 The Great
Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen
fortifications in China, built, rebuilt,
and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th
century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese
Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of
successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the
Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century
BC.
The most famous is the wall built between 220–200 BC by
the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; little of it
remains; it was much farther north than the current
wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.
The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km
(4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in
the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the
southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over
6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total. At its peak, the Ming
Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has
been estimated that somewhere in the range
of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the
centuries-long project of building the wall. |
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