World trivia | 60 facts about the Great Wall of China

One of the most astonishing things that humans have ever created is certainly the Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall of China is very impressive, yet many people don’t know so many things about it. In case you are one of them, keep on reading, because you will get the chance to learn more about it!

1. The Great Wall of China  is the collective name of a series of fortification systems.
2. Generally it was built across the historical northern borders of China to protect and consolidate territories of Chinese states and empires against various nomadic groups of the steppe and their polities.
3. Several walls were being built from as early as the 7th century BC by ancient Chinese states.
4. Selective stretches were later joined together by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China.
5. Little of the Qin wall remains.
6. Later on, many successive dynasties have built and maintained multiple stretches of border walls.
7. The most well-known sections of the wall were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
8. Apart from defense, other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration.
9. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watchtowers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.
10. The frontier walls built by different dynasties have multiple courses.
11. Collectively, they stretch from Liaodong in the east to Lop Lake in the west, from the present-day Sino–Russian border in the north to Tao River (Taohe) in the south
12. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the walls built by the Ming dynasty measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi).
13. This is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.
14. Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measures out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi).
15. Today, the defensive system of the Great Wall is generally recognized as one of the most impressive architectural feats in history.
16. The collection of fortifications known as the Great Wall of China has historically had a number of different names in both Chinese and English.
17. One of its older, and longer names in Chinese was the name “Ten-Thousand Mile Long Wall”.
18. This came from Sima Qian’s description of it in the Records, though he did not name the walls as such.
19. The ad 493 Book of Song quotes the frontier general Tan Daoji referring to “the long wall of 10,000 miles”, closer to the modern name, but the name rarely features in pre-modern times otherwise.
20. Because of the wall’s association with the First Emperor’s supposed tyranny, the Chinese dynasties after Qin usually avoided referring to their own additions to the wall by the name “Long Wall”.
21. The current English name evolved from accounts of “the Chinese wall” from early modern European travelers.
22. By the 19th century,”The Great Wall of China” had become standard in English and French, although other European languages such as German continue to refer to it as “the Chinese wall”.
23. Its total length is 21,196.18 km (13,170.70 miles).
24. This is equal to half the length of the Equator.
25. The Great Wall of China is the longest feat of human engineering.
26. The average height of the walls is  6 to 7 meters (20 to 23 feet), and the highest is 14 meters (46 feet ).
27. The highest point is the Huanglouyuan in the northwest suburb of Beijing, with an elevation of 1,439.3 meters (4,722 feet).
28. On the other hand the lowest point is at Laolongtou in Hebei, just above the sea level.
29. The Great Wall is about 2,700 years old.
30. More than 1,000, 000 laborers were recruited for the construction of this huge project.
31. 8. Location: It spans across 15 regions in north China.
32. Those regions are the following ones: Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, and Xinjiang.
33. 1/3 of the walls have disappeared.
34. The Great Wall of China attracts annually 50 million visitors.
35. It has been visited by more than 460 state heads and VIPs from around the world.
36. There are rmours that astronauts can see the Great Wall of China from the Moon with the naked eye.
37. Those rumours, that are spread worldwide are untrue. It can be seen, though, with aid.
38. One of the earliest known references to the myth that the Great Wall can be seen from the moon appears in a letter written in 1754 by the English antiquary William Stukeley.
39. While some parts of the wall have been preserved or renovated, other parts have been vandalised or destroyed to make way for construction.
40. A large number of workers have lost their lives while building the wall.
41. This is why the Great Wall of China has been called the longest cemetery on Earth.
42. More specifically more than a million people died building the Wall.
43. Archaeologists have found human remains buried under parts of the wall.
44. The Great Wall of China is threatened with erosion.
45. The northwestern sections (e.g. in Gansu and Ningxia provinces) of the Great Wall are deteriorating so quickly.
46. It is believed that these sections may disappear within 20 years, due to demolishment by nature and human.
47. A formal definition of what constitutes a “Great Wall” has not been agreed upon, making the full course of the Great Wall difficult to describe in its entirety.
48. The defensive lines contain multiple stretches of ramparts, trenches and ditches, as well as individual fortresses.
49. The Great Wall is wide enough in some places to drive a car over it.
50. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), many bricks of the Great Wall were taken away to use in building homes, farms or reservoirs.
51. Otherwise many sections of the Great Wall would be preserved much better than what they are like today.
52. Before the use of bricks, the Great Wall was mainly built from rammed earth, stones, and wood.
53. During the Ming, however, bricks were heavily used in many areas of the wall, as were materials such as tiles, lime, and stone.
54. The size and weight of the bricks made them easier to work with than earth and stone, so construction quickened.
55. Stone can hold under its own weight better than brick, but is more difficult to use.
56. Consequently, stones cut in rectangular shapes were used for the foundation, inner and outer brims, and gateways of the wall.
57. Communication between the army units along the length of the Great Wall, including the ability to call reinforcements and warn garrisons of enemy movements, was of high importance.
58. Signal towers were built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.
59. Wooden gates could be used as a trap against those going through.
60. Barracks, stables, and armories were built near the wall’s inner surface.