How long is the world's longest city wall? The answer is 35.267
kilometers, confirmed Chinese archaeologists Thursday in Jiangsu
Province, east China.
The conclusion is based on a two-month scientific measurement of
the ancient city wall, which winds through Nanjing, provincial
capital of Jiangsu and national capital to 10 ancient dynasties in
Chinese history, said Yang Xinhua, deputy director of the city's
cultural relics office at a press conference.
"The result is reliable and it lays a foundation for our next
step to design a detailed protection plan for the city wall," said
Yang, adding modern means, such as satellite photography, telemetry
and geographical information system, have been applied in the
measurement this time.
The existing length of the city wall, which was built in the
Ming Dynasty (1364-1644) over some 600 years ago, is 25.091
kilometers, still exceeding the famous walls of Beijing and Paris
by 0.776 kilometers and 3.67 kilometers respectively, said
Yang.
The wall section ranges in height from 14 to 26 meters, 14
meters thick at the bottom and 2.6 to 19.75 meters thick at the
top, said Yang.
The wall was first built in 473 BC and was extended several
times in Chinese history.
The first emperor of the imperial Ming dynasty, Zhu
Yuanzhang, built the largest section of the city wall, which
took more than 20 years to complete. More than 200,000 workers and
many skillful craftsmen across the nation were enlisted to build
the city wall.
All the bricks used for building the city wall were engraved
with the date and place as to when and where they were fired, as
well as the name of craftsman who made them. The bricks weigh 10 to
20 kg each.
This city wall has been repaired several times, with massive
repair work on the wall done in 1990, 1993 and 1995.
To better protect their wall, the city of Nanjing established
the world's only city wall history museum.
Nanjing is one of the most prestigious ancient cities in China,
and its city wall has become a famous scenic spot.
(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2006)
