15 fascinating facts about the Great Wall of China Bashny.Net

1. Building Walls lasted more than 1,800 years h2> Great Wall of China began to build in the III. BC. e., and the last bricks were laid already during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Actually, most of the surviving fragments of the wall refers to this time, and really old buildings did not survive.

2. Wall has never been a single monolith, and a series of independent buildings h2> The notion that the Great Wall is the longest continuous wall - wrong. Originally, it formed a network of walls, often not even related to each other. Later they were joined, reinforced, torn down and built anew - if necessary. But even today it is rather a complex of walls of a length of 20 000 kilometers, rather than a single building.

3. The secret ingredient Walls very edible h2> Initially, within the walls of the Great Wall built from the ground at a later time began to use stones and bricks. But as a "cement", as scientists have found, it is often performed glutinous rice, which gives the building more strength and explains the fact that the wall is well preserved to this day.

4. Construction of the wall was a common punishment h2> The construction of the Great Wall of China for a century, millions of people have time to participate, and there is every reason to believe that much of it was criminals convicted of "serious" articles. Work on the building was hard, thankless and even dangerous - it is believed that it claimed the lives of at least 400 thousand. Man.

5. In honor of the dead roosters on the walls drove h2> Given the high mortality and the frequent absence of conventional funerals, many relatives of the dead on the construction of worried souls forever stuck in this massive structure. To specify the souls of the road, the wall led rooster on a string, wire, thus an ancient purification ritual. It is safe to say that during the construction facilities of the roosters were frequent guests there.

6. Construction of the wall has been predicted h2> In the collection of texts and poems Shijing, dated XI-VI centuries. BC. e., it was predicted that the future rulers built the Great Wall to a vegetable garden from the evil and dangerous nomads.

7. On the wall there objects and sites dedicated to the great men h2> Wall of China - a symbol of strength and unity, it is not surprising that it built entire temples, which are dedicated to the great historical figures. In honor of distinguished men were also called fragments of the Great Wall.

8. Wall badly copes with its responsibilities h2> Great Wall of China was intended to deter aggressive nomadic people who wanted access to Chinese resources, but the task she coped badly.

Firstly, because of the XVII century to find gaps in the construction was easy enough. Secondly, much of the history of the wall was quite low (7-9 meters) and made in the best case of clay, if not land.

Third, the Great Wall of China was too huge and its large protected areas or poor guard was just too small to provide decent resistance in the case of rapid, sudden "point" attacks.

9. Outside of China, the Wall was more popular than the country h2> particular relevance to the Great Wall of China was formed only in the XX century - and that one might even say, under pressure from other countries. Prior to that, the Wall regarded at best quite indifferent and only rave reviews from travelers forced the authorities to think about what kind of power structure bears - both as a means of propaganda internally and to strengthen the image on the world stage.

10. People for centuries claimed that the Wall is visible from space (and it's true) h2> One of the most enduring myths about the Great Wall of China reads as follows: it is the only man-made structure on Earth visible from space. The most amazing thing is that this myth was born a century ago, when a man was not even a theoretical possibility to find out - if it's true. Authorship is credited with the myth of British scientists, one of the founders of the field of archeology William Stukeley. Behind him in various ways, the statement appear to walls began to repeat all and sundry, and do so to this day. But the cosmonauts and astronauts say - no, it is not visible from space.

11. Thousands of kilometers of the wall have already disappeared h2> Today, the length of all the walls, outside the Great Wall more than 20 thousand kilometers. However, the "original" it was long and it is believed that at least three thousand kilometers of the buildings have collapsed.

12. Parts of the walls were used in the construction of houses in the XX century h2> Just a few years before the Chinese authorities recognized the propaganda effect of the Great Wall of China, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 years, some parts of the walls were dismantled on the bricks, and the bricks used for construction ordinary houses. But then, of course, we woke up and dismantle the wall stopped - at least officially.

13. Part of the wall will disappear by 2040 h2> Great Wall of China continues to collapse - under the influence of time, nature and man. It is estimated that within 25 years can turn into ruins thousands of kilometers of it and it's hard to do something. In a particularly run-down condition of the sections of the wall in Gansu Province.

14. New sections of the wall are at all times h2> Wall collapses, but archaeologists are regularly and formally marked on the map all the new pieces of the complex of walls forming the Great Wall of China. Last time this announcement was made in 2012. It is believed that many have not yet found the walls are on the border with Mongolia, and even a little bit on its territory.

15. Great Wall of China is called differently h2> The name "Great Wall" is dominated by the English-speaking world and in Russian. In China itself, its long called the "long wall of 10 000 there," but now more and more just "Long Wall". Really - a long, do not argue.







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