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Chinese Pinyin Fortification China Chinese States Empires Various Nomadic Groups Qin Shi Huang Ming Dynasty Border Controls Silk Road

The Great Wall of China was built over many centuries to protect northern Chinese states and empires from nomadic groups on the steppe. Sections were constructed as early as the 7th century BC, but it was during the Qin dynasty in the 3rd century BC that stretches were first joined together into a unified fortification. Subsequent dynasties also contributed sections to the wall. The sections built during the Ming dynasty in the 14th-17th centuries are among the best preserved parts today. In total, the Great Wall stretches over 6,000 miles from eastern Liaodong province to western Lop Lake. Along with defense, the wall also helped regulate trade and control migration along the Silk Road.

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39 views1 page

Chinese Pinyin Fortification China Chinese States Empires Various Nomadic Groups Qin Shi Huang Ming Dynasty Border Controls Silk Road

The Great Wall of China was built over many centuries to protect northern Chinese states and empires from nomadic groups on the steppe. Sections were constructed as early as the 7th century BC, but it was during the Qin dynasty in the 3rd century BC that stretches were first joined together into a unified fortification. Subsequent dynasties also contributed sections to the wall. The sections built during the Ming dynasty in the 14th-17th centuries are among the best preserved parts today. In total, the Great Wall stretches over 6,000 miles from eastern Liaodong province to western Lop Lake. Along with defense, the wall also helped regulate trade and control migration along the Silk Road.

Uploaded by

priyanka
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Great Wall of China (Chinese: 萬里長城; pinyin: Wànlǐ Chángchéng) is the collective name of a series

of fortification systems generally built across the historical northern borders of China to protect and consolidate
territories of Chinese states and empiresagainst various nomadic groups of the steppe and their polities.
Several walls were being built from as early as the 7th century BC by ancient Chinese states;[2] selective
stretches were later joined together by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first Emperor of China. Little of the
Qin wall remains.[3] Later on, many successive dynasties have built and maintained multiple stretches of border
walls. The most currently well-known of the walls were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
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. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the
construction of watch towers, 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.
The frontier walls built by different dynasties have multiple courses. 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 Taohe River in the
south; along an arc that roughly delineates the edge of Mongolian steppe. A comprehensive archaeological
survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the walls built by the Ming dynasty measure
8,850 km (5,500 mi).[4] 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.[4] Another
archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measures out to be 21,196 km
(13,171 mi).[5] Today, the defensive system of Great Wall is generally recognized as one of the most impressive
architectural feats in history.[6]

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