Great Wall of China Documentary

China Great Wall

          Great Wall of the China one of the most recognizable symbols of China the Great Wall of China has a long and complicated history, it is just not one wall but many different walls and fortifications that were built over the course of thousands of years . The wall built at different times were built with different materials.

China Great Wall

    Everything from packed dirt or wood to stone and brik.These walls were meant to protect China from invasion . The earliest walls were built more than two thousand years ago when individual States built walls of packed earth and gravel between boards to protect their territories from attackers with swords and spears . Hundreds of years later in 221BC the first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang ordered that walls that divided his empire should be destroyed and a new wall connecting the remaining pieces should be built, creating fortifications that protected the Empire from northern attackers . No one knows exactly how long that wall was or where it was built as most of it has worn down or been destroyed . Over the next thousands of years, different ruling dynasties repaired, rebuilt.

China Great Wall

   The leaders of the Ming dynasty, which began in 1368, constructed the most famous version of the Great Wall . They began by building watchtowers and garrisons, later adding walls of stone and earth. New construction on the wall ended in 1644, at its height the great Wall stretched more than 13000 miles or about 22000 kilometers in total length, making it longest structure ever built by humans. In some places, the walls were 30 feet or 9 meters thick and 25 feet or 7.5 meters tall and it was studied with as many 25000 watchtowers, you may have heard that the Great Wall is so big that it can be seen from space but that is only partially true. It can't be seen at all from the moon but from much closer orbit, it could be seen by someone who knew exactly where to look and what it would look like . Today the Great Wall of China is a world heritage site, protected and maintained for all of humanity to enjoy.