Download The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China
By Shanti
Can you imagine carrying a heavy, humongous stone
that weighs 100 to 300 pounds!?
Well, the Great Wall is made out of millions of these
stones and other types of materials.
Each one of the stones have to be in an exact shape or
the enemies can take control and break in.
Construction
• The Great Wall is made mostly
out of granite and bricks.
• Bricks were used most often
because its light weight made the
construction much quicker.
• In the Gobi Desert, the workers
would create pounded earth to
continue building the wall.
However, these parts were
destroyed much easier than other
parts of the wall.
Construction
• The Great Wall was constructed
with natural materials such as stone
and compacted soil.
• Before the use of bricks, workers
would use stone, compacted soil, and
rarely wood because it will catch on
fire very easily.
• The Great Wall took up 3 million
cubic meters of earth work.
Beliefs of the Great Wall
• The belief of the Great Wall is that it is
told that the Chinese made the Great
Wall twist and turn not only to protect
China but to make it represent the long
back of the mighty dragon!
• By making the Great Wall like the
dragon’s back, it would be a good
omen and will lead the Chinese to
victory!
Purpose of the Great
Wall
• The main reason why the Chinese built
the Great Wall was to prevent troops
from the north invading Chinese
territory.
• Another great reason is to defend China
from attacking Mongols.
• It was also built as a defense against
ferocious nomadic tribes.
• The Great Wall also embodies a great
deal of protection during a battle.
Purpose of the Great
Wall
• The Great Wall even helps safeguard the Silk
Road so nothing would go wrong.
• An important purpose of the Great Wall was
to house troops.
• Housing troops was important because, if the
Great Wall was under attack, soldiers could
just come out and defend China.
Parts of the Great
Wall
• A part of the wall is the watch tower.
• Watch towers were at regular intervals
of 180 meters on the wall.
• Watch towers hold weapons, house
troops, and can also create fire signals
to warn China of an attack being held.
• Most signal towers were built on hilly
areas for visibility.
Parts of the Great
Wall
• Beacon towers were spaced at intervals of
15 to 30 miles along the wall.
• Beacon towers could send messages faster
than horse riding.
• Signal towers contained approximately 3
people to create a fire.
• Some parts of the wall were connected and
made tougher for further attacks.
Construction During the
Qin Dynasty
• The Qin dynasty first constructed the wall with
just loose stone.
• Then the wall was constructed by a wooden
rectangular frame filled with loose soil.
• After the frame was filled, workers would arrive
and stomp on the soil until it was four inches
thick.
• This unusual process had to be repeated many
times, because it would only ascend 4 inches each
time it was done.
History
• An important part to this process was
detritus.
• Detritus was added to the loose soil because
it wasn’t solid.
• By adding detritus to the loose soil, it would
become more solid and sturdy.
• In this period of time, the wall was only
created by compacted soil.
History
• The Han dynasty extended the wall and made
it more durable.
• They even constructed the wall in the Gobi
Desert.
• The Han’s process of making the wall started
in 206 B.C.
Construction During the Han
Dynasty
• First, workers would lye down red willows
followed by reeds and twigs.
• Next, a layer of water and gravel was
added and stomped.
• Once the stomping was finished, more
reeds and gravel would be added.
• This process would then be repeated many
times until the proper height was reached.
• This process of the Han’s was much
quicker and faster than the way of the
Qin.
History
• The Ming dynasty added the most modifications to
the Great Wall.
• The Ming dynasty also added major adjustments to
the wall.
• Workers even made little holes in the watch towers
for look out.
• The Ming dynasty added the two ways of the Qin and
the Han dynasty’s process to construct the Great
Wall.
Construction During the
Ming Dynasty
• First, the workers would add tampered earth.
• Next, around the tampered earth, they would add
a layer of bricks.
• This genius method of making the wall was such
a success that it could even be built on steep
mountains and sometimes on inclines of up to
seventy degrees!
• As you can see, the Great Wall is a great part of
my history and yours.
• I hope you learned a lot about the Great Wall,
because I know I did.