Travel with Tidbits to China this week as we explore the longest man-made structure in the world.
• In the Chinese language, the term for the Wall, “Wanli Changcheng,” literally translates “The Long Wall of 10,000 Miles.”
• Construction began in 770 B.C. for border defense and continued for hundreds of years, with the last construction taking place in 1878 during the Qing Dynasty. Although more than 20 Chinese dynasties worked on the construction between the 7th century B.C. and the 19th century, the best-known sections were built during the Ming Dynasty, between 1368 and 1644, a distance of 5,500 miles (8,852 km). The height of the Wall varies between 16 and 26 feet (5-8 m), although at one point it measures 46 feet (14 m) tall. Its average width is 21.3 feet (6.5 m) across.
• The main materials of the Wall were earth, stone, lime, and wood. The later work by the Ming Dynasty primarily used bricks rather than rammed earth. The bricks were bound together by sticky rice mortar, a mixture of glutinous rice and lime, a strong and water-resistant combination.
• The official total length of the Wall is 13,170.7 miles (21,196.18 km), equal to about half the equator. Sadly, nearly one-third of the Great Wall has disappeared. Every year, a little bit more is lost due to physical weathering, including erosion from sandstorms, and human activities, with vandalism a major threat. People have looted the bricks and sold them. Many bricks were taken to build civilian houses, and some parts of the Wall have been destroyed to make way for mining. Until 2006, there were no regulations on the Wall’s conservation.
• Throughout the centuries, more than 1,000,000 people labored on the fortification. The labor force consisted of soldiers, prisoners of war, conscripted peasants, and convicted criminals. It’s believed that around 400,000 died during the effort, and it’s possible that some are buried within the wall, although no actual corpses have been found.
• The Great Wall isn’t really just one continuous wall. There are overlapping walls, trenches, watchtowers, beacon towers, parallel walls, fortresses for battles, and barracks for soldiers. In some areas, there is no wall, with high mountains or rivers forming the barricade. There are 10,051 wall sections, 1,764 ramparts, 29,510 individual buildings, and 2,211 fortifications. It’s believed than as many as 25,000 watchtowers were constructed on the Wall.
• The most visited section of the Wall is at Badaling, about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Beijing’s city center. This portion was built in 1504 during the Ming Dynasty. In 1957, this portion became the first to be reconstructed and restored, followed by being opened to tourism. It now receives an estimated 63 million visitors a year.
• Although it’s been said that the Great Wall of China can be seen from the moon with the naked human eye, it’s just not true. Astronaut Gene Cernan has said that it is visible at an orbit of up to 200 miles (320 km) high, but only in certain lighting conditions, adding that, “It’s less visible than a lot of other objects, and you have to know where to look.” Other space explorers have said that trying to see with the Wall from space is equivalent of “seeing a hair from two miles away.”