information

"How effective was the Great Wall of China?"
BACKGROUND TO THE WALL- The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered a wall to be built to stop the nomads (group with no permanent home. An example of a nomad group is below (Xiongnu) ) .
The nomads often raided farms to steal crops and food. Over the years, the Chinese built a number of long walls from the north of China to prevent the intrusion of the nomads.

- Qin Shi Huang, made a very good decision. To keep his empire safe. Although the process of building the wall wasn't a very pleasant one. Numbers of ordinary people were forced
to work on the wall and many people died as a result of working under such bad conditions. Today, historians refer to the Great Wall as 'the longest graveyard in the world' .

Source : Imperial China , Reynoldson, Fiona , Heinemann Educational, first published 1991, pages 16-17.
THE BUILDING OF THE WALL- The Wall was built during three dynasties ~ Qin, Han and Ming.
QIN DYNASTY -
[221-206 B.C]
Qin Shi Huang was in power during this dynasty, he (as mentioned above) ordered a long walll to be built, to stop invasion.
HAN DYNASTY-
[206 B.C-220 A.D]
After the fall of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, the wall was extended westwards toward the Gobi Desert.
During this dynasty a technological change occurred; the building materials from the previous wall were very scarce, so Chinese engineers came up with a solution to continue making
bricks for the wall. The bricks were made in the following way:
-A layer of woven willow weeds were layed down.
-A layer of gravel and some water were put on top and trampled down.
-Another layer of willow weeds and gravel were put down ontop. These steps were repeated until the wall was finished.
Watchtowers were also made two stories high, to claim a good lookout for invaders.
MING DYNASTY-
[1368-1644]
(This dynasty is not really relevant, as it is not classified in an ancient time period)