International Monuments and Sites Day丨Do you know these little facts about the Great Wall?

Ancient monuments are important witnesses of the development of human history

The protection of ancient monuments and sites is connected

The past and future of human civilization

To inherit and develop the excellent culture of mankind

Of far-reaching significance

Today (April 18)

It is International Monuments and Sites Day

The Great Wall, a Chinese Treasure

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987

It is one of the top ten cultural heritages in the world.

It's like a book

When you read carefully

Not only will you read about the Great Wall itself,

Deep, magnificent, tenacious

There are also history, geography, culture, architecture...

The Great Wall embodies the wisdom of ancient Chinese people

How much little knowledge is hidden?

Let’s find out together

How long is the Great Wall?

The Great Wall, known as "the first military project in ancient China", is unprecedented in its length, danger and difficulty in construction. It runs across 15 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang.

In 2012, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced that the total length of the Great Wall in China, based on a six-year survey, was 21,196.18 kilometers. Future surveys may increase this number. Figuratively speaking, if you were to build a straight wall between the South Pole and the North Pole, the length of the Great Wall would be a little longer than this wall.

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Where are the starting and ending points of the Ming Great Wall?

The Great Wall was first built during the Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. During the reign of Qin Shihuang, the Great Walls of Qin, Zhao, Yan and other states were connected to form the Great Wall. After that, large-scale construction was carried out during the Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

At present, the Ming Great Wall is the best preserved Great Wall relic. In the 1980s, archaeologists discovered the ancient city wall and foundation ruins in front of and behind Hushan on the Yalu River on the Sino-North Korean border in Dandong City, Liaoning Province. After a long period of archaeological investigation, archaeologists and Great Wall scholars finally confirmed that this section of the Great Wall stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers in Liaodong and extends westward to Shanhaiguan, which is part of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. Since then, it has become a consensus in the academic community that the Great Wall starts from Hushan in Liaoning in the east and ends at Jiayuguan in Gansu in the west.

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How many levels are there in the Great Wall?

"I urge you to drink another cup of wine, for there will be no friends west of Yangguan."

"Why should the Qiang flute blame the willows? The spring breeze does not reach Yumen Pass."

How many levels are there in the Great Wall?

There are thirteen passes in total on the Great Wall: Shanhaiguan, Huangyaguan, Juyongguan, Zijingguan, Daomaguan, Pingxingguan, Piantouguan, Yanmenguan, Niangziguan, Shahukouguan, Jiayuguan, Yangguan and Yumenguan. Have you counted them all?

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How does the Great Wall, which is exposed to wind and rain, drain water?

The Great Wall has a very "intelligent" drainage system. Its main buildings are equipped with drainage facilities such as drainage ditches, water retaining bricks, and water spouts, which can drain the accumulated water in time and have withstood the test of continuous erosion and scouring by rainwater for thousands of years. The drainage ditch built on the top of the wall allows rainwater to be discharged outside the foundation of the wall through the water spouts on the inner eaves wall (Yu wall).

At the intersection of the Great Wall and the river, there is often a double-hole round arched water gate, also known as a "water gate". There is a gatehouse on the water gate with a sluice gate inside to control the amount of water inside and outside the gate during the flood season and the dry season. The more famous water gates include Jiumenkou Great Wall, Badaling Water Gate Great Wall, Huangyaguan Great Wall Water Gate, etc.

The Great Wall is a mark of civilization

Condensed tenacity and faith

Thousands of years of circulation

Inside and outside the Great Wall at this time

Exactly

Green grass sways and mountain flowers bloom

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Further reading:

What other historical sites are there?

Is it worth counting them one by one?

Qinling Terracotta Warriors

The Qinling Terracotta Warriors and Horses are large in scale. The three pits cover a total area of more than 20,000 square meters. There are nearly 8,000 pottery figurines and horses, more than 100 wooden chariots and more than 40,000 bronze weapons in the pits. They show the Qin army's organization, weapons and equipment, and ancient war formations. In 1987, it was listed as a "World Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO.

Beijing Summer Palace

The predecessor of the Beijing Summer Palace was the Qingyi Garden. It is located in the western suburbs of Beijing and is one of the largest existing royal gardens in my country. It is a large-scale landscape garden built on the site of Kunming Lake and Wanshou Mountain, modeled on the West Lake in Hangzhou, and drawing on the design techniques of Jiangnan gardens. It is also the best-preserved royal palace and imperial garden, known as the "Royal Garden Museum". It was listed on the World Heritage List in 1998.

The ruins of the ancient castle "Borbazhin"

"Borbajin" was first discovered in 1891. It is located near Kungurtuk, a small town in the Tuva Republic in southern Russia. It covers an area of about 4 hectares and is dozens of kilometers away from the Russian-Mongolian border.

Archaeologists have discovered relics of Chinese Tang Dynasty architectural features, including square building foundations, vertical beam structures, carved roof beam structures supporting the roof, ceramic tiles, and terracotta reliefs with carved patterns, auspicious patterns that are common in Chinese Tang Dynasty monuments.

According to archaeological experts, the ancient city was not an ordinary wealthy family's residence, but might have been the palace of Princess Ningguo of the Tang Dynasty of China who married into the Uighurs.

Portuguese Undersea Pyramids

In 2013, fishermen discovered a huge pyramid on the seabed of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. It was 60 meters high and located about 1,500 kilometers west of the Portuguese capital Lisbon. Even the Portuguese Navy joined the exploration.

It is speculated that this underwater pyramid may be the "lost empire" Atlantis Empire. Atlantis Empire, the name of an ancient continent, country or city-state with a highly developed civilization, was first described in the book "Dialogues" by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It is said that it was destroyed by a prehistoric flood around 10,000 BC.

Stonehenge, England