The Great Wall of China

Construction started in the third century under Qin Shibuang, The First Emperor, and took many thousands of wokers to complete over several centuries. Most of the Wall that we see today was built during the Ming Dynasty Period (1368-1644).

Qin Shibuang's purpose for the Wall was to protect his newly found Chinese domain. The Wall continued to be built because of numerous threats to attack from the north. In the end, the Wall did not stop invaders from attacking and did not keep the invaders out of China.

When Qin finished building his part of the Wall, he joined his wall to other parts of the Wall that had been built by local rulers. By doing this, the wall measured more than 10,000 li or 5,000 kilometers. This is how the name of the"10,000-li Great Wall" came about.

Engineers' and supervisors' names were inscribed on the Wall, yet the countless number of hard a dedicated workers were not. An interesting story is that Emperor Shih Huang Ti would not let people that died working on the wall have a proper burial. Instead, they were to be built into the wall to save time. Since this, archeologists have found tombs built into the Great Wall.