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Your photographic guide to the World - Pictures of the Great Wall © 2009 - www.snapi.org - All rights reserved Photos & Graphics properties of Guillaume Sébire
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The Great Wall of China (simplified Chinese: 长城; traditional Chinese: 長城; pinyin: Chángchéng) is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century AD to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; little of it remains; it was much farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.
The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400km (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 8,850km (5,500 miles) in total. At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.
You will find in this gallery pictures of the Great Wall!
PS. And no, you cannot see it from the Moon. Not until snapi brings it to you over there! :) |
