The Great Wall of China is one of the most famous architectural monuments in China and serves as a kind of symbol of the power of the Chinese people. Its stone structures stretched from the Liaodong Bay across the northern lands of the country to the Gobi Desert. The construction of fortifications began even before our era, during the Period of Fighting Kingdoms, and continued for many centuries after that. The main function of the wall was to protect China from nomadic raids.
According to the results of research carried out by the State Administration for Cultural Heritage of China in 2007, the total length of the wall was 8, 85 thousand kilometers. However, during this work, archaeologists only measured areas built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Several years later, the activity of scientists to measure the length of the monument was resumed. Large-scale archaeological excavations were carried out on the territory of 15 provinces, where fortifications were located. In 2012, the State Cultural Heritage Agency of China officially announced that the total length of the Great Wall of China is 21,196 kilometers and 18 meters. Currently, only 8, 2% of the entire length of the structure retains its original appearance, the rest of the fortifications were seriously damaged or practically destroyed.
In terms of engineering solutions and the nature of defensive structures, the Great Wall of China can be attributed to structures of the highest level. Such objects of the Great Wall of China as Badaling, Mutianyu, Simatai in Beijing are places of mass pilgrimage for tourists. Most of the Ming wall is made of bricks and stone slabs. The average height of the remaining sections of the wall is 7-8 meters, and the width is 4-5 meters. The outer part of the fortifications is about 2 meters higher than the inner part. There are numerous observation windows and loopholes on the wall.
In 1987, the Great Wall of China was listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site. This ancient architectural monument attracts the attention of tourists from all over the world. A rare excursion to the PRC can do without visiting such a grandiose structure. The Chinese themselves say that the history of this wall is half of the history of China, and one cannot understand China without being on the wall.
