Download Simatai Great Wall and Badaling Great Wall

The Great Wall of China
What is the Great Wall?
•
The Great Wall of China is the largest and
longest military structure ever recorded. Built
to stop incoming invading enemies from the
north, the Wall was rebuilt over and over
again for over 1,000 years by different
dynasties.
Description of The
Great Wall of China
•The Great Wall of China has a
total length of 6,000 kilometers.
That’s over 3728 miles.
•In Chinese, The Great Wall is
called “Wang-Li Ch’ang-Ch’eng”,
meaning 10,000 kilometer wall.
•Some parts of The Great Wall are
in great condition in the East and
areas near Beijing.
•Areas further west slowly
disintegrated due to erosion, poor
construction, and material used
to build Wall.
Satellite view of The Great Wall of China
Who built the Great Wall?
•
In general, there were several dynasty’s that
led to the massive length of the current Wall.
The Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C. - 246 B.C.) was
known as the earliest, all the way to the Ming
Dynasty (1368 – 1644).
Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C. - 246 B.C.)
•During the Zhou Dynasty, Xiongnu tribes attacked
northern Chinese states which caused great destruction.
•The construction of the Zhou Dynasty was not well built.
The purpose of The Wall during this period was to keep
out foreign invaders from several states in the early period
of China.
•Not much is know about the Wall in the Zhou, but
according to historical records, the first part of the Great
Wall of China was built by Chu State. They constructed
their wall into a “U” shape, which was meant to protect
their state’s perimeter.
•Overall, the Wall during this period was very weak.
Knowledge of building walls was poor. The walls were
made from wood, mud and stones.
Ruins of a Zhou Dynasty wall.
Qin Dynasty (221 B.C. – 207 B.C.)
•Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of China and is
considered as the first Great Wall builder. He was also
known as a tyrant and forced men into building the Wall
under harsh conditions. It is estimated that over 3 million
people were involved. Those 3 million people were over
70% of China’s population at that time.
•Local materials were used to make the walls, similar to
the walls in the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou people used
compacted earth to build the walls.
•The oldest section of the Great Wall during the Qin
Dynasty was begun in 221 B.C. The construction of it was
almost a link, connecting all of the previous and older
walls. The length of all the walls during this period was
about 5,000 kilometers.
•According to early Chinese historical records, the Qin
Great Wall was built in a 10 year period, making 25 miles
of wall every month. The estimated cost to build the Qin
Great Wall today would be $260 billion.
Qin Dynasty Wall built using the tampedearth process.
Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D)
•Han Wu-Di is the emperor of this dynasty and expanded
China’s boundaries into Central Asia. He is the second
Great Wall builder.
•Workers during the Han Dynasty were rebuilding the old
crumbling Qin walls and extend the Great Wall 480
kilometers all the way through the Gobi Desert.
•The material used for construction was quite different.
Instead of compacted earth, a mixture of water, gravel,
and willow reeds were used. The major contribution of the
Han Great Wall was the watchtowers which provided great
vision and coverage of the land.
•Watchtowers were the key privilege of detecting enemy
invasion. They were spaced 15 to 30 miles apart and
alerted sentries to spread message of attack. The Chinese
used smoke to send messages. The number of columns
Han Dynasty Wall built by using water,
related to the attacking force. For example, one column
gravel, and willow reeds.
burned would mean an attack of a force of 500 or less. So
the more columns burned, the more enemy troops.
Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644)
•The Ming Dynasty is considered the greatest of all Great
Wall builders. The walls built by these people were larger,
longer and more durable than any other dynasty. Like
previous dynasties, they rebuilt the old, crumbling Han
walls and lengthened it to 6,400 kilometers.
•The greatest achievement of the Ming Great Wall is the
quality, precision, and placement of the material. The
people making the walls at this time used kiln-fired bricks
rather than cutting individual stones. They were high
quality and could last centuries.
•The Ming Wall crosses dangerous terrain and some places
the Wall rises a 70 degree angle.
•Weaponry was also bought for the Wall. China purchased
cannons from the Portuguese traders and mounted them
on watchtowers.
Ming Dynasty Wall built from kiln-fired
•It took around 200 years to complete the Ming Wall. With bricks.
thousands of forts and towers, almost a million men
guarded the boundaries. The total cost of the Ming Great
Wall would be approximately $360 billion.
What are the two main sections?
• The two main sections of the Great Wall of
China is the Simatai Section and the Badaling
Section. Both sections are both found in
Beijing and both were built during the Ming
Dynasty.
Simatai Section
•The Simatai Section is located east of Jin Shan Ling and is
also a defense barrier like the Badaling section.
•About 5.4 kilometers long and having 35 watchtowers,
this section is steep to keep out enemies from grappling
over the wall.
•The Simatai Wall was constructed under the supervision
of Qi Jiguang, a very famous general in the Ming Dynasty.
•Walls in the Simatai have some sort of awkward structure
and intactness. It has many attractions such as the
Stairway to Heaven, the Fairy Tower, and others.
Great elevation gives a great strategic
location for the Simatai section.
Badaling Section
•The Badaling section of the Great Wall was built at the
beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Built the safeguard the
capital of Beijing, it is known as the most important
strategic point of the Great Wall.
•With battle forts almost everywhere, height also provided
a strategy. With walls almost 8 meters in height and 5
meters wide, the top of the wall is paved to allow six
horses or ten soldiers to march side by side.
•An interesting part of the Badaling section is the Pass of
Conscripted Laborers. The gateway is believed to be
named for workers and slaves conscripted to build the
Great Wall.
•Designs are seen carved into the wall and contains
carvings of elephants, birds, lions, kings, flowers, and
Badaling section leading into the
charms written in six different languages.
mountains.