers followed in his footsteps, and the fire of their dragon's mouth cleared the way for them. What's most interesting about this story is that it's actually true. We managed to find a photo of this dragon and even find out which zoo it ended up in:
Okay, let's admit, nevertheless, that this is simply one of the mythical legends that have neither common sense nor logical justifications. And the photo shows just a drawing of a mythical creature - a dragon.
But there is no doubt that today the Great Wall of China deservedly takes its place of honor in the list of "7 new wonders of the world."
The most famous legend associated with the Wall of China is the tale of the girl Meng Jing Niu, who was simply a farmer's wife. She was involved in the construction of the Wall. The wife, who was stricken with grief, came at night to the wall and wept over it until the reading cracked and showed the girl the bones of her lover. In the end, the girl was able to bury them.
Here, on the ground, there was a certain custom of burying people who died during the construction. The family members of the one who died here carried a coffin crowned with a white rooster. The crowing of the rooster was supposed to keep the spirit of the deceased awake. This must have continued until the procession with the coffin crossed the Wall. There were legends that if the ceremony was not completed, or completed with violations, then the spirit would remain here forever and wander along the wall.
For the period when the wall was being built for all prisoners in the state and all the unemployed, there was only one measure of punishment. Send everyone to build the Great Wall! This period especially needed the protection of external borders, so drastic measures had to be taken.
This construction gave the heritage of the Chinese people a lot useful inventions. So, it was here and for the purposes of construction that the same wheelbarrow was invented, which is used today everywhere at construction sites. Vulnerable areas during the construction of the Wall were surrounded by a moat, which was filled with water, or simply remained in the form of an abyss. Among other things, the people of China also used advanced weaponry for defense. These were hammers, and spears, and crossbows, axes. But the main advantage of the Chinese was their main invention - gunpowder.
Observation platforms were erected everywhere along the wall at equal intervals, which served to monitor the area and protect trade caravans. if danger approached, the sentinel at the top lit a torch or dropped a flag, after which the troops were put on alert. Lookout towers also served as storage for provisions and ammunition. The famous trade route, the Silk Road, ran along the wall. He was also guarded from the top of the wall.
The wall has seen a lot bloody battles, he saw his last fight. It happened in 1938 during the Sino-Japanese war. The wall still bears many scars from the bullets of those battles.
The Great Wall of China, though not the highest building, but its height at its maximum point reaches 1534 meters. This place is located near Beijing. But the lowest point dropped to sea level near the coast of Laolongtu. If we start from average values, then the height of the wall is 7 meters, and the width in the most spacious areas is 8 meters. But on average more often from 5 to 7 meters.
Today, the Chinese government is spending billions of dollars to strengthen and maintain the Great Wall. Today, for the country, the mighty Wall is not just a structure. It is a symbol of cultural pride, a symbol of a struggle that lasted several centuries, and an indicator of the greatness of an entire people.
The only man-made structure that astronauts can see from orbit is the Great Wall of China. The beginning of construction dates back to the 4th-3rd century BC, as a defensive structure from the raids of Asian tribes in a strategic important place borders. 400 thousand soldiers participated in the construction of this monumental structure. The wall originates in Shaihanguan. This huge earthen rampart, lined with stones, passes like a huge python through dangerous gorges, steep rocks and dry deserts. The length of the Wall is almost six thousand kilometers, its height is 7.8 m, its width is 5.8 m. Signal towers are built along the entire length of the wall at a certain distance from each other. This great building ends at the Jiaiguan outpost. The necessary cargo was transported along the top of the Wall, ammunition was delivered during hostilities. Now tourists who climb the Wall on foot are given a colorful diploma "I was on the Great Wall of China."
ancient chinese monument
The symbol of China, the symbol of national pride, the "eighth wonder of the world" and one of the world's oldest architectural monuments is the Great Wall of China. There will not be at least one person on the globe who would not have heard and read about this great, largest, grandiose monument of antiquity. This wall is located in an area covering an area from Liaodong Bay (northeast of Beijing), through northern China to the Gobi Desert. There are several opinions about the specific length of this attraction. But it can be said with all accuracy that it stretched over a distance of more than two thousand kilometers. Considering also the ramparts that extend from it, the result is approximately 6000-6500 km.
Officially, this Great Wall began to be erected in 220 BC. BC. by order of the ruler Qin Shi Huangdi. She defended the northwestern border from the raids of nomadic peoples. Its construction took hundreds of years. After the reign of the Qing Dynasty was established, its construction stopped.
In order to get inside the state, it was necessary to go through all the checkpoints that close at night and do not open until the morning. Rumors spread among the people that in order to get into their state, even the Chinese emperor himself waited until dawn.
For 2700 years, the wall was built three times. To the north, prisoners, prisoners of war, as well as peasants who were taken by force from their families were sent to build the wall. About two million people died during the construction of this wall. At its base were their remains. Based on this, up to the present time, the people of the Great Wall of China call the “Wailing Wall”.
On the various places The Great Wall, whose height was from 6 to 10 meters and a width of 5.5 to 6.5 meters, casemates, signal towers and guard towers were built. Fortresses were built at the main passes of the mountains.
Interesting legend and story about the Chinese wall
Many people were needed to build the Chinese wall. There is such Chinese legend, according to which, after the wedding, the husband of the girl, whose name was Mung Jiangnu, was exiled to build the Great Wall. After three years of waiting, the young wife never saw her husband. He did not return home. In order to take warm clothes to her husband, she went on a very long, dangerous and difficult journey. A young woman who reached the Shanhaiguan Post and learned that her husband had died from hard work and was buried under the wall, wept loudly. Then a large section of the wall collapsed, and she saw the corpse of her beloved husband. In the legends of China, the memory of the hard work of the participants in the construction of the wall is immortalized. The construction of the wall included several conditions. So, each of the wall towers had to be in the visible zone of two neighboring towers. Messages between them were transmitted by smoke, drumming or fire at night. The width of the wall was also calculated. It was 5.5 meters. This was done on purpose, because then five infantrymen could march in a row or five cavalrymen could ride side by side. Now its average height is nine meters. Watch towers are twelve meters high.
Badaling Wall
Tourists in China consider it a must to visit the Chinese Wall. Every year, millions of people come to see this magnificent historical landmark. In the region of Mount Badaling, located 60 km from the city of Beijing, is the most visited by tourists section of the Chinese wall. It's always full of people here. This site was restored in 1957.
Approximately 50 kilometers is the length of this ancient monument. Entrance: Y45. In summer it is open from 06:00 to 22:00, and in winter from 07:00 to 18:00. The ticket includes a 15-minute film about the history of the wall, which is shown in the circular amphitheater from 9.00 to 17.45, as well as an introduction to the China Wall Museum from 9.00 to 16.00. You can also get to Badaling by bus number 919 (depending on the number of stops Y5-10), which runs every 10 minutes from the ancient Deshengmen gate, located 500 meters east of the Jishuitan subway station. Warning: at 18.30 the last bus trip from Badaling.
For 8 hours, i.e. for the whole day, you can rent a taxi with 4 passengers (maximum), costing Y400, or maybe more.
Among other things, there are tourist routes. One of them is Line C with a cost of Y80 round trip, including the cost of visiting the wall. Opening hours: from 6.30 to 22.00. The other route is Line C, stopping at Ming Tomb with a cost of Y140, including entrance fees and lunch. Hours from 6.30 to 22.00.
Secrets of the Great Wall of China
Mutianyu wall
Mutianyu is the second known section of the wall. It is located 90 km north of Beijing. It can be visited from 6.30 to 18.00. The ticket price for entry is 35 yuan. The Mutianyu site is located in a mountainous area. You can climb it using the funicular. On the funicular, for a round trip ticket, spend another 50 yuan or only 35 yuan for one way. A more joyful, cheaper descent is the iron trough that runs under the cable car. On it, in a special capsule, you can ride down. Bill Clinton also rode in one of the cable car cabins. You can read it on a special sign. Maybe you will be able to ride in the president's cabin.
This wall has great merit. It is located in a very picturesque place. There are much fewer people here than in Badaling. People are missing after the fourteenth tower. Therefore, this place is very suitable for capturing beautiful and interesting moments, taking pictures.
Here it is necessary to take into account that this section of the wall, which consists of stairs going up and down, is made very thoughtfully. To slow down the enemy, who made his way to the wall, they also came up with these uneven stairs of various sizes. Not all visitors enjoy so many obstacles during a walk.
Passing by bus number 916 to the last stop you can walk to the tower. To the very same wall you need to transfer to a minibus. This stop is located 200m east of Dongzhimen Station. You will pay 11 yuan for the fare. Bus hours are from 6.00 to 19.00.
Simatai Wall
110 kilometers northeast of Beijing is the next section of the wall - Simatai, 4.5 km long. 30 yuan is the entrance to this site. The time to visit is from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. To climb the wall, you must ride the cable car, paying 50 yuan round trip or 30 yuan one way only.
There are two buses from the same Dongzhimen stop to the Simatai wall. The first bus number 970 goes to Simatai at 5:40, and the last return bus leaves at 18:30. The second bus number 980 goes there at 5:50, and the last one at 19:00. In the same way, you need to go to the last stop and then transfer to a minibus.
There are much fewer people here. To visit this wall, which rises along the mountains and descends along the cliffs, good physical fitness is necessary. Watchtowers located close to each other - 35, with a minimum distance between them, which is 40 meters. The main tower, which depicts mythical creatures and is decorated with carvings, is the most beautiful of them. The highest - the sixteenth tower - is the Beijing Tower. To rise above sea level for a kilometer, it lacks a few meters. An incomparable, magnificent and interesting view opens from it.
There are two places in this section that are especially amazing and dangerous. These are the Heavenly Bridge and the Heavenly Ladder. The Sky Bridge at the top narrows to 30 centimeters. Can you imagine how the brave Chinese soldiers in ancient times could overcome it? Tourists are not allowed on the Heavenly Bridge and the Heavenly Ladder. On the Heavenly Ladder, the ascent to the top is very steep. The stairs are very narrow and the angle of ascent is 85 degrees. There are no parapets.
Jinshanling Wall
Jinshanling is located at a distance of 130 kilometers from Beijing, west of Simatai. Entrance tickets to this section from mid-November to mid-March cost 40 yuan, and at other times of the year - 50 yuan. You can get by cable car in the same way and at the same cost, i.e. 50 yuan round trip and 30 one way. Here, as in Simatai, the opening hours are the same, i.e. from 8.00 to 17.00.
This section of the wall is little restored. Here, there are very few visitors and few places where people can go.
The Jinshanling wall is 10.5 kilometers long. There are 24 watchtowers here. They all have different shapes. The height of the additional walls that enclose the watchtowers is 2.5 m. These walls were made to protect the soldiers. Warriors, being in a safe place, in the event of an attack, could attack the enemy, even after they were able to climb the wall.
Near the tower, which is called Hudin, there are bricks in the wall, on which there are inscriptions from hieroglyphs. The date of manufacture of bricks and the units involved in the construction of each section can be found on them.
You can get to Jinshalin in the same way and by the same buses that go to Simatai. Then you need to take a minibus. There is another way to get there - by train number 6453, which leaves at 6:38 from Beijing North Station to Gubeikou Station. After that, it remains to take a short bus ride to the wall.
Other notable pieces of the wall
There are three sections of the wall, which are built of purple marble. Two sites are located in Jiang'an City, and the other is in the Yangishan Mountains, which is called Baiyangyu. They are considered the most reliable, strong and most beautiful. Unfortunately, not every tourist can visit this wall.
The essence of the inscription left by Mao Zedong at the entrance to the reconstructed part of the wall is that a Chinese who has not visited the Great Wall of China is not a real Chinese.
“There are roads that are not followed; there are armies that are not attacked; there are fortresses over which no one fights; there are places for which no one fights; there are orders of the sovereign, which are not carried out.
"War Craft". Sun Tzu
In China, you will definitely be told about the majestic monument several thousand kilometers long and about the founder of the Qin dynasty, thanks to whose command the Great Wall of China was built more than two thousand years ago in the Celestial Empire.
However, some modern scholars very much doubt that this symbol of the power of the Chinese empire existed until the middle of the 20th century. So what do tourists see? - you say ... And tourists are shown what was built by the Chinese communists in the second half of the last century.
According to the official historical version, the Great Wall, designed to protect the country from the raids of nomadic peoples, began to be erected in the 3rd century BC. by the will of the legendary emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, the first ruler to unite China into one state.
It is believed that the Great Wall, built mainly in the era of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), has survived to this day, and in total there are three historical periods of active construction of the Great Wall: the Qin era in the 3rd century BC, the Han era in 3rd century and Ming era.
In essence, under the name "Great Wall of China" unite at least three major projects in different historical eras, which, according to experts, in total have a total length of the walls of at least 13 thousand km.
With the fall of the Ming and the establishment of the Manchu Qin Dynasty (1644-1911) in China, construction work ceased. Thus, the wall, the construction of which was completed in the middle of the 17th century, was mostly preserved.
It is clear that the construction of such a grandiose fortification required the Chinese state to mobilize huge material and human resources, to the limit.
Historians claim that at the same time up to a million people were employed in the construction of the Great Wall and the construction was accompanied by monstrous human casualties (according to other sources, three million builders were involved, that is, half of the male population of ancient China).
It is not clear, however, what final meaning the Chinese authorities saw in the construction of the Great Wall, since China did not have the necessary military forces, not only to defend, but at least to reliably control the wall throughout its entire length.
Probably due to this circumstance, nothing is specifically known about the role of the Great Wall in the defense of China. However, the Chinese rulers have been building these walls for two thousand years. Well, it must be that we simply cannot understand the logic of the ancient Chinese.
However, many sinologists are aware of the weak persuasiveness of the rational motives proposed by the researchers of the subject, which must have prompted the ancient Chinese to create the Great Wall. And to explain the more than strange history of the unique structure, they utter philosophical tirades with something like this:
“The wall was supposed to serve as the extreme northern line of the possible expansion of the Chinese themselves, it was supposed to protect the subjects of the “Middle Empire” from switching to a semi-nomadic way of life, from merging with the barbarians. The wall was supposed to clearly fix the boundaries of Chinese civilization, to contribute to the consolidation of a single empire, just made up of a number of conquered kingdoms.
Scientists were simply struck by the blatant absurdity of this fortification. The Great Wall cannot be called an ineffective defensive object; from any sane military point of view, it is blatantly absurd. As you can see, the wall runs along the ridges of hard-to-reach mountains and hills.
Why build a wall in the mountains, where not only nomads on horseback, but even a foot army is unlikely to reach?! .. Or were the strategists of the Celestial Empire afraid of an attack by tribes of wild rock climbers? Apparently, the threat of invasion by hordes of evil climbers really frightened the ancient Chinese authorities, because with the primitive construction technique available to them, the difficulties of building a defensive wall in the mountains increased incredibly.
And the crown of fantastic absurdity, if you look closely, you can see that the wall branches in some places where mountain ranges cross, forming mockingly meaningless loops and forks.
It turns out that tourists are usually shown one of the sections of the Great Wall, located 60 km northwest of Beijing. This is the area of Mount Badaling (Badaling), the length of the wall is 50 km. The wall is in excellent condition, which is not surprising - its reconstruction on this site was carried out in the 50s of the 20th century. In fact, the wall was rebuilt, although it is claimed that on old foundations.
There is nothing more to show the Chinese, there are no other credible remnants of the supposedly existing thousands of kilometers of the Great Wall.
Let us return to the question of why the Great Wall was built in the mountains. There are reasons here, except for those that may have been recreated and extended, perhaps the old fortifications of the pre-Manchu era that existed in the gorges and mountain defiles.
Building an ancient historical monument in the mountains has its own advantages. It is difficult for an observer to ascertain whether the ruins of the Great Wall really go thousands of kilometers across mountain ranges, as he is told.
In addition, in the mountains it is impossible to establish how old the foundations of the wall are. For several centuries, stone buildings on ordinary soil, brought in by sedimentary rocks, inevitably sink into the ground by several meters, and this is easy to check.
And on the rocky ground similar phenomenon is not observed, and it is easy to pass off a recent building as very ancient. And besides, there is no large local population in the mountains, a potential inconvenient witness to the construction of a historical landmark.
It is unlikely that the fragments of the Great Wall north of Beijing were originally built on a significant scale, even for China. early XIX century is a difficult task.
It seems that those several tens of kilometers of the Great Wall that are shown to tourists, for the most part, were first erected under the Great Pilot Mao Zedong. Also a Chinese emperor in his own way, but still it cannot be said that he was very ancient.
Here is one of the opinions: you can falsify what exists in the original, for example, a banknote or a picture. There is an original and you can copy it, which is what forgers and counterfeiters do. If the copy is well made, it can be difficult to identify the fake, to prove that it is not the original. And in the case of the Chinese wall, it cannot be said that it is a fake. Because there was no real wall in antiquity.
Therefore, the original product of modern creativity of hardworking Chinese builders has nothing to compare with. Rather, it is a kind of quasi-historically substantiated grandiose architectural creativity. A product of the famous Chinese desire for order. Today it is a great tourist attraction worthy of entering into the Guinness Book of Records.
Here are the questions asked Valentin Sapuno in :
one . From whom, in fact, was the Wall supposed to protect? The official version - from nomads, Huns, vandals - is unconvincing. By the time the Wall was created, China was the most powerful state in the region, and possibly the whole world. His army was well armed and trained. This can be judged very specifically - in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, archaeologists unearthed a full-scale model of his army. Thousands of terracotta warriors in full gear, with horses, wagons, were supposed to accompany the emperor in the next world. The northern peoples of that time did not have serious armies, they lived mainly in the Neolithic period. They could not pose a danger to the Chinese army. There is a suspicion that from a military point of view, the Wall was of little use.
2. Why is a significant part of the wall built in the mountains? It passes along ridges, over cliffs and canyons, meanders along impregnable rocks. So defensive structures are not built. In the mountains and without protective walls, the movement of troops is difficult. Even in our time in Afghanistan and Chechnya, modern mechanized troops do not move over mountain ridges, but only through gorges and passes. To stop the troops in the mountains, small fortresses dominating the gorges are enough. Plains stretch north and south of the Great Wall. It would be more logical and many times cheaper to put up a wall there, while the mountains would serve as an additional natural obstacle to the enemy.
3. Why does a wall with a fantastic length have a relatively small height - from 3 to 8 meters, rarely where up to 10? This is much lower than in most European castles and Russian kremlins. A strong army equipped with assault techniques (ladders, mobile wooden towers) could, by choosing a vulnerable spot on a relatively flat piece of terrain, overcome the Wall and invade China. This is what happened in 1211, when China was easily conquered by the hordes of Genghis Khan.
4. Why is the Great Wall of China oriented to both sides? All fortifications have battlements and curbs on the walls on the side facing the enemy. In the direction of their teeth do not put. This is pointless and would make it difficult to service the soldiers on the walls, the supply of ammunition. In many places, the battlements and loopholes are oriented deep into their territory, and some towers are shifted there, to the south. It turns out that the builders of the wall assumed the presence of the enemy from their side. With whom were they going to fight in this case?
Let's start with an analysis of the personality of the author of the idea of the Wall - Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259 - 210 BC).
His personality was extraordinary and in many ways typical of an autocrat. He combined a brilliant organizational talent and statesmanship with pathological cruelty, suspicion and tyranny. As a very young 13-year-old man, he became the prince of the state of Qin. It was here that the technology of ferrous metallurgy was first mastered. Immediately it was applied to the needs of the army. Possessing more advanced weapons than their neighbors equipped with bronze swords, the army of the Qin principality quickly conquered a significant part of the country's territory. From 221 BC a successful warrior and politician became the head of a united Chinese state - an empire. Since that time, he began to bear the name Qin Shi Huang (in another transcription - Shi Huang Di). Like any usurper, he had many enemies. The emperor surrounded himself with an army of bodyguards. Fearing assassins, he created the first magnetic weapon control in his palace. On the advice of experts, he ordered to put an arch made of magnetic iron ore at the entrance. If an incoming person had an iron weapon hidden, magnetic forces pulled it out from under the clothes. The guards immediately kept up and began to find out why the incoming wanted to enter the palace armed. Fearing for power and life, the emperor fell ill with persecution mania. He saw conspiracies everywhere. He chose the traditional method of prevention - mass terror. At the slightest suspicion of disloyalty, people were seized, tortured and executed. The squares of Chinese cities were constantly resounding with the cries of people who were cut into pieces, boiled alive in cauldrons, fried in frying pans. Hard terror pushed many to flee the country.
Constant stress, the wrong way of life shook the emperor's health. A duodenal ulcer broke out. After 40 years, symptoms of early aging appeared. Some wise men, but rather charlatans, told him a legend about a tree growing across the sea in the east. The fruits of the tree supposedly cure all diseases and prolong youth. The emperor ordered to immediately supply the expedition for fabulous fruits. Several large junks reached the shores of modern Japan, established a settlement there, and decided to stay. They rightly decided that the mythical tree does not exist. If they return empty-handed, the cool emperor will swear a lot, or maybe come up with something worse. This settlement later became the beginning of the formation of the Japanese state.
Seeing that science is not able to restore health and youth, he unleashed anger on scientists. The "historical", or rather hysterical decree of the emperor read - "Burn all books and execute all scientists!" Part of the specialists and works related to military affairs and agriculture, the emperor, under pressure from the public, nevertheless amnestied. However, most of the priceless manuscripts burned down, and 460 scientists, who were then the color of the intellectual elite, ended their lives in cruel torment.
It was to this emperor, as noted, that the idea of the Great Wall belongs. Construction work did not start from scratch. There were already defensive structures in the north of the country. The idea was to combine them into a single fortification system. What for?
The simplest explanation is the most realistic
Let's resort to analogies. Egyptian pyramids made no practical sense. They demonstrated the greatness of the pharaohs and their power, the ability to force hundreds of thousands of people to do any, even meaningless action. There are more than enough such structures on Earth, aimed only at exalting power.
Likewise, the Great Wall is a symbol of the power of Shi Huang and other Chinese emperors, who picked up the baton of grandiose construction. It should be noted that, unlike many other similar monuments, the Wall is picturesque and beautiful in its own way, in harmony with nature. Talented fortifiers, who know a lot about the eastern understanding of beauty, were involved in the work.
There was a second need for the Wall, more prosaic. Waves of imperial terror, tyranny of feudal lords and officials forced the peasants to flee en masse in search of a better life.
The main route was to the north, to Siberia. It was there that the Chinese men dreamed of finding land and freedom. Interest in Siberia as an analogue of the Promised Land has long excited ordinary Chinese, and it has long been common for this people to spread all over the world.
Historical analogies suggest themselves. Why did Russian settlers go to Siberia? For a better share, for land and freedom. Fleeing from royal wrath and lordly tyranny.
To stop the uncontrolled migration to the north, undermining the unlimited power of the emperor and the nobles, they created the Great Wall. She would not have held back a serious army. However, the Wall could block the way for peasants walking along mountain paths, burdened with simple belongings, wives and children. And if the peasants went to the breakthrough further away, led by a sort of Chinese Yermak, they were met by a rain of arrows because of the teeth facing their own people. There are more than enough analogues of such unhappy events in history. Let's remember Berlin Wall. Officially built against the aggression of the West, it aimed to stop the flight of the inhabitants of the GDR to where life was better, or at least seemed to be. With a similar goal in Stalin's time, they created the most fortified border in the world, nicknamed the "Iron Curtain", for tens of thousands of kilometers. Maybe not by chance, the Great Wall of China in the minds of the peoples of the world has acquired a double meaning. On the one hand, it is a symbol of China. On the other hand, it is a symbol of Chinese isolation from the rest of the world.
There is even an assumption that the "Great Wall" is not a creation of the ancient Chinese, but of their northern neighbors..
Back in 2006, Andrey Alexandrovich Tyunyaev, President of the Academy of Fundamental Sciences, in his article “The Great Chinese wall built ... not by the Chinese! ”, made an assumption about the non-Chinese origin of the Great Wall. Actually modern China appropriated the achievement of another civilization. In modern Chinese historiography, the task of the wall was also changed: initially it protected the North from the South, and not the Chinese south from the "northern barbarians". Researchers say that the loopholes of a significant part of the wall face south, not north. This can be seen in the works of Chinese drawings, a number of photographs, on the most ancient sections of the wall that have not been modernized for the needs of the tourism industry.
According to Tyunyaev, the last sections of the Great Wall were built in a similar way to Russian and European medieval fortifications, the main task of which is protection from the effects of guns. The construction of such fortifications began no earlier than the 15th century, when cannons were widely spread on the battlefields. In addition, the wall marked the border between China and Russia. At that period of history, the border between Russia and China ran along the “Chinese” wall.” On the map of Asia of the 18th century, which was made by the Royal Academy in Amsterdam, two geographical formations were marked in this region: Tartaria (Tartarie) was located in the north, and China (Chine) was located in the south, the northern border of which ran approximately along the 40th parallel, i.e. exactly along the Great Wall. On this Dutch map, the Great Wall is marked with a heavy line and labeled "Muraille de la Chine". From French, this phrase is translated as “Chinese wall”, but it can also be translated as “wall from China”, or “wall that delimits from China”. In addition, other maps confirm the political significance of the Great Wall: on the 1754 map Carte de l’Asie, the wall also runs along the border between China and Great Tataria (Tartaria). In the academic 10-volume World History there is a map of the Qing Empire of the second half of the 17th - 18th centuries, which shows in detail the Great Wall, which runs exactly along the border between Russia and China.
The following are the proofs:
ARCHITECTURAL wall style, now located on the territory of China, is captured by the features of the building "handprints" of its creators. Elements of the wall and towers, similar to fragments of the wall, in the Middle Ages can only be found in the architecture of the ancient Russian defensive structures of the central regions of Russia - the "northern architecture".
Andrey Tyunyaev offers to compare two towers - from the Chinese wall and from the Novgorod Kremlin. The shape of the towers is the same: a rectangle, slightly narrowed upwards. From the wall inside both towers there is an entrance blocked by a round arch, lined with the same brick as the wall with the tower. Each of the towers has two upper "working" floors. Round-arched windows were made in the first floor of both towers. The number of windows on the first floor of both towers is 3 on one side and 4 on the other. The height of the windows is approximately the same - about 130-160 centimeters.
Loopholes are located on the upper (second) floor. They are made in the form of rectangular narrow grooves about 35-45 cm wide. The number of such loopholes in the Chinese tower is 3 deep and 4 wide, and in the Novgorod one - 4 deep and 5 wide. On the top floor of the "Chinese" tower along its very edge are square holes. There are similar holes in the Novgorod tower, and the ends of the rafters sticking out of them, on which the wooden roof rests.
The situation is the same in comparison of the Chinese tower and the tower of the Tula Kremlin. The Chinese and Tula towers have the same number of loopholes in width - 4 each. And the same number of arched openings - 4 each. On the upper floor, between the large loopholes, there are small ones - near the Chinese and Tula towers. The shape of the towers is still the same. In the Tula tower, as in the Chinese one, White stone. The arches are made in the same way: at the Tula gate - at the "Chinese" - entrances.
For comparison, you can also use the Russian towers of the Nikolsky Gate (Smolensk) and the northern fortress wall of the Nikitsky Monastery (Pereslavl-Zalessky, 16th century), as well as a tower in Suzdal (mid-17th century). Conclusion: design features the towers of the Chinese wall reveal almost exact analogies among the towers of Russian kremlin.
And what does the comparison of the preserved towers say? Chinese city Beijing with the medieval towers of Europe? Fortress walls Spanish cityÁvila and Peking are very similar, especially in that the towers are located very often and have practically no architectural adaptations for military purposes. Peking towers have only an upper deck with loopholes, and are laid out at the same height as the rest of the wall.
Neither the Spanish nor the Peking towers show such a high resemblance to the defensive towers of the Chinese Wall, as the towers of the Russian Kremlin and fortress walls show. And this is an occasion for reflection for historians.
And here are the arguments of Sergey Vladimirovich Leksutov:
The chronicles say that the wall was built for two thousand years. In terms of defense - absolutely meaningless construction. Is it that while the wall was being built in one place, in other places the nomads freely walked around China for as much as two thousand years? But the chain of fortresses and ramparts can be built and improved within two thousand years. Fortresses are needed to defend garrisons from superior enemy forces, as well as to quarter mobile cavalry units in order to immediately go in pursuit of a detachment of robbers that crossed the border.
I thought for a long time, who and why in China built this senseless cyclopean structure? There is simply no one except Mao Tse Tung! With his inherent wisdom, he found an excellent means of adapting tens of millions of healthy men to work, who had fought for thirty years before, and knew nothing but how to fight. It is unthinkable to imagine what a mess would start in China if so many soldiers were demobilized at the same time!
And the fact that the Chinese themselves believe that the wall has been standing for two thousand years is explained very simply. AT open field a demobilization battalion arrives, the commander explains to them: “Here, in this very place, the Great Wall of China stood, but the evil barbarians destroyed it, we have to restore it.” And millions of people sincerely believed that they did not build, but only restored the Great Wall of China. In fact, the wall is built of even, clearly sawn blocks. Is it that in Europe they did not know how to cut stone, but in China they were honored? In addition, soft stone was sawn, and it is better to build fortresses from granite or basalt, or from something no less hard. And granites and basalts learned to saw only in the twentieth century. For the entire length of four and a half thousand kilometers, the wall is made up of monotonous blocks of the same size, and after all, in two thousand years, the methods of processing stone inevitably had to change. And building methods have changed over the centuries.
This researcher believes that the Great Wall of China was built to protect against sandstorms in the Ala Shan and Ordos deserts. He drew attention to the fact that on the map compiled at the beginning of the 20th century by the Russian traveler P. Kozlov, one can see how the Wall runs along the border of shifting sands, and in some places has significant branches. But it was near the deserts that researchers and archaeologists discovered several parallel walls. Galanin explains this phenomenon very simply: when one wall was covered with sand, another was erected. The researcher does not deny the military purpose of the Wall in its eastern part, but the western part of the Wall performed, in his opinion, the function of protecting agricultural areas from the elements.
Soldiers of the invisible front
Perhaps the answers are in the beliefs of the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom themselves? We, the people of our time, find it hard to believe that our ancestors would erect barriers to repel the aggression of imaginary enemies, for example, disembodied otherworldly entities with evil thoughts. But the whole point is that our distant predecessors considered evil spirits to be completely real creatures.
The inhabitants of China (both today and in the past) are convinced that the world around them is inhabited by thousands of demonic creatures that are dangerous to humans. One of the names of the wall sounds like "a place where 10 thousand spirits live."
Another curious fact: the Great Wall of China does not stretch in a straight line, but along a winding one. And the features of the relief have nothing to do with it. If you look closely, you can find that even in the flat areas it "winds". What was the logic of the ancient builders?
The ancients believed that all these creatures could move only in a straight line and were unable to bypass the obstacles that appeared on the way. Maybe the Great Wall of China was built to block their way?
Meanwhile, it is known that Emperor Qin Shihuangdi during the construction constantly conferred with astrologers and consulted with soothsayers. According to legend, soothsayers told him that a terrible sacrifice could bring glory to the ruler and provide reliable defense to the state - the bodies of the unfortunate people buried in the wall who died during the construction of the structure. Who knows, perhaps these nameless builders today stand on the eternal guard of the borders of the Celestial Empire ...
Let's look at the photo of the wall:
masterok,
livejournal
The Great Wall of China (220 BC - 1368 - 1644 AD) is a symbol of China, one of the most beautiful and grandiose structures of all times and peoples. This is the largest creation of human hands in world history and is the only structure of such a huge scale in the whole world. The Wall of China is the only man-made structure in the world that can be seen from space with the naked eye.
The history of the Chinese wall began in the 3rd century BC, during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi - the Qin Dynasty (475-221 BC). The wall began to be erected during the Warring States period. At that time, the Celestial Empire was in great need of protection from the attacks of enemies, including the nomadic people - the Xiongnu. A fifth of the Chinese population was involved in the construction of the wall, at that time it was about a million people. The Chinese landmark was to become a planned Chinese habitat, the extreme northern point of the country, and protect the subjects of the Chinese Empire from assimilation with the barbarians. The inhabitants of East Asia planned to precisely mark the boundaries of their civilization, since the Chinese state had just begun to form from many conquered states, to contribute to the unification of the Chinese empire into one whole.
The eighth wonder of the world - the Chinese wall - "Wan li chang cheng" - the longest in the world. The length of the wall is even - 8,852 kilometers. The height of the Chinese wall is about 7 m, but on separate sections its height reaches 10 meters, the width of the wall at the base from the ground is about 6.5 m, and its upper part is about 5.5 m. Two horse-drawn carts could easily pass on the surface. Fortresses were built near the main mountain passes, and along the entire length of the Chinese wall, watchtowers were built to protect casemates. And from the highest points of the wall, you can admire a breathtaking panorama.
The wall was built skillfully and with such a margin of safety that it has survived to this day. The Great Wall stretches across all modern China, along cities, through deep gorges, deserts, valleys. When the wall was completed, the country, located to the south, turned into a well-defended, huge fortress. But neither the wall nor the cruel ruler could help the Qin dynasty. After the death of the first emperor of China, a few years later the Qin dynasty was overthrown.
And a new dynasty entered the reign - the Han Empire, which was formed at the end of the 3rd century BC. e. and ruled over China for over four hundred years. At that time, the Chinese people realized themselves as a single whole, today some Chinese call themselves “Han”. The Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) extended the wall to the west as far as Dunhuang. Also, to protect against the attack of nomads - trade caravans, they built a line of watchtowers that went into the desert. The sections of the wall that have survived to this day were mainly built during the reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD).
The Great Wall is not only a symbol of a united China, but is also the longest cemetery in the world, a wall of tears and suffering. This is because about a million people were rounded up to build the wall. It was built mainly by forced peasants, convicts, slaves, and soldiers - almost the entire population of the country worked. During the construction of the current eighth wonder of the world, there is no count of the Chinese who died there, because it was built for about fifteen centuries. The bodies of all the dead were walled up in the foundation of the wall. In order for their souls to also protect the borders of China from the attacks of enemies, and from the demons of the northern peoples. According to legend, the construction of such a large-scale fortification caused fury among the spirits.
The Great Wall of China today attracts tourists from all over the world, every day. All legends, historical facts and even fairy tales cannot do without mentioning the wall. The Chinese people claim that the history of this wall is half of the history of China and it is impossible to understand China without visiting the wall. According to the miscalculations of scientists: if all the materials used to build the Chinese Wall during the Ming Dynasty are folded into a single wall, 1 meter thick and 5 meters high, then it will be enough to tie Earth, And if you use all the materials used by the Qin, Han and Ming dynasties, then such a wall could wrap the earth more than ten times.
Today, millions of tourists from all over the world visit this monument of world architecture to enjoy and admire the grandeur of the building, as well as its scale.
The colossal defense 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 grown up to. And it was clearly not the Chinese ...
In China, there is another material evidence of the presence in this country of a highly developed civilization, to which the Chinese have nothing to do. 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 piece of architecture, 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, has a length, taking into account the branches, from 6 to 13,000 km. The thickness of the wall is several meters (on average 5 meters), the height is 6-10 meters. The wall is said to have included 25,000 towers.
Short story building a wall today looks like this. The construction of the wall allegedly began yet in the 3rd century BC during the dynasty Qin to defend against the raids of nomads from the north and clearly define the border of Chinese civilization. The initiator of the construction was the famous "collector of Chinese lands" Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di. He drove about half a million people to the construction, which, with a total population of 20 million, is a very impressive figure. Then the wall was a structure mainly from the 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 built a line of watchtowers that went deep into the desert. Under the dynasty Min(1368-1644) the wall continued to be built further. As a result, it stretched from east to west from the Bohai Bay in the Yellow Sea to the western border of the modern provinces of Gansu, entering the territory of the Gobi Desert. It is believed that this wall was already built by the efforts of a million Chinese from bricks and stone blocks, which is why these sections of the wall have survived 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), who did not build the wall. She limited herself to maintaining in relative order 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 built in its place. However, no one was going to demolish anything. Moreover, in 1984, a wall restoration program initiated by Deng Xiaoping and led by Mao Tse Tung was launched, which is still being carried out and financed by Chinese and foreign companies, as well as individuals. How many drove Mao to restore the wall is not reported. Several sections were repaired, in some places they were erected altogether anew. 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 (Badaling), the length of the wall is 50 km.
The wall makes the greatest impression not in the Beijing area, where it was erected on a not very high mountains and in remote mountainous areas. There, by the way, it is very clearly seen 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 transfer troops. Under cover of the battlements, the guards could stealthily approach the area where the enemies planned 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 bonfires. Thus, the news of the enemy's invasion from the most distant frontiers could be transmitted to the center per day!
During the restoration of the wall, interesting facts were revealed. For example, its stone blocks were fastened together with sticky rice porridge mixed with slaked lime. Or what loopholes on its fortresses looked towards China; what's up with north side the height of the wall is small, much less than on the south, and there are stairs. The latest facts, for obvious reasons, are not advertised and are not commented on by official science - neither Chinese nor world. Moreover, when reconstructing towers, they try to build loopholes in the opposite direction, although this is not always possible. These photographs show South side walls - the sun shines at noon.
However, the oddities with the Chinese wall do not end there. Wikipedia has a full map of the wall, where different color shows a wall which we are told was built by every Chinese dynasty. As you can see, the great wall is not alone. Northern China is often and densely dotted with "great Chinese walls" that go into the territory of modern Mongolia and even Russia. Shed light on these oddities A.A. Tyunyaev in his work "The Chinese Wall - a great barrier from the Chinese":
“It is extremely interesting to trace the stages of the construction of the “Chinese” wall, based on the data of Chinese scientists. It can be seen from them that 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 the next 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 ° north latitude and simultaneously along some sections of the river. Huanghe. At that time, of course, there were no Mongol-Tatars. Moreover, the first unification of peoples within China took place only in 221 BC. under the reign of Qin. And before that, there was the Zhangguo period (5-3 centuries BC), in which eight states existed on the territory of China. Only in the middle of the 4th c. BC. 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 state of Qin by 221 BC. began to coincide with that section of the "Chinese" wall, which began to be built even in 445 BC and was built 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 state of Qin, which stopped the spread of his subjects to the north and west. In addition, at the same time, 100-200 km west and north of the first, the second line of defense from 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 ... from 618 to 907 China was ruled by the Tang dynasty, which did not mark itself as victorious over its northern neighbors.
In the next period from 960 to 1279 The Song Empire was established in China. At this time, China lost dominance over its vassals in the west, in the northeast (on the territory of the Korean Peninsula) and in the South - in northern Vietnam. The Sung 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 modern Shaanxi province, the entire territory of modern Gansu province and Ningxia Hui autonomous region).
In 1125, the border between the non-Chinese kingdom of the Jurchens and China passed along the river. Huaihe is 500-700 km south of the places where the wall was built. And in 1141, a peace treaty was signed, according to which the Chinese Sung Empire recognized itself as a vassal of the non-Chinese state of Jin, pledging to pay him 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 near the river. Argun. At the same time, another section of the wall was built 1500-2000 km north of China, 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, southernmost and most deeply penetrating into the territory of China ... During the construction of this section of the wall to Russian territories applied to all the Amur region. By the middle of the 17th century, on both banks of the Amur, there were already Russian fortresses-prisons (Albazinsky, Kumarsky, etc.), peasant settlements and arable lands. In 1656, the Daurskoye (later Albazinskoye) voivodeship was formed, which included the valley of the Upper and Middle Amur along 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 1500 km, which was confirmed by the Aigun (1858) and Beijing (1860) treaties ... "
Today the Wall of China is inside China. However, there was a time when the wall meant country border. This fact is confirmed by the extant vintage cards. 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 - Tartary by a wall. On the map of 1754 "Le Carte de l'Asie" it is also clearly seen that the border of China with Great Tartaria runs along the wall. And even the 1880 map shows the wall as China's border with its northern neighbor. It is noteworthy that part of the wall extends far enough into the territory of China's western neighbor - Chinese Tartaria...
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