Great Wall: the Story of the most expensive and useless project in the world
The main paradox of the great wall lies in the fact that she was not able to solve the problem for the defense of the country.
Great wall of China — one of the main monuments of antiquity, preserved to our days. This unique creation of human hands that attracts millions of tourists every year.
However, many have a very vague idea of what enemies were built and how efficiently operated with such a huge object with a length of about 9000 km, the thickness of the walls which is 5-8 meters and the average height 6-7 meters.
Like most of the peoples who had adopted a settled way of life, the Chinese are faced with the problem of nomads making regular predatory incursions.
Approximately in the III century BC began the construction of the first sections of the wall, which were intended for protection from the Huns — nomadic people inhabiting the steppes North of China.
Large Imperial building
With the completion of the so-called era of Warring States, the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi of the Qin dynasty, which United under his rule isolated the Chinese land ordered the construction of a wall along the mountain ridge, Insane in the North of China.
The construction went by strengthening a previously constructed sites and by building new ones. While there were parts of the walls, which were built by local rulers to separate the territories of each other — by order of the Emperor they were destroyed.
The construction of the wall in the era of Qin Shi Huangdi took about ten years. Due to the lack of roads, clean water sources and the difficulties in supplying food to the construction site was extremely difficult. At the same time the building was involved up to 300 thousand people, and all the construction has attracted up to 2 million Chinese. Hunger, disease, overwork has killed tens of thousands of builders.
To the period of Qin, the wall was built of the most primitive materials, mainly with the help of tamping the earth. Between shields of wicker or cane extruded layers of clay, gravel and other local materials. Sometimes used bricks, but not burnt, but dried in the sun. In the period of Qin in some areas began to use stone slabs that were placed close to each other on the layers of compacted earth.
An integral part of the wall are towers. Some towers erected before the wall was built into it. Such towers often have a width less than the width of the wall, and their locations are random. Towers, erected along with the wall, located from each other at a distance up to 200 meters.
“Long wall grew up, and the Empire rolled down”
In the period of the Han Empire (206 BC — 220 ad) wall was extended West, built a line of watchtowers, dug deep into the desert, to protect the trade caravans from the raids of nomads.
Each successive ruler tried to contribute to the wall. In many parts the wall was erected repeatedly, as a result of its destruction is not so much the result of invasions, but because of the substandard materials.
The extant sections of the great wall of China was built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 years). In this period was built mainly of bricks and blocks, making the design became more robust and reliable. During this time the Wall ran from East to West from Shanhaiguan on the shore of the Yellow sea to the Outpost Yumenguan, on the border of Gansu and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region.
The main paradox of the great wall lies in the fact that she was not able to solve the problem for the defense of the country.
The Chinese themselves acknowledged that spent on the construction of the wall means, ruined human life, absolutely did not pay off.
The men of Qin built a Long wall as a protection against the barbarians
Long wall grew up, and the Empire rolled down.
People today laugh at her….
As soon as it was declared, that the walls will be built in the East,
Definitely it was reported that the barbarian hordes attacked sahadevan Symonchitsy poet of the XVII century
Not do, to bribe
A classic example of the ineffectiveness of the great wall of China — history of the fall of the Ming dynasty.
Troops of the future Manchu dynasty or Qing dynasty, came to the so-called Shanghai passage in the wall, which was defended by the army commander of Sangue. The army could contain the onslaught of the invaders, but Sangui chose to join with them in collusion, with the result that the enemy freely penetrated deep into China.
These stories were before. Since the Great wall of China is a combination of separate fragments of fortifications, the nomads either penetrated into the gaps between them, or bribed those who were called to defend the wall.
Thus, for example, did Genghis Khan, captured Northern China. The Mongols were rulers of those lands, about 150 years, until the year 1368.
The Qing dynasty that ruled China until 1911, remembered the story of his rise to power, and not attached to the wall of a serious matter. The order is maintained only Badaling section of the wall, located 75 km from Beijing. By the way, that he is today and is the most visited by tourists.
In 1933 there was the episode Sino-Japanese war, known as the “defense of the great wall of China”. The Chinese army of Chiang Kai-shek at the turn of the Eastern part of the wall tried to repel the invasion forces of Japan and the puppet state of Manchukuo. The battle ended with the defeat of the Chinese, and the creation of a demilitarized zone of 100 kilometers to the South of the great wall where China had no right to place their troops.
Tourist attraction of comrade Deng Xiaoping
The Chinese always genuinely surprised by the interest of Europeans to this useless from the point of view of local residents, the construction of the Great wall.
But in 1980-ies the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping decided that this facility can bring benefits. On his initiative in 1984 launched a large-scale project on reconstruction of the wall.
In 1987 the Great wall was included in the world Heritage list of UNESCO. Today, the facility, whose construction in history, according to some experts, took about 1 million lives, annually up to 40 million tourists.
The sections of the wall, located away from the tourist areas, continues to deteriorate. The sites are deliberately destroyed, as it prevents the construction of highway and Railways.
Only a handful of Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts admitted that they were able under ideal conditions to see the wall from orbit. However, their words are questioned. In October 2003, the Chinese cosmonaut Yan livey said he failed to see the Great wall of China.
Today, some believe that to consider the wall from space is possible — if there are ideal conditions, and observer pre-calculate exactly the area where to look. However, such introductory only confirm the Great wall of China just to see almost impossible.