The Great Chinese Hoax January 2nd, 2014

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“There are roads that are not followed; there are armies that are not attacked; there are fortresses over which no one fights; there are places for which no one fights; there are orders of the sovereign, which are not carried out.

"Art of War". Sun Tzu

In China, you will definitely be told about the majestic monument several thousand kilometers long and about the founder of the Qin dynasty, thanks to whose command the Great Wall of China was built more than two thousand years ago in the Celestial Empire.

However, some modern scientists doubt very much that this symbol of power Chinese empire existed until the middle of the 20th century. So what do tourists see? - you say ... And tourists are shown what was built by the Chinese communists in the second half of the last century.

According to the official historical version great wall designed to protect the country from raids nomadic peoples, began to be erected in the III century BC. by the will of the legendary Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, the first ruler to unite China into one state.

It is believed that the Great Wall, built mainly in the era of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), has survived to this day, and there are three historical period active construction of the Great Wall: the Qin era in the 3rd century BC, the Han era in the 3rd century and the Ming era.

Essentially under the title The great Wall of China» combine, by at least, three major projects in different historical eras, which, according to experts in total number total length walls of at least 13 thousand km.

With the fall of the Ming and the establishment in China Manchu dynasty Qin (1644-1911) building work stopped. Thus, the wall, the construction of which was completed in the middle of the 17th century, was mostly preserved.

It is clear that the construction of such a grandiose fortification required the Chinese state to mobilize huge material and human resources, to the limit.

Historians claim that at the same time up to a million people were employed in the construction of the Great Wall and the construction was accompanied by monstrous human casualties(according to other sources, three million builders were involved, that is, half of the male population of ancient China).

It is not clear, however, what final meaning the Chinese authorities saw in the construction of the Great Wall, since China did not have the necessary military forces, not only to defend, but at least to reliably control the wall throughout its entire length.

Probably due to this circumstance, nothing is specifically known about the role of the Great Wall in the defense of China. However, the Chinese rulers have been building these walls for two thousand years. Well, it must be that we simply cannot understand the logic of the ancient Chinese.

And this is not the front door. These remnants of the Wall are located in Jiayuguan - an urban district in the Gansu province of China. Photo taken October 11, 2005. (Photo by Greg Baker | AP):

However, many sinologists are aware of the weak persuasiveness of the rational motives proposed by the researchers of the subject, which must have prompted the ancient Chinese to create the Great Wall. And to explain more than strange story of a unique building, they utter philosophical tirades of approximately the following content:

“The wall was supposed to serve as the extreme northern line of the possible expansion of the Chinese themselves, it was supposed to protect the subjects of the “Middle Empire” from switching to a semi-nomadic way of life, from merging with the barbarians. The wall was supposed to clearly fix the boundaries of Chinese civilization, to contribute to the consolidation of a single empire, just made up of a number of conquered kingdoms.

Scientists were simply struck by the blatant absurdity of this fortification. The Great Wall cannot be called an ineffective defensive object; from any sane military point of view, it is blatantly absurd. As you can see, the wall runs along the ridges of hard-to-reach mountains and hills.

Why build a wall in the mountains, where not only nomads on horseback, but even a foot army is unlikely to reach?! .. Or were the strategists of the Celestial Empire afraid of an attack by tribes of wild rock climbers? Apparently, the threat of invasion by hordes of evil climbers really frightened the ancient Chinese authorities, because with the primitive construction technique available to them, the difficulties of building a defensive wall in the mountains increased incredibly.

And the crown of fantastic absurdity, if you look closely, you can see that the wall branches in some places where mountain ranges cross, forming mockingly meaningless loops and forks.

It turns out that tourists are usually shown one of the sections of the Great Wall, located 60 km northwest of Beijing. This is the area of ​​Mount Badaling (Badaling), the length of the wall is 50 km. The wall is in excellent condition, which is not surprising - its reconstruction on this site was carried out in the 50s of the 20th century. In fact, the wall was rebuilt, although it is claimed that on old foundations.

There is nothing more to show the Chinese, there are no other credible remnants of the supposedly existing thousands of kilometers of the Great Wall.

Section of the Wall west of Yinchuan, June 25, 2007. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images):

Let us return to the question of why the Great Wall was built in the mountains. There are reasons here, except for those that may have been recreated and extended, perhaps the old fortifications of the pre-Manchu era that existed in the gorges and mountain defiles.

Building an ancient historical monument in the mountains has its own advantages. It is difficult for an observer to ascertain whether the ruins of the Great Wall really go thousands of kilometers across mountain ranges, as he is told.

In addition, in the mountains it is impossible to establish how old the foundations of the wall are. For several centuries, stone buildings on ordinary soil, brought in by sedimentary rocks, inevitably sink into the ground by several meters, and this is easy to check.

But on rocky ground, this phenomenon is not observed, and it is easy to pass off a recent building as very ancient. And besides, in the mountains there is no numerous local population, a potential inconvenient witness to the construction of a historic landmark.

It is unlikely that the fragments of the Great Wall north of Beijing were originally built on a significant scale, even for China. early XIX century is a difficult task.

Tourist part

It seems that those several tens of kilometers of the Great Wall that are shown to tourists, for the most part, were first erected during Great Pilot Mao Zedong. Also a Chinese emperor in his own way, but still it cannot be said that he was very ancient.

Here is one of the opinions: you can falsify what exists in the original, for example, a banknote or a picture. There is an original and you can copy it, which is what forgers and counterfeiters do. If the copy is well made, it can be difficult to identify the fake, to prove that it is not the original. And in the case of Chinese wall can't say it's fake. Because there was no real wall in antiquity.

Therefore, the original product contemporary creativity hardworking Chinese builders have nothing to compare. Rather, it is a kind of quasi-historically substantiated grandiose architectural creativity. A product of the famous Chinese desire for order. Today it Great tourist attraction worthy of entering into the Guinness Book of Records.

Remains of a 14th-century fortress in Jiayuguang, September 15, 2009. (Photo by Sigismund von Dobschutz):

Here are the questions asked Valentin Sapunov

1. From whom, in fact, was the Wall supposed to protect? Official version- from nomads, Huns, vandals - unconvincing. China, at the time of the Wall's creation, was the most powerful state region, and possibly the whole world. His army was well armed and trained. This can be judged very specifically - in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, archaeologists unearthed a full-scale model of his army. Thousands of terracotta warriors in full gear, with horses, wagons, were supposed to accompany the emperor in the next world. northern peoples of that time they did not have serious armies, they lived mainly in the Neolithic period. They could not pose a danger to the Chinese army. There is a suspicion that from a military point of view, the Wall was of little use.

2. Why is a significant part of the wall built in the mountains? It passes along ridges, over cliffs and canyons, meanders along impregnable rocks. So defensive structures are not built. In the mountains and without protective walls, the movement of troops is difficult. Even in our time in Afghanistan and Chechnya, modern mechanized troops do not move over mountain ridges, but only through gorges and passes. To stop the troops in the mountains, small fortresses dominating the gorges are enough. Plains stretch north and south of the Great Wall. It would be more logical and many times cheaper to put up a wall there, while the mountains would serve as an additional natural obstacle to the enemy.

3. Why does a wall with a fantastic length have a relatively small height - from 3 to 8 meters, rarely where up to 10? This is much lower than in most European castles and Russian kremlins. Strong army, equipped with assault techniques (stairs, mobile wooden towers) could, by choosing vulnerable spot on a relatively flat piece of terrain, overcome the Wall and invade China. This is what happened in 1211, when China was easily conquered by the hordes of Genghis Khan.

4. Why Great Chinese Wall oriented to both sides? All fortifications have battlements and curbs on the walls on the side facing the enemy. In the direction of their teeth do not put. This is pointless and would make it difficult to service the soldiers on the walls, the supply of ammunition. In many places, the battlements and loopholes are oriented deep into their territory, and some towers are shifted there, to the south. It turns out that the builders of the wall assumed the presence of the enemy from their side. With whom were they going to fight in this case?

His personality was extraordinary and in many ways typical of an autocrat. He combined a brilliant organizational talent and statesmanship with pathological cruelty, suspicion and tyranny. As a very young 13-year-old man, he became the prince of the state of Qin. It was here that the technology of ferrous metallurgy was first mastered. Immediately it was applied to the needs of the army. Possessing more advanced weapons than their neighbors equipped with bronze swords, the army of the Qin principality quickly conquered a significant part of the country's territory. From 221 BC a successful warrior and politician became the head of a united Chinese state - an empire. Since that time, he began to bear the name Qin Shi Huang (in another transcription - Shi Huang Di). Like any usurper, he had many enemies. The emperor surrounded himself with an army of bodyguards. Fearing assassins, he created the first magnetic weapon control in his palace. On the advice of experts, he ordered to put an arch made of magnetic iron ore at the entrance. If the incoming had hidden iron weapon, magnetic forces pulled him out from under his clothes. The guards immediately kept up and began to find out why the incoming wanted to enter the palace armed. Fearing for power and life, the emperor fell ill with persecution mania. He saw conspiracies everywhere. He chose the traditional method of prevention - mass terror. At the slightest suspicion of disloyalty, people were seized, tortured and executed. The squares of Chinese cities were constantly resounding with the cries of people who were cut into pieces, boiled alive in cauldrons, fried in frying pans. Hard terror pushed many to flee the country.

constant stress, wrong image life shook the emperor's health. A duodenal ulcer broke out. After 40 years, symptoms of early aging appeared. Some wise men, but rather charlatans, told him a legend about a tree growing across the sea in the east. The fruits of the tree supposedly cure all diseases and prolong youth. The emperor ordered to immediately supply the expedition for fabulous fruits. Several large junks reached the shores modern Japan, founded a settlement there and decided to stay. They rightly decided that the mythical tree does not exist. If they return empty-handed, the cool emperor will swear a lot, or maybe come up with something worse. This settlement later became the beginning of the formation of the Japanese state.

Seeing that science is not able to restore health and youth, he unleashed anger on scientists. The "historical", or rather hysterical decree of the emperor read - "Burn all books and execute all scientists!" Part of specialists and works related to military affairs and agriculture, the emperor, under public pressure, nevertheless amnestied. However, most of the priceless manuscripts burned down, and 460 scientists, who were then the color of the intellectual elite, ended their lives in cruel torment.

It was to this emperor, as noted, that the idea of ​​the Great Wall belongs. Construction work did not start from scratch. There were already defensive structures in the north of the country. The idea was to combine them into a single fortification system. What for?

This photo was taken in 1998 in the Yinshan Mountains. A 200-kilometer section of the Great Wall of China, built during the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), was discovered by archaeologists during (Photo by Wang Yebiao, Xinhua | AP):

The simplest explanation is the most realistic

Let's resort to analogies. Pyramids of Egypt made no practical sense. They demonstrated the greatness of the pharaohs and their power, the ability to force hundreds of thousands of people to do any, even meaningless action. There are more than enough such structures on Earth, aimed only at exalting power.

Likewise, the Great Wall is a symbol of the power of Shi Huang and others. Chinese emperors who picked up the baton grand construction. It should be noted that, unlike many other similar monuments, the Wall is picturesque and beautiful in its own way, in harmony with nature. Talented fortifiers who know a lot about Eastern understanding beauty.

There was a second need for the Wall, more prosaic. Waves of imperial terror, tyranny of feudal lords and officials forced the peasants to flee en masse in search of a better life.

The main route was to the north, to Siberia. It was there that the Chinese men dreamed of finding land and freedom. Interest in Siberia as an analogue of the Promised Land has long excited ordinary Chinese, and it has long been common for this people to spread all over the world.

Historical analogies suggest themselves. Why did Russian settlers go to Siberia? For a better share, for land and freedom. fled from royal wrath and barbarian tyranny.

To stop the uncontrolled migration to the north, undermining the unlimited power of the emperor and the nobles, they created the Great Wall. She would not have held back a serious army. However, the Wall could block the way for peasants walking along mountain paths, burdened with simple belongings, wives and children. And if the peasants went to the breakthrough further away, led by a sort of Chinese Yermak, they were met by a rain of arrows because of the teeth facing their own people. There are more than enough analogues of such unhappy events in history. Let's remember Berlin Wall. Officially built against the aggression of the West, it aimed to stop the flight of the inhabitants of the GDR to where life was better, or at least seemed to be. With a similar goal in Stalin's times, they created the most fortified border in the world for tens of thousands of kilometers, nicknamed “ iron curtain". Maybe not by chance, the Great Wall of China in the minds of the peoples of the world has acquired a double meaning. On the one hand, it is a symbol of China. On the other hand, it is a symbol of Chinese isolation from the rest of the world.

This is also part of the Great Wall of China in the Jiayuguang City, built during the Ming Dynasty (1372). Photo taken in 2003. (Photo by Goh Chai Hin | AFP | Getty Images):

There is even an assumption that the "Great Wall" is not a creation of the ancient Chinese, but of their northern neighbors.

Back in 2006, President of the Academy fundamental sciences Andrey Alexandrovich Tyunyaev, in the article “The Great Wall of China was built ... not by the Chinese!”, made an assumption about the non-Chinese origin of the Great Wall. Actually modern China appropriated the achievement of another civilization. In modern Chinese historiography, the task of the wall was also changed: initially it protected the North from the South, and not the Chinese south from the "northern barbarians". Researchers say that the loopholes of a significant part of the wall face south, not north. This can be seen in the works of Chinese drawings, a number of photographs, on the most ancient sections of the wall that have not been modernized for the needs of the tourism industry.

According to Tyunyaev, the last sections of the Great Wall were built in a similar way to Russian and European medieval fortifications, the main task of which is protection from the effects of guns. The construction of such fortifications began no earlier than the 15th century, when cannons were widely spread on the battlefields. In addition, the wall marked the border between China and Russia. At that period of history, the border between Russia and China ran along the “Chinese” wall.” An 18th-century map of Asia produced by the Royal Academy in Amsterdam shows two geographical entities: in the north was Tartaria (Tartarie), and in the south - China (Chine), northern border which went approximately along the 40th parallel, that is, exactly along the Great Wall. On this Dutch map, the Great Wall is marked with a heavy line and labeled "Muraille de la Chine". From French, this phrase is translated as “Chinese wall”, but it can also be translated as “wall from China”, or “wall that delimits from China”. Besides, political significance Other maps also confirm the Great Wall: on the 1754 map Carte de l’Asie, the wall also runs along the border between China and Great Tataria (Tartaria). In the academic 10-volume World History there is a map of the Qing Empire of the second half of the 17th - 18th centuries, which shows in detail the Great Wall, which runs exactly along the border between Russia and China.

We are located 180 km north of Beijing. Unlike most of the other sections around the capital that have been restored for tourism, this part of the Wall dating back to the Ming Dynasty (circa 1368) has been left intact. May 24, 2006. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images):

The ARCHITECTURAL style of the wall, which is now in China, is imprinted with the features of the building "handprints" of its creators. Elements of the wall and towers, similar to fragments of the wall, in the Middle Ages can only be found in the architecture of ancient Russian defensive structures. central regions Russia - "northern architecture".

Andrey Tyunyaev offers to compare two towers - from the Chinese wall and from the Novgorod Kremlin. The shape of the towers is the same: a rectangle, slightly narrowed upwards. From the wall inside both towers there is an entrance blocked by a round arch, lined with the same brick as the wall with the tower. Each of the towers has two upper "working" floors. Round-arched windows were made in the first floor of both towers. The number of windows on the first floor of both towers is 3 on one side and 4 on the other. The height of the windows is approximately the same - about 130-160 centimeters.

Loopholes are located on the upper (second) floor. They are made in the form of rectangular narrow grooves about 35-45 cm wide. The number of such loopholes in the Chinese tower is 3 deep and 4 wide, and in the Novgorod one - 4 deep and 5 wide. On the top floor of the "Chinese" tower along its very edge are square holes. There are similar holes in the Novgorod tower, and the ends of the rafters sticking out of them, on which the wooden roof rests.

The situation is the same in comparison of the Chinese tower and the tower of the Tula Kremlin. At the Chinese and Tula towers the same number there are 4 loopholes wide. And the same number of arched openings - 4 each. On the upper floor, between the large loopholes, there are small ones - near the Chinese and Tula towers. The shape of the towers is still the same. In the Tula tower, as in the Chinese one, White stone. The arches are made in the same way: at the Tula gate - at the "Chinese" - entrances.

For comparison, you can also use the Russian towers of the Nikolsky Gate (Smolensk) and the northern fortress wall of the Nikitsky Monastery (Pereslavl-Zalessky, 16th century), as well as a tower in Suzdal (mid-17th century). Conclusion: design features the towers of the Chinese wall reveal almost exact analogies among the towers of Russian kremlin.

And what does the comparison of the preserved towers of the Chinese city of Beijing with the medieval towers of Europe say? Fortress walls Spanish cityÁvila and Peking are very similar, especially in that the towers are located very often and have practically no architectural adaptations for military purposes. Peking towers have only an upper deck with loopholes, and are laid out at the same height as the rest of the wall.

Neither the Spanish nor the Peking towers reveal such high similarity with the defensive towers of the Chinese wall, as the towers of Russian kremlins and fortress walls show. And this is an occasion for reflection for historians.

Time spares no one and nothing. These hills are actually remnants of the Wall in Yinchuan, China. (Photo by Kim Siefert):

The chronicles say that the wall was built for two thousand years. In terms of defense - absolutely meaningless construction. Is it that while the wall was being built in one place, in other places the nomads freely walked around China for as much as two thousand years? But the chain of fortresses and ramparts can be built and improved within two thousand years. Fortresses are needed so that garrisons defend themselves from superior enemy forces, as well as for quartering mobile cavalry units in order to immediately go in pursuit of a detachment of robbers that crossed the border.

I thought for a long time, who and why in China built this senseless cyclopean structure? There is simply no one except Mao Tse Tung! With his inherent wisdom, he found an excellent means of adapting tens of millions of healthy men to work, who had fought for thirty years before, and knew nothing but how to fight. It is unthinkable to imagine what a mess would start in China if so many soldiers were demobilized at the same time!

And the fact that the Chinese themselves believe that the wall has been standing for two thousand years is explained very simply. A demobilization battalion arrives in an open field, the commander explains to them: “Here, in this very place, the Great Wall of China stood, but the evil barbarians destroyed it, we have to restore it.” And millions of people sincerely believed that they did not build, but only restored the Great Wall of China. In fact, the wall is built of even, clearly sawn blocks. Is it that in Europe they did not know how to cut stone, but in China they were honored? In addition, soft stone was sawn, and it is better to build fortresses from granite or basalt, or from something no less hard. And granites and basalts learned to saw only in the twentieth century. For the entire length of four and a half thousand kilometers, the wall is made up of monotonous blocks of the same size, and after all, in two thousand years, the methods of processing stone inevitably had to change. And building methods have changed over the centuries.

Almost nothing remains of this part of the Great Wall of China in Jiayuguang, built in the 16th century, but it was restored in 1987. (Photo by Greg Baker | AP):

Of particular interest is the version of A. Galanin, a well-known botanist who made dozens of expeditions, including to China.

This researcher believes that the Great Wall of China was built to protect against sandstorms in the Ala Shan and Ordos deserts. He drew attention to the fact that on the map compiled at the beginning of the 20th century by the Russian traveler P. Kozlov, one can see how the Wall runs along the border of shifting sands, and in some places has significant branches. But it was near the deserts that researchers and archaeologists discovered several parallel walls. Galanin explains this phenomenon very simply: when one wall was covered with sand, another was erected. The researcher does not deny the military purpose of the Wall in its eastern part, but Western part The walls performed, in his opinion, the function of protecting agricultural areas from the elements.

The western edge of the Great Wall of China near Jiayuguang County on May 30, 2007. (Photo by Michael Goodine):

FIGHTERS OF THE INVISIBLE FRONT

Perhaps the answers are in the beliefs of the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom themselves? We, the people of our time, find it hard to believe that our ancestors would erect barriers to repel the aggression of imaginary enemies, for example, disembodied otherworldly entities with evil thoughts. But the whole point is that our distant predecessors considered evil spirits to be completely real creatures.

The inhabitants of China (both today and in the past) are convinced that the world around them is inhabited by thousands of demonic creatures that are dangerous to humans. One of the names of the wall sounds like "a place where 10 thousand spirits live."

Another curious fact: the Great Wall of China does not stretch in a straight line, but along a winding one. And the features of the relief have nothing to do with it. If you look closely, you can find that even in the flat areas it "winds". What was the logic of the ancient builders?

The ancients believed that all these creatures could move only in a straight line and were unable to bypass the obstacles that appeared on the way. Maybe the Great Wall of China was built to block their way?

Meanwhile, it is known that Emperor Qin Shihuangdi during the construction constantly conferred with astrologers and consulted with soothsayers. According to legend, soothsayers told him that a terrible sacrifice could bring glory to the ruler and provide reliable defense to the state - the bodies of the unfortunate people buried in the wall who died during the construction of the structure. Who knows, perhaps these nameless builders are still standing on eternal guard borders of the Celestial…

Of course, these are not all versions, but which one do you adhere to?

Let's look at the photo of the wall:

The old part of the Wall in the city of Longkou County (Shandong Province). (Photo by Kim Siefert):

The wall northeast of Beijing, December 29, 1999. Time has not been kind to this part either. (Photo by Greg Baker | AP):

And this is the “tourist” part of the Great Wall of China near Beijing. (Photo by Saad Akhtar):

A section of the Wall on the outskirts of Beijing called Badaling, June 1, 2010. (Photo by Liu Jin | AFP | Getty Images):

The Department of Culture of China periodically measures the Great Wall of China, March 14, 2006. (Photo by China Photos | Getty Images):

A well-preserved part of the Wall near the Dongjiakou village. (Photo by Kim Siefert):

Some sections of the Great Wall of China were swallowed up by nature ... (Photo by Kim Siefert):

A relatively new photo of the Wall from Hebei Province, July 17, 2012. (Photo by Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images):

Some tourists put up tents right on the Wall. Badaling site, September 24, 2010. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images):

Another section of the Wall, merged with nature. 80 km from Beijing, September 30, 2012. (Photo by David Gray | Reuters):

Because the Wall goes through mountains, deserts, and rivers, there are sections where it rises almost vertically. Hebei Province, July 17, 2012. (Photo by Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images):

A "tourist" part of the Great Wall of China, 80 km from the center of Beijing, on May 7, 2011. (Photo by Jason Lee | Reuters):

Autumn landscapes at the Great Wall of China. (Photo by Kim Siefert):

Old photo. This is US President Richard Nixon standing on the Great Wall of China near Beijing on February 24, 1972. (AP Photo):

Section of the Wall near Beijing. (Photo by Kim Siefert):

Section of the Badaling Wall and mountains, September 24, 2010. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images):

Merging with nature, Qinhuangdao urban area. (Photo by Kim Siefert):

Action in the watchtower on occasion international day counter-narcotics in Beijing, June 26, 2006. (Photo by China Photos | Getty Images):

Section of the Great Wall of China Simatai. In 1987, it was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (Photo by Bobby Yip | Reuters):

Let's finish today's review with an interesting section of the Great Wall of China called the "Head of the Old Dragon" from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). This is where the Wall meets the sea. Located in Hebei Province on July 9, 2009. (Photo by Andrew Wong | Getty Images):

But remember, . See what is . But The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

The Great Wall of China is one of the most important sights of China, a symbol of the Celestial Empire, familiar to every foreign tourist. But, despite the fact that the outlines of the Great Wall are familiar from numerous booklets, atlases and guidebooks, not everyone knows the history of this wonder of the world. It is safe to say that there is not a single one in the world civilized man who has not heard of the eighth wonder of the world - the Great Wall of China.
But not every one of us has an idea of ​​what exactly is the Great Wall of China. No, this is not just an ancient, strategically important fortress wall, reaching 10,000 kilometers in length. The wall is China. The wall is the history of a great civilization, its culture and attitude to the whole world.
During the reign of the Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 BC), Emperor Qin Shi Huang, known as "the unifier of the land of China", sent about 500,000 people to build the first Wall.
The fact is that at that time there were wars known as the “Wars of the Warring States”, and it was necessary to erect defensive structures from the raids of neighboring principalities.
The main feature of the construction was that each of the towers had to be in direct line of sight of the two neighboring ones.
This made it possible to transmit messages quickly and without great time costs by fire and smoke.
Three sections of the Wall were built of purple marble. Two are located in the city of Jiang'an, one is in the mountains of Yanyshan called Baiyangyu.
These parts of the wall are famous for being the most durable and most beautiful, but, unfortunately, not every tourist has access to them. The second name of the Wall is "Wailing Wall". According to a legend that every Chinese schoolboy knows, the wife of a worker who worked at a construction site, Meng Jiannu, had a dream of her husband and said that he had died from inhuman stress. She immediately got ready and went to the place where the remains of her husband supposedly should be. But she didn't find anything there.
The grieving girl fell to her knees in prayer to the gods. The gods heard her words, and Jiangnu's tears washed away the section of the Wall, and she saw her husband's smoldering corpse. Having buried him with all honors, she returned home.
The construction of the second Wall (Han Dynasty 206 to 220 BC) is associated with the constant raids of the Huns, who did a good job of destroying the structure. A million Chinese were sent to rebuild the third Wall (Ming Dynasty 1368-1644).
Last imperial dynasty China didn't need the Wall. Due to the appearance of gunpowder, it simply ceased to be relevant, as a result of which the destruction of the Wall by time began.
These are dry historical excerpts. The idea itself and the energy sensation of the Great Wall of China can be partially obtained by touching it.
To be near is already a great miracle.
Admiration and a sense of his own insignificance overwhelm a person when he sees the Wall at a distance of a kilometer.
And when you climb the stairs to the “upper” tower, you are overwhelmed with excitement and joy that cannot be expressed in words.
On the other hand, making this way is quite difficult - sometimes the stairs are so steep that you have to hold on to the upper steps with your hands.
The wall is a symbol of China. Mao Tse Tung's inscription, made at the entrance to the restored part, reads: "If you have not visited the Great Wall of China, you are not a real Chinese."
It is a misconception that only tourists visit the Wall. It often happens that there are more Chinese there than travelers. And it is understandable, visiting the Great Wall of China is the duty of every self-respecting Chinese. If you want to feel like a part of world culture - come to China!
There are several sections of the wall around Beijing that are accessible to tourists. The most interesting is the unrestored section of Symatai.
The restored and freshly painted parts of the Wall give a depressing impression of a Hollywood scenery, and it’s hard to believe that all this has been standing here for more than one thousand years.
Due to the terrible pollution of the atmosphere over the city, it is almost impossible to see the sky in Beijing. The city is filled with all shades of gray - gray-red, gray-blue, gray-brown. That's why blue sky over Simatai is perceived almost as a miracle.
When the tourist bus pulls up to the Wall, it is immediately encircled by a crowd of middle-aged and older Chinese women. Perhaps only exceptional external ugliness and the desire to earn money unites them all. Since there are obviously more Chinese women than us, a real fight is unfolding outside the bus door for everyone who dares to get out. For some time we do not allow the driver to open the doors - external world, smiling with the toothless smile of an elderly Chinese woman, does not inspire confidence. Finally, we exit. The Chinese women, nimbly moving their little legs, are trying to keep up with our wide European steps. It turns out that they are guides designed to facilitate and brighten up our ascent.
They point to the Wall and say that this is the Wall, but this is a tower, there is a river, and ahead high mountain. Since the value of such information raises reasonable doubts, we resolutely refuse their services, but women do not pay attention to this, they circle around in the vain hope of attracting us with their encyclopedic knowledge.
As we climb higher and higher, despondency and disappointment show up more and more clearly on their wrinkled faces. Finally we turn back. On the descent, they clearly can’t keep up with us, the distance between us is increasing and increasing, now they are no longer visible behind the bend of the Wall, and only fervent old voices sending us the last curses resound with mountain echoes somewhere far behind...

ca 1900

ca 1900

Two horsemen, ca 1900

1904

Views and types of China in the 20-30s of the XX century in the photographs of Sergey Vargasov http://humus.livejournal.com/4238148.html

Juyongguan gate on the Great Wall of China

Part of the Great Wall of China

Caravan crossing the Great Wall

The wall is not a continuous structure, it was built over several centuries and in different parts countries, depending on which dynasty built it in which period of history, which this map illustrates

Ivan Petlin about his trip to Ming China in 1619 "Painting of the Chinese state and Mongolian lands". http://www.vostlit.i..._I/21-40/26.htm

"... sovereign tsar and Grand Duke Mikhailo Fedorovich of all Russia ordered the Siberian Tomsk city to the Cossack Ivan Petlin to see about Chinese state and about the great Ob-river and about other states. And by the grace of God, Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich, autocrat of all Russia, with happiness that Siberian Cossack Ivan Petlin went about the Chinese state and about the Great Ob River and about other states, visited residential and nomadic uluses and brought them to the sovereign tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich all Russia to Moscow drawing and painting about the Chinese region, and writes in the painting ....

from Mugal land, from Malchikatun city, to the Chinese crime, to the border, riding a horse for 2 days; and the frontier wall went at noon to Bukhara, 2 months to go to Obdora-king. And the city belongs to Obdora, the king of wood, and the kingdom, they say, is great and rich. And the other end of that kingdom went east, to the sea, 4 months away. And the wall was made of brick, and we counted along the boundary wall at both ends of the towers with 100, and to the sea and to Bukhara, they say, there are a lot of towers; and the tower from the tower is on the shooting range. And we asked the Chinese people: why was that wall made from the sea to Bukhara and the towers often stand on the wall? And Chinese people we were told: that de wall was led from the sea to Bukhara because 2 lands /l. 367/ - one land is Mugal, and the other is Chinese, and then there is a border between the lands, and therefore the towers often stand on the wall - how do some military people come to the border, and we light a fire on those towers so that our people converge in place, whose where is the place along the wall and along the towers. And from the arrival at the border, Black Mugals live on the wall, and abroad, the land and Chinese cities. And through that boundary wall Chinese city Shirokalga has five gates under one tower. And in that tower sits a clerk from the king of the Chinese Taibun, and was sent to inspect letters and seals from Princess Malchikatuni. And the gates are travel niches and mustaches, you will pass on a horse bending over. And besides those gates at the boundary, there are no others on the wall; and from all states they go to those in one gate to the city in Shirokalga .... "

The Great Wall of China is also mentioned in the "Sogdian Letters" http://www.orientalstudies.ru/rus/images/pdf/PPV_2008_1-8_14_livshits.pdf

Everyone is used to a slightly different view of the Great Wall of China. But in reality, in many areas it looks like this.

These remnants of the Wall are located in Jiayuguan, an urban district in the Gansu province of China. Photo taken October 11, 2005. (Photo by Greg Baker | AP):

Remains of a 14th-century fortress in Jiayuguang, September 15, 2009. (Photo by Sigismund von Dobschutz)

This is also part of the Great Wall of China in the Jiayuguang City, built during the Ming Dynasty (1372). Photo taken in 2003. (Photo by Goh Chai Hin | AFP | Getty Images)

The western edge of the Great Wall of China near Jiayuguang County on May 30, 2007. (Photo by Michael Goodine)

Time spares no one and nothing. These hills are actually remnants of the Wall in Yinchuan, China. (Photo by Kim Siefert)

Almost nothing remains of this part of the Great Wall of China in Jiayuguang, built in the 16th century, but it was restored in 1987. (Photo by Greg Baker | AP)

We are located 180 km north of Beijing. Unlike most of the other sections around the capital that have been restored for tourism, this part of the Wall dating back to the Ming Dynasty (circa 1368) has been left intact. May 24, 2006. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images)

Section of the Wall west of Yinchuan, June 25, 2007. It should be noted that all these abandoned sites are very remotely reminiscent of the "tourist" Great Wall of China. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images)

This photo was taken in 1998 in the Yinshan Mountains. A 200-kilometer section of the Great Wall of China, built during the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), has been discovered by archaeologists in Inner Mongolia - autonomous region in the north of China. (Photo by Wang Yebiao, Xinhua | AP)

The old part of the Wall in the city of Longkou County (Shandong Province). (Photo by Kim Siefert)

The wall northeast of Beijing, December 29, 1999. Time has not been kind to this part either. (Photo by Greg Baker | AP)

And this is the “tourist” part of the Great Wall of China near Beijing. (Photo by Saad Akhtar)

A section of the Wall on the outskirts of Beijing called Badaling, June 1, 2010. (Photo by Liu Jin | AFP | Getty Images)

The Department of Culture of China periodically measures the Great Wall of China, March 14, 2006. (Photo by China Photos | Getty Images)

A well-preserved part of the Wall near the Dongjiakou village. (Photo by Kim Siefert)

Some sections of the Great Wall of China were swallowed up by nature ... (Photo by Kim Siefert)

A relatively new photo of the Wall from Hebei Province, July 17, 2012. (Photo by Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images):

Some tourists put up tents right on the Wall. Badaling site, September 24, 2010. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images):

Another section of the Wall, merged with nature. 80 km from Beijing, September 30, 2012. (Photo by David Gray | Reuters):

Because the Wall goes through mountains, deserts, and rivers, there are sections where it rises almost vertically. Hebei Province, July 17, 2012. (Photo by Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images):

A "tourist" part of the Great Wall of China, 80 km from the center of Beijing, on May 7, 2011. (Photo by Jason Lee | Reuters).