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)
