the great Wall of China

One of the new seven wonders of the world is the Great Wall of China. The fact that it "Great" can not be doubted - 8851.9 km in length, taking into account the bends and branches, the average width of the walls is 5.5 m (6.5 m at the base), the height in different places reaches 10 meters. At a distance of 200 meters (so much was taken for the "flight of the arrow") from each other along the entire length of the wall are watchtowers. The main purpose of these towers was to alert the enemy. So at night, an alert was transmitted from one tower to another by means of a kindled fire, by day using smoke. Like a huge stone snake, the Great Wall of China comes out of the Yellow Sea and creeps right into the sands of the Gobi Desert, across the whole of North China.
The history of the creation of one of the medieval wonders of the world goes back to the 3rd century BC. The emperor Qin Shihuandi came to power in China, uniting the warring states among themselves, having established a unified authority in the Heavenly Empire. At the end of the III century BC. he ordered to build a wall in order to mark the borders of a single state and secure China from the raids of northern nomads. The construction continued intermittently until the 1640s (the end of the Ming dynasty).

The first 10 years of construction have become a tragedy for many Chinese people. One-third of the entire population of the whole country was engaged in work (several million people). Tens of thousands of people died from epidemics and excessive physical labor. The outrage of such a large-scale mobilization and dissatisfaction with thousands of lost lives led to a series of popular uprisings that became one of the reasons why the Qin dynasty fell.

Archaeologists have repeatedly found the remains of people right in the masonry of the Great Wall. Those who died during the construction or executed builders were buried right in it, not caring about a decent burial. According to scientists, during its construction the Great Wall of China became the grave of about 2 million people. Interestingly, when laying stone blocks of the wall as a cement mortar used sticky rice porridge with an admixture of slaked lime. Today, the Great Wall of China is the pride of the inhabitants of the Heavenly Kingdom. As Mao Tse-Tung wrote at the entrance to the reconstructed part of the wall "If you have not visited the Great Wall, you are not a real Chinese".
The Great Wall of China was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987, as one of the greatest Chinese historical sites. In addition, it is one of the most visited attractions in the world - every year there are about 40 million tourists. In addition, the popular track and field athletics marathon "The Great Wall" is held every year, in which some athletes run along the ridge of the Wall. Despite the widespread myth, the Great Wall of China is not visible from space. According to NASA, the Wall is barely distinguishable from the orbit, and only under ideal conditions accompanying it. However, it is visible no more than other artificial structures.

Source: http://i-fakt.ru

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