Why Was The Great Wall Of China Built On Mountains

Ever wondered why the Great Wall of China was built on mountains?

The Great Wall of China was built on the greatest possible amount of human effort, and it really is the biggest project undertaken using human labor exclusively. To help you understand the magnanimity of the Great Wall of China, the wall was built using 100 million tonnes of bricks, soil, and stone, all transported and then assembled by millions of peasants, soldiers, prisoners, and even animals. The only tools used included wood, rope, along with basket systems. The mindblowing bit is that all the work around the wall was done on some of the most remote terrains in China, from parched desert areas to the steepest mountain ridges.

Over the thousands of miles that the wall stretches, the terrain changes through plains and mountains, deserts, and riversides; it would make you wonder why exactly the wall was built on the mountains and not in all other parts of the country.

Well, the reasons for constructing the wall on the mountains are covered below, but the primary reason for the location chosen is that the designers of the Great Wall wanted to take advantage of the varied terrains, and they built the wall with reinforcements in strategic places as a way to ward off invaders.

The Great Wall was also built across the mountain passes, along the mountain ridges, and across some of the main transportation areas in flatter regions. The wall features beacon towers and watchtowers built very high for easy observation, and easy communication – a fire was used as a signal.

Then on the deserts and plains, the designers of the wall took advantage of the rivers and the river cliffs as natural barriers. This strategy not only controlled the country’s strategic places, but it was also a design move that saved on materials and labor.

By building the wall on the mountains, the wall was the best strategy for protecting the Chinese empire from invaders, specifically the Mongolians. The mountainous regions gave China a strategic advantage during the battles.

What is the story behind the Great Wall of China?

With constant battles among different states of the Warring States and Spring-Autumn dynasties in the 7th and the 8th century BC, the construction of the wall was particularly important as a defensive front, and these Warring States dynasties began erecting walls and towers on their borders to defend themselves from the other states.

The state of Chu was at the frontline and pretty much the first state to build the wall. The wall’s construction was then picked up by the Qin Dynasty when the Qin Kingdom managed to unite different regions of their empires into one as a way to collectively defend the state/ empire from the invaders coming in from the northern part of the country. Emperor Qin Shi Huang successfully had the walls joined up and completed, bringing to life the Great Wall of China. But even after the wall was built, it has since been modified, rebuilt, and extended throughout history for 2000+ years, with millions of people drafted for different tasks.

Why Did They Build the Great Wall of China?

As mentioned above, the wall was built as a defense strategy to keep away invaders and to maintain a strategic advantage.

Why Was the Great Wall of China built, and how long is it?

The wall was a defensive unit during the battles taking place in the 7th and 8th centuries. This wall is 6000kms long, and it features passes as the wall’s main strongholds, signal towers or beacons for military communications, and the walls as the key component of the defense system.


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