Great Wall of China Architecture

Listed into the World Culture Heritage on December 1987, the Great Wall is also becomes one of the Seven Wonders in the world. With a total length of 8,851.8 kilometers, it starts from Jiayuguan Pass within Gansu Province in the west and ends at Shanhaiguan Pass within Hebei Province in the east. In ancient times, this large-scale military project was constructed with a main purpose of resisting the invasion of tribe union.

Construction of the Great Wall

With a history of over 2,000 years, the Great Wall was firstly built during the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC). And the Great Wall we mentioned today mostly refers to the one constructed in Ming Dynasty (1271-1368). Bricks, tiles, earth, stones, wood and mortars etc. are the basic things used to construct the Great Wall. Without any modern machines, it is said that there are mainly three ways to transport these building materials--by manual labors, by simple mechanical means and draft animals. The Great Wall, without any doubt, is the great product of ancient Chinese’s hard work and wisdom.

Structure of the Great Wall

With an average height of 33 feet, the winding Ming Great Wall consists of many important construction elements. For example, we can find countless passes, watchtowers, garrison towns, beacon towers and blockhouses, etc. and all of these built a ‘fortification’ by connecting and coordinating with each other.

Beacon Towers

Also known as Yandun, Yantai or Fengsui etc. Beacon Towers are the most important defensive component of the Great Wall. It is a kind of high hathpace used to create smoke to send messages in ancient times. If encountering with enemies, the Beacon Towers would create smoke in the daytime and light a fire at night to pass messages since they were connected with each other. Hence, Beacon Towers are regarded as the oldest and also most effective information-passing way.

Due to the differences in location or time, shapes of the Beacon Tower will differ. But generally speaking, there are square and round two types. Usually the Beacon Towers were built independently but sometimes they were built three or five ones together as a Beacon Tower Group. Besides, the Beacon Towers were always built on the wall, inside the wall or a little bit far from the wall with different purposes.

Passes of the Great Wall

Passes was a major defense element on the Great Wall. Usually, these top generals and high-ranking officers would stand in the Passes during a war. A Pass mainly includes a city wall, city gate (for soldiers to pass in an out), gate tower (something so much like the watch tower), Luocheng (a second defensibility to protect the Wengcheng), Wengcheng (built on the outer side of the Great Wall which was often the main target of enemies) and moat (another defense line which is filled with water). There are some representative Passes, such as Juyongguan Pass, Jiayuguan Pass, and Zijinguan Pass etc.

Rampart

Simply means the Wall of the Great Wall, Rampart is used to connect the Passes and Beacon Towers. It measures differently in width and height in different places, but usually narrow at top and wide at base. Set Badaling as an example, it is seven or eight meters high and six or seven meters thick at the base. In a word, Rampart is also a main part of the Great Wall.

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