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The Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China is well known throughout
the world and most people have read about or seen pictures of it. The Great Wall
of China is the most enormous engineering and building project carried out by
humans, especially for its time. Stretching 6,300km from coast to desert, the
Great Wall of China is one of the few man-made constructions that can be seen
from space. The Great Wall of China is the longest structure ever built. While
many sections of the wall are disintegrated and have been left in disrepair, the
Great Wall of
China
is still popular for hikers looking for a challenge.
Visitors can travel the 13 foot (4 meters) wide roadway on the top of the wall.
Once on the wall, there may be lots and lots of people. At times you may almost
have to get in line to make it through some of the narrower arches. Where
possible, natural barriers were integrated into the path of the wall. You can
hike up snaking sections of walls, enter the watchtowers and see distant views.
If you want a good long walk on the wall then consider the Sarmatia section.
The
Great Wall of China is an immensely long man-made wall that was built to
keep out invaders. Built in the early years of the
Ming Dynasty it was completed
only by Qi Jiguang, commander of Jinzhou fortressed town in the reigning years
of Long Qing. The Great Wall of
China was built by soldiers, civilians, farmers
and prisoners, primarily during three dynasties: the Qin, the Han and the Ming,
although the Sui Dynasty and the Ten Kingdoms period also played a part. It is
about 4,000 miles long, and it was built entirely by hand. Signal towers were
built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.
Chinese scholars say the actual wall left standing is now around 1,500 miles
long, down from its high of an estimated 3,900 miles in the Ming dynasty.
The claim that China's Great Wall is the only man-made object that can be seen
from the moon with the naked eye is one of our more tenaciously incorrect
"facts," a bit of erroneous speculation which was spawned decades before we had
the means to demonstrate it true, and which continues to have currency despite
having long since been proved false. It certainly isn't visible from the Moon.
The theory that the wall could be seen from the Moon dates back to at least
1938. "The only thing you can see from the Moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly
white, some blue and patches of yellow, and every once in a while some green
vegetation," said Alan Bean, Apollo 12 astronaut. So we can't see the Great Wall
from the Moon, which is about 400,000 km away.
Great Wall of China is more beautiful with snow than summer. The Great Wall of
China is the largest construction on earth, yet myths about it are more widely
known than facts. The myth of being able to see the Great Wall from space
originated in Richard Halliburton's 1938, long before humans saw the earth from
space. The book, Second Book of Marvels said that the Great Wall of China is the
only man-made object visible from the moon. Today the Great Wall of China is
protected, as it serves as an icon for China. The Great Wall of China is one of
the world's true wonders.
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