The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of ancient walls and castles, more than 13,000 miles long, located in northern China. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vibrant history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang as a way to prevent the invasion of barbaric nomads in the third century BC. The most well-known and most preserved section of the Great Wall was built between the 14th and 17th centuries AD during the Ming Dynasty. Although the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it served as a powerful symbol of the enduring power of Chinese civilization.
Construction of the Qin Dynasty
Although the Great Wall of China dates back to the 5th century BC, there are many forts that date back to the wall hundreds of years ago, when China was divided into several separate kingdoms during the so-called warring states. Around 220 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China under the Qin Dynasty, ordered that the former forts within the kingdom be removed and that one of the existing walls on the northern border be added to a single system that would expand for a longer period. 10,000 li (one li is about one-third of a mile) and protects China against invasion from the north. The construction of the "One Li Chang Cheng" or 10,000-li-long wall is one of the most ambitious building projects adopted by any civilization. The famous Chinese general Meng Tian initially led the project and was said to have used a large army of soldiers, convicts and civilians as laborers. The wall, mostly made of mud and stone, extends 3,000 miles west of the Chinese sea port of Shanhaiguan in Gansu Province. In some strategic areas, parts of the wall have been overlapped for maximum security (including the Badaling stretch north of Beijing, which was later restored during the Ming Dynasty). From a base of 15 to 50 feet, the Great Wall was 15-30 feet high and topped by a rampart 12 feet or higher Guard towers were distributed during the break.
When Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the Great Wall in 221 BC, the labor force that built the wall consisted mainly of soldiers and convicts. It is said that about 400,000 people died during the construction of the wall Many of these workers were buried within the wall. With the death of Qin Shi Huang and the fall of the Qin Dynasty, much of the Great Wall collapsed. After the subsequent fall of the Han Dynasty, a frontier group took control of northern China. The strongest of these was the North Way dynasty, which repaired and extended the existing wall to protect it against the invasion of other tribes. The Bai Qiu Kingdom (550-577) built or repaired more than 900 miles of wall, and the short-lived but effective Sui Dynasty (581-618) repaired and extended the Great Wall of China several times. With the fall of Sui and the rise of the Tang Dynasty, the Great Wall lost its importance as a fortress, as China defeated the Tuju tribe in the north and crossed the main border protected by a wall. During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese were forced to withdraw in the north under the threat of the Liao and Jin peoples, who occupied many areas on both sides of the Great Wall. The powerful Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1206-1368) founded by Genghis Khan eventually controlled China, parts of Asia, and parts of Europe. Although the Great Wall was of little importance to the Mongols as a military fortress, it was during this period that troops were assigned to guard the merchants and caravans along the lucrative Silk Road trade route.
Wall building during the Ming Dynasty
Despite its long history, the Great Wall of China that exists today was originally built during the powerful Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Like the Mongols, the early Ming rulers had little interest in building border forts and wall construction was limited until the end of the 15th century. In 1421, the Ming emperor Yingle declared Beijing the new capital of China, in the former Mongol city of Dadu. Under the Ming Rulers, Chinese culture flourished, and this period saw massive construction in addition to the Great Wall, including bridges, temples, and pagodas. Construction of the present day Great Wall began around 1474. After the early stages of regional expansion, the Ming rulers took a largely defensive stance, and the reform and expansion of the Great Wall was at the heart of this strategy. The Myang Wall extends from the Yalu River in Liaoning Province to the east bank of the Taolai River in Gansu Province, and from east to west in present-day Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Gansu. Beginning west of the Zhuang Pass, the Great Wall was divided into south and north lines, respectively, by the so-called inner and outer walls. Strategic "passes" (i.e., forts) and gates were placed along the wall; The Juong, Daoma and Zhejing passes closest to Beijing were named after three internal passes, while further west were Yanmen, Ningyu and Piantu, three external passes. All six passes were heavily besieged during the Ming Dynasty and were considered vital for the defense of the capital.
The importance of the Great Wall of China
In the mid-17th century, Manchus broke through the Great Wall from central and southern Manchuria and entered Beijing, eventually forcing the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, the wall emerged as the most common symbol of China for the Western world, and both the physical symbol - as an expression of Chinese power - and the emotional representation of the obstacles resisted by the Chinese state. Applying control over foreign influence and its citizens. Today, the Great Wall is generally regarded as one of the most impressive architectural masterpieces in human history. Over the years, roads have been cut through walls at various points. Badaling, the most well-known section of the Great Wall of China, located 43 miles (70km) northwest of Beijing, was rebuilt in the late 1950s and attracts thousands of domestic and foreign tourists every day.