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Random Facts about the Great Wall of China
The dimensions of the great wall of China and of what it
is built.
It runs from a point on the Gulf of Liantung, an arm of the
Gulf of Pechili in Northeastern China, westerly to the
Yellow River; thence makes a great bend to the south for
nearly 100 miles, and then runs to the northwest for several
hundred miles to the Desert of Gobi. Its length is variously
estimated to be from 1,250 to 1,500 miles. For the most of
this distance it runs through a mountainous country, keeping
on the ridges, and winding over many of the highest peaks.
In some places it is only a formidable rampart, but most of
the way it is composed of lofty walls of masonry and
concrete, or impacted lime and clay, from 12 to 16 feet in
thickness, and from 15 to 30 or 35 feet in height. The top
of this wall is paved for hundreds of miles, and crowned
with crenallated battlements, and towers 30 to 40 feet high.
In numerous places the wall climbs such steep declivities
that its top ascends from height to height in flights of
granite steps. An army could march on the top of the wall
for weeks and even months, moving in some places ten men
abreast.
[Footnote: The Great Wall is one of the most remarkable
works of man. "It is," says Dr. Williams, "the only
artificial structure which would arrest attention in a hasty
survey of the globe." It has been estimated that there is
more than seventy times as much material in the wall as
there is in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and that it
represents more labor than 100,000 miles of ordinary
railroad. It was begun in 214(?) and finished in 204(?) B.C.
It is twenty-five feet wide at base, and from fifteen to
thirty feet high. Towers forty feet high rise at irregular
intervals. In some places it is a mere earthen rampart; in
others it is faced with brick; and then again it is composed
of stone throughout.]
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