The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. A great structure that was build human hand instead of modern machines, this wall is standing symbol of human courage, hard work and will to achieve impossible.  The Great Wall of China is most famous tourist attraction of China. 

Great Wall of China is an ultimate destination for tourists for sightseeing.  Millions of tourists from all over the world visits Great Wall of China every year. There are some great speculations about Great Wall of China that it can be seen from moon also! Such speculations had increased its attraction amongst the tourists of whole world.

The Great Wall of China & Its History

The wall is constructed over the mountains in such pattern that it looks like as a dragon is surrounding the mountains. Chinese calls it “Wan Li Chang Cheng” which means Wall of10, 000 Li. Li is distance measurement unit in Chinese (2 Li= 1Km).

There were three dynasties who had contributed to the construction of this wall.

1. Qin
2. Han
3. Ming

The Great Wall of China was initially constructed by the Qin from 221-207 B.C, after that it was Han dynasty who constructed it from 206B.C-220A.D.  Lastly it was the Ming who contributed in construction of this Great Wall from 1368-1644 A.D.  The main purpose of this Great Wall of China was to stop the invasion of brutal Huns from the North of the Chinese borders.  Throughout the history millions of labors had labored on this Great Wall of China and many from them died while working.

Length of the Great Wall of the China

It was the Qin emperor who unified China first, after that he connected all the walls across the country into one. This measure was taken to save the north border of China from invaders. This wall travel through deserts, rivers, mountains, grasslands and plateaus expanding nearly 6,700 kilometers, this Great Wall is stretched from east to west side of China. It was built in almost two millenniums.

Currently though there is much advance technology and easy means of construction but many parts of this Great Wall are left in ruins.

The Places from Where Great Wall Of China Passes

The Great Wall of China passes through Shanhaiguan Pass, Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Gansu. This Great Wall ends at Jiayuguan Pass. It covers area of almost 6,700 Km , height of wall varies from place to place, its maximum height is 9 meters and minimum is 4.5 meters.  Depth wise measurement of this wall is 4.5 m to 8m.

The Great Wall of China is built of stones, bricks, soil, sand, straw, wood, clay and whatever that whatever that was available in that specific era depending on the territory and time period.

Modern Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China which we see today was built by the Ming dynasty 600 years ago. At that time the original wall was in ruins. Ming emperors ordered to re-build this great wall. This great wall was re-built in 200 years of time period. This Great Wall survived all through centuries because there was an invention during that time, it was mixing rice flour to create extreme tough bricks and mortar.

Now some parts of Great Wall of China are in great condition because those were restored by the Chinese government to attract the tourists. Every year thousand of tourists from all around the world visit this Great Wall.

The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing

The Chinese Emperor Yongle designed Porcelain Tower of Nanjing. In China it’s called Bao’ensi, which means “Temple of Gratitude”. It’s situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, China.

The Porcelain Tower in the view European visitors

The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing the European visitors give this name to it and they labeled it as one of the wonders of the world because of its unique structure, which they witnessed.

This exceptional structure was almost destroyed in 19^th century warfare and became part of history in other words forgotten part of history.

The people who seen it on firsthand they claims it one of the most exalted structure of a Buddhist pagoda.

A French mathematician who visited China in early 19^th century describes it as the best-contrived and noblest structure of the entire East.

Structure Description

Its construction was started in the 15^th century. It was having octagonal base of 97 feet in diameter. The tower was nine stories rose pyramidally with a height of about 260 feet.

An American missionary who visited Nanjing in 1852 according to his information the original plan for tower was of 13 stories with a total height of 330 feet.

Anyhow the smaller though made a little difference but it was not the size that made it a memorable structure for the visitors. The thing made it memorable was the structure’s elegance and beauty.

The white showy white porcelain bricks of the tower made it unforgettable. In daytime the bricks glitters in sunshine and in night those were light up with 140 lamps hanging around the exterior of the pagoda.

The porcelain panels were having the colorful work of stoneware tiles with green, yellow, white, and brown glazes along images if animals, landscapes, flowers, and bamboo.

The Temple of Artemis at Epheseus

A question can come in mind that this is just a temple how it can have place amongst other unique structures like Pyramid, Hanging Gardens and the Clossus of Rhodes answer for that is just simple the beauty of this temple attracted people for years which mean it was the one of the most beautiful structure on earth in its times. The Temple of Artemis is not a simple temple like other ones; it was the most beautiful structure on earth was built in honor of the Greek goddess Artemis (Diana) of hunting and wild nature.

It’s located near the town of Selcuk, 50km south of Izmir (Smyrna) in Turkey.

The temple foundation was made in 7^th century BC. But its structure, which is listed as Wonder that was built in 550 BC. Its construction expenses were beard by the Lydian king Croesus and the Greek architect Chersipheron designed it and it was decorated with bronze statues, which were sculpted by the most skilled artists of their time like Pheidias, Polycleitus, Kresilas, and Phradmon.

Similar to other temples of that time its foundation was in rectangular form, the building was made of marble having a decorated outward appearance and a spacious courtyard. There was a marble step surrounding the building led to the high terrace that was almost 80m (260 ft) by 130m (430 ft) in plan. The columns were 20m (60 ft) high with Ionic capitals and carved circular sides. There were total 127 columns aligned orthogonally covering the whole area except the central cella or house of the goddess.

The temple was having so many very beautiful works of art that includes four ancient bronze statues of Amazons sculpted by the finest artists at the time.

The early descriptions about the temple by the historians helped a lot the archeologists to re build the building. Well a more accurate reconstruction of the temple may give the general layout of the temple.