Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China: It is a wall that extends along the northern and northwestern borders of the People’s Republic of China, as it stretches from the Chenhuangtao region on the Yellow Sea in the east to the Gaotai District in Gansu Province in the west. , And to protect against campaigns waged by Bedouin tribes from the northern plains. However, the wall could not protect China from the attacks of the Bedouin peoples (barbarians) who fought the invasions made by the titans of the “Cheng” kings. The Great Wall of China is the most remarkable marvel among the seven wonders of the ancient and modern world, with a length of approximately 6400 km, thus becoming the longest building in history ever, and is considered one of the most prominent tourist sites in the world that embodies the intelligence and creativity of the human mind, and statistics indicate That after the official opening of the Great Wall of China in 1954, the number of its visitors reached about 130 million people, including 14 million people from outside China. It was also visited by heads of state, kings, thinkers, public figures, athletes, writers, and many others, and in 1987 AD The Great Wall of China was added to the World Heritage List that was drawn up Behold, the UNESCO International. The Chinese government allows the wall to be visited daily, as it can be visited from seven in the morning until half past five in the evening. The entry fee per person is 5 to 6 dollars, and you can reach the site by taxi or bus transport.
Stages of building the Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China was built through successive decades and governments and stages, to show us the current form as a miracle of the seven wonders of the world, and below we explain these stages in detail:
- Beginning of construction: Zhao State, located on the northern side of the capital, in the seventh century BC built a permanent defense system around its borders and was known then (the “square wall”). In the fourth century BC, a comprehensive ocean wall was created using river barriers and areas of mountainous terrain in the part The southern part of the state of Kew and extended to the shores of the Yellow Sea, and another wall was built in Zhongshan State in the southwest, to thwart the invasion from the states of Zhao and Chen, while Wei State built two defensive walls around its borders, namely: the Heiske wall located west of the Yellow River, and a wall Henan in the south of the Yellow River. Where the Hexi wall was built during the reign of King Hui (370-335 BC) to protect from the state of Qin and the western Bedouins, and the wall extended from the south near Xiangyuan Cave to the Inner Mongolia region, while the Henan wall was built to protect the capital, Daliang, and Zhao state built Two walls in its southern and northern borders to defend against Wei. During the Shang Yang period, the state of Qin grew militarily and politically to become the strongest of the seven states of the Republic of China. So Yang ordered the construction of a wall extending from Linshu to the Yellow River border in the north, and Yan State also built a wall on its borders to protect from northern groups. In 221 BC, China unified, and Emperor Xiuangdi ordered the removal of the fortifications that had been established between the previous states, because they were only obstacles to movements and internal administration, and he also ordered the parts of the wall in Qin, Yan, and Zhao to be linked to the so-called “Long Wall 10,000 Li”, as it began The construction period is about 214 BC and lasted ten years.
- The Reign of the Ruling Dynasty (Yuan): During the reign of Emperor Han (141-87 BC), the wall was cared for and strengthened to address the Bedouins of Kyungnu, and in that period it became one of the most important factors in the prosperity of agriculture and the growth of the trade path that became known as the Silk Road. In 121 BC, Han ordered the development of the Hexi wall, and reforms to the fence continued during the Bey Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD).
- Ming dynasty to the present time: During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) rulers preserved the Great Wall of China, and the Great Wall of China appears to us in the present form as we see it today as a result of work done during the reign of Emperor Hongchi (1487-1505), where he divided a corridor Goyoung to the inner wall and exterior wall, and created (the three internal corridors) which are: Goyoung Road, Douma, and Zhejing, which are of great importance in accessing the capital, and accordingly, they are protected extensively.
The main parts of the Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China consists mainly of defensive walls, strategic corridors, observation towers, warning towers, barracks, and other defensive installations. The walls that were built in the plains or important places are often very high and durable, while the walls built in the rugged areas and over the mountains are relatively low and narrow, in order to save the expenses of the workforce and construction, and the strategic corridors are the most important defensive sites along the wall, where those are located. The corridors are usually in sites suitable for defense in order to resist the aggressors. As for the warning towers, their primary function is to form facilities to send and transmit military information, whereby information is transmitted in an easy and practical way through the release of smoke in the daytime and setting fire to the night, and this method helps to know the face Enemy enemies by setting fire to the sites concerned and increasing smoke from them.
The environmental and historical importance of the Great Wall of China
In addition to the military role of the Great Wall of China, it has an important economic impact for the country, as it naturally separates the semi-humid climate and the dry climate in China, and on this basis it is considered a natural divide between the Bedouin and agricultural areas, which greatly reduced the attacks of the nomadic pastoral tribes. On stable agricultural gatherings, the wall also constituted a protection for agricultural production and repelled the Bedouin looting of agricultural crops, and stable farmers continued to restore the wall to protect their fields from looting and theft. The Great Wall, in its ancient and modern role, is a historical symbol of the Chinese nation, and it has become an architectural landmark of a defensive military character with its fortifications, greatness, and strength.