The most grandiose defensive structure on the planet is the Great Wall of China, the Eighth Wonder of the World. This fortification is considered the longest and widest. There are still disputes how many km is the Chinese wall stretches. You can find many interesting facts about this structure in the literature and on the Internet. Even its location is of interest - this wall divides China into north and south - the land of nomads and the land of farmers.

History of the Chinese Wall

Before the appearance of the Great Wall of China, China had a lot of scattered defensive structures against the raids of nomads. In the third century BC, when Qin Shi Huang began to rule, small kingdoms and principalities united. And the emperor decided to build one big wall.

They started building the wall in 221 BC. There is a legend that construction of the Chinese wall threw the whole imperial army- about three hundred thousand people. Peasants were also attracted. At first the wall was in the form of ordinary earthen embankments, and only after that they began to replace them with brick and stone.

By the way, this structure can be called the longest not only wall, but also a cemetery. After all, a lot of builders were buried here - they were buried in the wall, and then structures were built directly on the bones.

Since its construction, there have been several attempts to destroy the wall and then restore it. Modern look This building was built during the Ming Dynasty. From 1368 to 1644, building towers were erected, bricks were laid instead of earthen embankments, and some areas were rebuilt.

There are many interesting facts about the Chinese Wall, which is considered the longest man-made structure in the world. Here are some of them:

• when laying stone blocks, sticky rice porridge was used, into which slaked lime was mixed;
• its construction took the lives of more than millions of people;
• this wall is on the list World Heritage UNESCO as one of the greatest historical sites;
• in 2004, more than forty million foreign tourists visited the Wall of China.

Most of the controversy is around the number how many km is the Great Wall of China. Previously it was believed that its length was 8.85 thousand. But then it turned out that archaeologists measured only those sections of the structure that were built during the Ming Dynasty.

But if we talk about everything Chinese wall, length it is 21.196 thousand kilometers. These data were announced by employees of the State Administration for Cultural Heritage Affairs. They began research back in 2007, and announced the results in 2012. Thus, the length of the Chinese wall turned out to be 12 thousand kilometers longer than the original data.

The calling card of the Celestial Empire is the Great Chinese wall– since 1987 it has been protected by UNESCO as a historical heritage of the whole world. By decision of the public it is considered one of the new wonders of the world. There is no other defensive structure of this length on the planet.

Parameters and architecture of the “wonder of the world”

Contemporaries calculated the length of the grandiose Chinese fence. Taking into account areas that have not been preserved, it is 21,196 km. According to some studies, 4000 km have been preserved, others give a figure of 2450 km, if you connect the starting and ending points of the ancient wall with a straight line.

In some places its thickness and height reaches 5 m, in others it grows to 9–10 m. outside The wall is complemented by rectangles of 1.5-meter battlements. The widest section of the wall reaches 9 m, the highest from the ground surface is 7.92 m.

Real fortresses were built at the guard posts. On the most ancient sections of the wall, every 200 m of the fence there are towers made of brick or stones of the same style. They contain observation platforms and loopholes with rooms for storing weapons. The further from Beijing, the more often towers of other architectural styles are found.

Many of them have signal towers without interior spaces. From them, the watchmen lit a fire, signaling danger. For that time it was the most quick way warnings. According to legend, during the reign of the Tang family, women were placed as watchmen on the towers and their legs were deprived so that they would not leave their post without permission.

"The longest cemetery in the world"

The beginning of the construction of the grandiose Chinese structure dates back to the 7th century BC, the end - to the 17th century. According to historians, at least 10 rulers of small Chinese provinces made efforts to build it. They fenced their possessions with high mounds of earth.

Qin Shi Huang united the lands of small principalities into a single empire, ending the two-hundred-year era of the Warring States. With the help of defensive fortifications, he decided to ensure reliable protection of the state from attacks by nomads, especially the Huns. He ruled China from 246–210 BC. In addition to defense, the wall fixed the borders of the state.

According to legend, the idea was born after a court soothsayer predicted the destruction of the country by nomads who would come from the north. Therefore, they initially planned to build a wall on the northern borders of the country, but then continued to build it in the west, turning China into an almost impregnable possession.

According to legend, the direction and place of construction of the wall was indicated to the emperor by a dragon. The border was laid in his footsteps. Some researchers claim that the view of the wall from above resembles a soaring dragon.

Qin Shi Huang appointed the most successful general, Meng Tian, ​​to lead the work. By combining the existing earthworks, they were strengthened and completed by more than half a million slaves, peasants, prisoners of war and prisoners. The emperor was opposed to the teachings of Confucius, so he shackled all the Confucian scholars and sent them to construction sites.

One of the legends says that he ordered them to be walled up in the wall as a sacrifice to the spirits. But archaeologists have not found confirmation of the rituality of the single burials found in the towers. Another legend tells of a farmer's wife, Meng Jiang, who brought clothes to her husband, who was mobilized to work on a construction site. But he had died by then. No one could say where he was buried.

The woman lay down against the wall and cried for a long time until a stone fell out, revealing the remains of her husband. Meng Jiang brought them to her native province and buried them in the family cemetery. Perhaps the workers who participated in the construction were buried in the wall. That's why people called it the “wall of tears.”

Construction spanning two millennia

The wall was completed and rebuilt in parts, from various materials- earth, bricks, stones. Active construction was continued in 206–220 by the emperors of the Han clan. They were forced to strengthen China's defenses against the attacks of the Huns. The earthen ramparts were reinforced with stones to protect them from destruction by nomads. All rulers of China monitored the safety of defensive structures, except for the emperors of the Mongol Yuan family.

Most of the grandiose structures that have survived to this day were built by the Ming emperors who ruled China from 1368 to 1644. They were actively engaged in the construction of new fortifications and repair of defensive structures, because the new capital of the state, Beijing, was only 70 kilometers away, so high walls were a guarantee of its safety.

During the reign of the Manchu Qing family, defensive structures lost their relevance because northern lands were under her control. No attention was paid to the grandiose structure, and the wall began to collapse. Its restoration began at the direction of Mao Zedong in the 50s of the twentieth century. But during the “cultural revolution” most of it was destroyed by opponents of ancient art.

Video on the topic

- an architectural monument in China over 8800 kilometers long.

History of the construction of the Great Wall of China

Construction of the Great Wall of China began in the 3rd century BC. e. during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (Qin dynasty), during the period of the “Warring States” (475-221 BC). The wall was supposed to protect the subjects of the “Middle Empire” from transitioning to a semi-nomadic way of life, from merging with the barbarians and was supposed to clearly fix the boundaries of Chinese civilization, contribute to the consolidation of a single empire, just made up of a number of conquered kingdoms.

Throughout the history of the country, there were 3 Great Walls of China, the construction of which took more than 2000 years.

Previously, the Great Wall of China was an obstacle on the path of everyone who wanted to get to China. Several special checkpoints were made in the Wall, which were closed at night and under no circumstances were to be opened. No exceptions were made even for the emperor. In order to get inside, the traveler had to obtain permission from higher authorities.

In 1644, after the conquest of China by the Manchus and the accession of a new dynasty, the Great Wall of China became unnecessary and was abandoned.

Current state of the Great Wall of China

During the three centuries of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), the wall almost collapsed due to erosion. The site near Beijing was maintained in relative safety - Badaling, since it served as the “gateway to the capital”. Based on everything, at the beginning of the century there were rumors that the wall would be demolished and a highway would be built in its place.

Along its entire length, fortresses, forts, and signal towers were torn down, and the wall and watchtowers were only slightly damaged by time. Nowadays, several areas are open to tourists; the unrestored area is of greatest interest. Symatai.

In 1962, the Great Wall of China was included in the list of Chinese national monuments, and in 1987 - in the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage.

In 1984, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, a program to restore the Great Wall of China began.

The wall is a symbol of China for both the Chinese and foreigners. At the entrance to the restored part of the Wall you can see an inscription made by Mao Zedong

If you haven't visited the Great Wall of China, you are not a real Chinese.

• The total length of the Great Wall of China is 8 thousand 851 kilometers and 800 meters.
• The average height of the wall is about 7 meters, and the width in some places reaches 9 meters.
• It is one of the most visited attractions in the world, with approximately 40 million tourists visiting each year.
• The wall is not continuous - it was built at different times from several separate segments and later connected into one whole.
• The attraction is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest structure ever built by man.
• The Great Wall of China is the longest cemetery on the planet, as more than a million people died during its construction.
• The fact that the Great Wall of China is visible from space is a myth; it is barely visible even from Earth’s orbit, since its maximum width does not exceed 10 meters, and the color of the stone merges with the color of the rocky rock around it.
• The highest point of the wall is 1534 meters (near Beijing), and the lowest point is at sea level near Laolongtu.
• The last battle at the wall was in 1938 during the Sino-Japanese War.

How to get to the Great Wall of China from Beijing?

The easiest and most popular way to see the Great Wall is to get to it from Beijing; here are the sections:

• Badaling(60 km from Beijing)
• Mutianyu(95 km north of Beijing)
• Symatai(120 km northeast of Beijing)
• Jinshanling(125 km northeast of Beijing)

It’s easier and closer to get to the Badaling section:

1. by tourist bus from Tiananmen Square;
2. by taxi (~500 yuan);
3. by bus 919 from Deshengmen stop (Jishuitan metro station);
4. by local train to Badaling from Beijing North Station;

The Great Wall of China is a unique structure; it looks like the body of a long dragon, spread across northern China. The length is more than 6400 km, the thickness of the wall is about 3 meters, and the height can reach seven meters. It is believed that it was in the 3rd century BC that the construction of the wall began, and ended only in the 17th century AD. It turns out that according to the accepted historical version, this construction lasted almost 2000 years. Truly a unique building. History does not know such long-term construction. Everyone is so accustomed to this historical version that few people think about its absurdity.
Any construction project, especially a large one, has a specific practical purpose. Who today would think of starting a huge construction project that can only be completed in 2000 years? Of course, no one! Because it's pointless. Not only will this endless construction put a heavy burden on the population of the country, the building itself will be constantly destroyed and will have to be restored. What happened to the great Chinese wall.
We will never know what the first sections of the wall, allegedly built before our era, looked like. They, of course, collapsed. And those sections that have survived to this day were mainly built during the Ming Dynasty, that is, allegedly, in the period from the 14th to the 17th centuries AD. Because in that era building materials there were bricks and stone blocks that made the structure more reliable. So historians are still forced to admit that this “wall,” which anyone can see today, appeared no earlier than the 14th century AD. But even 600 years is a fairly respectable age for a stone building. It is still not clear why this structure is so well preserved.
In Europe, for example, medieval defensive structures grew old and fell apart over time. They had to be dismantled and new, more modern ones built. The same thing happened in Rus'. Many medieval military fortifications were rebuilt in the 17th century. But in China, for some reason these natural physical laws do not apply...
Even if we assume that the ancient Chinese builders had some kind of secret, thanks to which they created such a unique structure, historians do not have a logical answer to the most important question: “Why did the Chinese build a stone wall with such tenacity for 2000 years? Who did they want to protect themselves from? - historians answer: “The wall was built along the entire border of the Chinese empire to protect against the attacks of nomads...”
Such a wall, as much as 3 meters thick, was not needed against the nomads. Russians and Europeans began to build such structures only when cannons and siege weapons appeared on the battlefields, that is, in the 15th century.
But the point is not even in its thickness, but in its length. The wall, stretching for several thousand kilometers, could not protect China from raids.

Firstly, in many places it passes at the foot of mountains and nearby hills. It is quite obvious that the enemy, having climbed onto the neighboring peaks, could easily shoot all the defenders on this section of the wall. From arrows flying from above, the Chinese soldiers would simply have nowhere to hide.

Secondly, along the entire length of the wall, watchtowers were built every 60-100 meters. Large military detachments were constantly supposed to be in these towers and monitor the appearance of the enemy. But back in the 3rd century BC, under Emperor Qin Shihuang Di, when 4,000 km of the wall had already been built, it became clear that if the towers were installed so often, it would not be possible to ensure effective defense of the wall. All the armed forces of the Chinese Empire will not be enough. And if you place a small detachment on each tower, then it will become easy prey for the enemy. A small detachment will be destroyed before neighboring detachments have time to come to its aid. If defensive detachments are made large, but deployed less frequently, then too long and unprotected sections of the wall are formed, through which the enemy can easily penetrate deep into the country.

It is not surprising that the appearance of such a fortification did not protect China from raids. But its construction greatly depleted the state, and the Qin dynasty lost its throne. The new Han dynasty no longer had much hope for the great wall and returned to the system of maneuver warfare, but, according to historians, the construction of the wall, for some reason, continued. Strange story...

It is also interesting that until the end of the 17th century, apart from the Great Wall of China, not a single large stone structure was built in China. But scientists claim that the population of China waged constant wars among themselves. Why didn’t they fence themselves off from each other with walls and build stone kremlins in their cities?
With such experience as the construction of the Great Wall of China, the entire country could be covered with defensive structures. It turns out that the Chinese spent all their resources, strength and talents only on the construction of the, in general, useless from a military point of view - the Great Wall of China.

But there is another historical version of the construction of the Great Wall of China. This version is not as popular among historians as the first, but it is more logical.
Great Wall was indeed built along the border of China, but not for protection from nomads, but as a marking of the border between the two states. And its construction began not 2000 years ago, but much later, in the 17th century AD. That is, the famous wall is no more than 300 years old. An interesting historical fact speaks in favor of this version.
According to the official historical version, by the middle of the 17th century, the northern lands of China were severely depopulated and in order to protect these lands from settlement by Russians and Koreans, in 1678, Emperor Kangxi ordered this border of the empire to be surrounded by a special fortified line. Its construction continued until the end of the 80s of the 17th century.
The question immediately arises: why did the emperor need to build some kind of new fortified line, if a huge stone wall had stood on the entire northern border of China for a long time?
Most likely, there was no wall there yet, so in order to protect their lands, the Chinese began building a line of fortifications, because it was at that time that China was fighting border wars with Russia. And only in the 17th century both sides agreed where the border between the two states would be.

In 1689, a treaty was signed in the city of Nerchinsk, which fixed the northern border of China. Probably the Chinese rulers of the 17th century attached great importance great value Nerchinsk Treaty, which is why they decided to mark the border not only on paper, but also on the ground. So a border wall appeared along the entire border with Russia.
On the map of Asia of the 18th century, made by the Royal Academy in Amsterdam, two states are clearly visible, China and Tartary. China's northern border runs approximately along the 40th parallel, and the Chinese Wall runs exactly along the border. Moreover, it is highlighted with a bold line and the inscription: “Muraille de la Chine” - which translated from French means: “Wall of China”. The same thing can be seen in many other maps produced after the 17th century.

Of course, one can assume that the ancient Chinese foresaw 2000 years ago where the Russian-Chinese border would be, and in 1689, the two states simply drew the border along the wall that stood here, but in this case, this would definitely have been indicated in the treaty, but there is NO mention of the wall in the Nerchinsk Treaty.
For several decades now, scientists around the world have been sounding the alarm. One of the seven wonders of the world, the Great Wall of China, is rapidly collapsing! And indeed, in some places, the height of the wall has decreased to two meters, in some places the observation towers have completely disappeared, several tens of kilometers of the wall have been completely lost, and hundreds of kilometers continue to rapidly collapse. And this despite the fact that over the past few centuries, the wall has been repaired and restored several times, why was it not destroyed at such a rate before? Why, after standing for more than two thousand years, did the wall quickly begin to turn into ruins?

Scientists blame climate, ecology, agriculture and, of course, tourists. Every year 10 million people visit the wall. They go where they can and where they can’t. They want to see even those parts of the wall that are closed to the public. But the matter is most likely something else...
The Great Wall of China is completely destroyed naturally just like all similar structures were destroyed. 300 years is a very respectable age for a stone building, and the version that the great Chinese long-term construction is as long as 2000 years old is a MYTH. As is much of Chinese history itself.
P.S. There is also another version circulating on the Internet that the Great Wall of China was not built by the Chinese at all. In those days, in China, practically nothing was built of stone except this wall. Moreover, the loopholes on the old, unrestored sections of the wall are located only on the south side. Unfortunately, I have not been to China and cannot say with certainty whether this is actually true. Photographs that determine the south side based on the sun's shadow cannot be taken as evidence. As you know, the wall does not go in a straight line, the directions are completely different, the sun can shine from both the south and the north side walls, roughly speaking.

In China, there is another material evidence of the presence in this country of a highly developed civilization, to which the Chinese have no relation. Unlike the Chinese pyramids, this evidence is well known to everyone. This is the so-called Great Wall of China.

Let's see what orthodox historians have to say about this largest architectural monument, 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, its length, including branches, is from 6 to 13,000 km. The thickness of the wall is several meters (on average 5 meters), the height is 6-10 meters. It is alleged that the wall included 25 thousand towers.

A brief history of the construction of the wall today looks like this. They supposedly started building the wall in the 3rd century BC during the reign of the dynasty Qin, to defend against raids by nomads from the north and clearly define the border of Chinese civilization. The construction was initiated by the famous “collector of Chinese lands” Emperor Qin Shi-Huang Di. He gathered about half a million people for construction, which, considering the total population of 20 million, is a very impressive figure. Then the wall was a structure made mainly of 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 a line of watchtowers was built that went deep into the desert. Under the dynasty Min(1368-1644) the wall continued to be built. As a result, it stretched from east to west from the Bohai Gulf in the Yellow Sea to the western border of the modern province of Gansu, entering the territory of the Gobi Desert. It is believed that this wall was built by the efforts of a million Chinese from bricks and stone blocks, which is why these sections of the wall have been preserved 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), which was not involved in the construction of the wall. She limited herself to maintaining in relative order a 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 would be built in its place. However, no one was going to demolish anything. Moreover, in 1984, a program to restore the wall was launched on the initiative of Deng Xiaoping and under the leadership of Mao Zedong, which is still being carried out today, and is financed from Chinese and foreign companies, as well as individuals. It is not reported how much Mao drove to restore the wall. Several areas were repaired, and in some places they were completely rebuilt. 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, the length of the wall is 50 km.

The wall makes the greatest impression not in the Beijing area, where it was built to a very low standard. high mountains, and in remote mountainous areas. There, by the way, you can clearly see 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 transport troops. Under the cover of the battlements, the guards could secretly approach the area where the enemies were planning 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 fires. Thus, the news of an enemy invasion from the farthest borders could be transmitted to the center in a day!

During the restoration process the walls were opened interesting facts. For example, its stone blocks were held together with sticky rice porridge mixed with slaked lime. Or what the loopholes on its fortresses looked towards China; that on the north side the height of the wall is small, much less than on the south, and there are stairs there. The latest facts, for obvious reasons, are not advertised and are not commented on in any way by official science - neither Chinese nor world. Moreover, when reconstructing towers, they try to build loopholes in the opposite direction, although this is not possible everywhere. These photographs show south side walls - the sun shines at noon.

However, the strangeness with the Chinese wall does not end there. Wikipedia has a complete map of the wall, where different colors shows the wall that we are told was built by every Chinese dynasty. As we see, there is more than one great wall. Northern China is often and densely dotted with the “Great Walls of China”, which extend into the territory of modern Mongolia and even Russia. Light was shed on these oddities A.A. Tyunyaev in his work “The Chinese Wall - the great barrier from the Chinese”:

“Tracing the stages of construction of the “Chinese” wall, based on the data of Chinese scientists, is extremely interesting. It is clear from them that the 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 another 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 at the same time along some sections of the river. Yellow River. At this time, naturally, there were no Mongol-Tatars. Moreover, the first unification of peoples within China took place only in 221 BC. under the kingdom of Qin. And before that there was the Zhanguo period (5-3 centuries BC), in which eight states existed on Chinese territory. Only in the middle of the 4th century. BC The 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 Qin state by 221 BC. began to coincide with that section of the “Chinese” wall that began to be built in 445 BC and it was built exactly 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 Qin state, which stopped the spread of its subjects to the north and west. In addition, at the same time, 100-200 km west and north of the first, a second line of defense against 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... During the period from 618 to 907 China was ruled by the Tang dynasty, which did not mark itself with victories over its northern neighbors.

In the next period, from 960 to 1279 The Song Empire established itself in China. At this time, China lost dominance over its vassals in the west, in the northeast (on the Korean Peninsula) and in the south - in northern Vietnam. The Song 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 the modern province of Shaanxi, the entire territory of the modern province of Gansu and Ningxia-Hui autonomous region).

In 1125, the border between the non-Chinese Jurchen kingdom and China ran along the river. Huaihe is 500-700 km south of where the wall was built. And in 1141, a peace treaty was signed, according to which the Chinese Song Empire recognized itself as a vassal of the non-Chinese state of Jin, pledging to pay it 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 next to the river. Argun. At the same time, 1500-2000 km north of China, another section of the wall was built, 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, the southernmost and the deepest penetrating into the territory of China... At the time of the construction of this section of the wall, the entire Amur region belonged to Russian territories. By the middle of the 17th century, Russian fortresses (Albazinsky, Kumarsky, etc.), peasant settlements and arable lands already existed on both banks of the Amur. In 1656, the Daurian (later Albazinsky) voivodeship was formed, which included the valley of the Upper and Middle Amur on 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 1,500 km, which was secured by the Aigun (1858) and Beijing (1860) treaties...”

Today the Chinese Wall is located inside China. However, there was a time when the wall meant country border.

This fact is confirmed by ancient maps that have reached us. 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 - Tartaria by a wall.

On the map of 1754 "Le Carte de l'Asie" it is also clear that China's border with Great Tartary runs along the wall.

And even a map from 1880 shows the wall as China's border with its northern neighbor. It is noteworthy that part of the wall extends quite far into the territory of China’s western neighbor – Chinese Tartaria...

Interesting illustrations for this article are collected on the “Food RA” website...

False antiquity of China