Discovery sheds new light on Great Wall
Print Edition
Ruins of the Great Wall discovered along the border of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Gansu Province have dispelled the common belief that there were no sections in the area, according to researchers.
Archaeologists found nine sections with a total length of more than 10 kilometers believed to be part of the wall built during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).
Zhou Xinghua, a former museum curator and Great Wall expert who was part of the research team, said the discovery is giving historians a fresh insight into where the wall was built.
“Finally, we’re able to see the whole picture of the Qin Great Wall,” Zhou said.
Six sections stretch between Nanchangtan Village in Ningxia and Gansu’s Jingyuan County on the southern bank of the Yellow River.
Because of flooding and natural degradation, their height has been reduced to 1 to 5 meters.
The other three sections are in Jingyuan County’s Damiao region, 50 meters long in total and 5 meters high.
To prevent foreign invaders from crossing the Yellow River when it was frozen, the Qin state, which defeated other powers during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and later established the Qin Dynasty, built fortifications along the valley beside the river, Zhou said.
The Great Wall was listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. The central government spent more than 500 million yuan (US$81.6 million) on protecting the wall during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010).
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