Great Wall Of China Essay

The Great Wall of China, located in northern China, is a collection of walls made of stone, brick, wood and other materials put together to create one. In length they total up to more than 13,000 miles. It was built across China to contain and protect Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the many different groups of the Eurasian Steppe. Several of these walls were dated back to being built in as early years as the 7th century, but it was not until later, these joined together and made a bigger and stronger wall known as the Great Wall. One especially famous was the wall built in 220-206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Today, however, very little of that wall remains. The Great Wall in previous years has been rebuilt, altered, and strengthened over …show more content…
Later on, with the death of Qin Shi Huang and the fall of the Qin Dynasty, much of the Great Wall weakened dramatically. After the fall of the later Han Dynasty, a series of tribes took control in northern China. The most powerful of these dynasties was the Northern Wei Dynasty. Moreover, they repaired and lengthened the existing wall to defend against other attacking tribes. Many other dynasty’s played a huge part in the building of the wall as well. Another, for example, was the Bee Qi kingdom who built and repaired more than 900 miles of wall. With the fall and rise of many Dynasty’s and the expansion of China past the original area protected by the wall, the Great wall began to lose its importance as a barrier. Later the Great Wall was controlled by the Mongols. However, during this time it had little use as a military fortification, however, soldiers were assigned to man the wall in order to protect merchants or traders traveling along the Silk Road trade routes at this