1. The Great Wall of China
The world’s largest military structure!- and the world’s “longest cemetery”….

2. Can you imagine carrying a heavy humongous stone half the size of Shaq (7’4’’ tall, 325, lbs) AND the weight of 100 to 300 pounds!?
Well, the Great Wall is made out of millions of these stones and other types of materials.
Each one of the stones had to be cut exactly to size.

3. “ Each stone in the wall represents a life lost in the construction.”
An old Chinese saying:
“ Each stone in the wall represents a life lost in the construction.”

4. Construction
Work began on the wall before the birth of Christ, continuing through Columbus’s journey to North America!!!

5. Construction The Great Wall is made mostly out of granite and bricks.
Bricks were used most often because its light weight made the construction much quicker.
In the Gobi Desert, the workers would create pounded earth to continue building the wall. However, these parts were destroyed much easier than other parts of the wall.

6. Construction
The Great Wall was constructed with natural materials such as stone and compacted soil.
Before the use of bricks, workers would use stone, compacted soil, and rarely wood because it could catch on fire very easily.
The Great Wall took up 3 million cubic meters of earth work.

7. Beliefs of the Great Wall
Common belief: the Chinese made the Great Wall twist and turn not only to protect China but to make it represent the long back of the mighty dragon!
By making the Great Wall like the dragon’s back, it would be a good omen and lead the Chinese to victory!

8. Purpose of the Great Wall
The main reason why the Chinese built the Great Wall was to prevent troops from the north invading Chinese territory.
It was also built as a defense against ferocious nomadic tribes.
The Great Wall also provided great deal of protection during a battle.

9. Purpose of the Great Wall
The Great Wall even helped safeguard the Silk Road so nothing would go wrong.
An important purpose of the Great Wall was to house troops.
Housing troops was important because, if the Great Wall was under attack, soldiers could just come out and defend China.

10. Parts of the Great Wall A part of the wall is the watch tower.
Watch towers were at regular intervals of 180 meters on the wall.
Watch towers hold weapons, house troops, and can also create fire signals to warn China of an attack being held.
Most signal towers were built on hilly areas for visibility.

11. Parts of the Great Wall
Beacon towers were spaced at intervals of 15 to 30 miles along the wall.
Beacon towers could send messages faster than horse riding.
Signal towers contained approximately 3 people to create a fire.
Some parts of the wall were connected and made tougher for further attacks.

12. Construction During the Qin Dynasty
The Qin dynasty first constructed the wall with just loose stone.
Then the wall was constructed by a wooden rectangular frame filled with loose soil.
After the frame was filled, workers would arrive and stomp on the soil until it was four inches thick.
This unusual process had to be repeated many times, because it would only ascend 4 inches each time it was done.

13. History An important part to this process was detritus.
Detritus was added to the loose soil because it wasn’t solid.
By adding detritus to the loose soil, it would become more solid and sturdy.
In this period of time, the wall was only created by compacted soil.

14. History The Han dynasty extended the wall and made it more durable.
They even constructed the wall in the Gobi Desert.
The Han’s role in the wall’s construction started in 206 B.C.

15. Construction During the Han Dynasty
First, workers would lye down red willows followed by reeds and twigs.
Next, a layer of water and gravel was added and stomped.
Once the stomping was finished, more reeds and gravel would be added.
This process would then be repeated many times until the proper height was reached.
This process of the Han’s was much quicker and faster than the way of the Qin.

16. History
The Ming dynasty added the most modifications to the Great Wall.
The Ming dynasty also added major adjustments to the wall.
Workers even made little holes in the watch towers for look out.
The Ming dynasty added the two ways of the Qin and the Han dynasty’s process to construct the Great Wall.

17. Construction During the Ming Dynasty
First, the workers would add tampered earth.
Next, around the tampered earth, they would add a layer of bricks.
This genius method of making the wall was such a success that it could even be built on steep mountains and sometimes on inclines of up to seventy degrees!

18. It took over 1,700 years to reach completion
It is about 3,700 miles long
About 6 million people visit the section near Beijing. (What is Beijing also called?)