How Was the Great Wall of China Created?
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The Great Wall of China was built over several dynasties. It was a project that spanned several hundred years before it was considered complete. Provinces took part in the construction at various times as they rose to lead China, building their own walls for protection and military purposes. As provinces melded together and became increasingly unified, more parts of the wall were added by various monarchs, and eventually these pieces of the wall were linked in a uniform structure, stretching 4,000 along the western side of China.
The walls were originally built to keep out invaders who would steal cattle, ruin farmland and ransack villages. The would-be invaders--most often Huns--would seek out the easiest villages and provinces to attack, so building a wall along a vulnerable section of countryside often proved the most efficient deterrent. If there was a threat of large hunting parties, then guards could be posted at the wall to give people an early warning in case of attack. Southern China was largely protected by the Himalayas, while the north was guarded by a frozen plateau. The east was protected by the ocean, but the west was accessible by marauders up and down the length of China.
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There are several main phases of creation that helped build the Great Wall. The first large section was built by the Chu governance in the north, and it resembled a U in shape. The Qi empire spent more than 300 years building its section, which spanned almost 400 miles and incorporated military outposts and beacon towers, which were eventually built into the entire length of the wall. Other provinces such as Zhao, Wei and Yan later built sections to protect themselves from wars between the expanding provinces, though these were later incorporated into the main wall.
When first created, the size and height of the different parts of the walls varied because they were built in the weakest parts along the border and later joined together. This joining process often required older walls to be torn down and rebuilt to meet the requirements of the latest effort, resulting in a much more uniform creation. Most notably, Emperor Qin Shi Huang decided to unify the current walls as he had unified the six provinces, a process begun around 220 B.C., although more additions were added after this primary effort. -
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Building such an enormous wall took a vast amount of materials, and the builders generally had to make use of available elements, mostly nearby earth and stone. Mud and plant matter were molded into large sections of the wall and eventually embedded with stones for better protection. Later empires used carefully tiled stone to make the guard towers, which needed to be sturdier, and the wealthier empires replaced the earth-and-stone process with manufactured bricks or granite blocks hewn from quarries. Since the stone blocks and bricks held together so well, a mass of workers were recruited, sometimes forcibly, to extend the sturdier materials throughout the Great Wall.
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