A Giant Dragon For For thousands of years the Great Wall of China has stretched across China’s northern provinces It winds like a giant sleeping dragon from the Pacific coast in the east to the Gobi Desert in the west It reaches across plains mountains and sandy deserts It is the longest manmade structure in human history Did You Know The Great Wall of China is about 5,500 miles 8,851.8 kilometers long The Great Wall has been extended modified and repaired over the centuries 4
The Great Wall of China was originally built to protect Ancient China from invaders The wall itself is not a single structure Instead it is a series of walls and fortifications Over many centuries sections of the wall were built and rebuilt by different Chinese emperors Throughout China’s history more than 20 states and dynasties have worked on the wall The most famous sections are those built by the Qin dynasty 221 BCE 206 BCE the Han dynasty 206 BCE 220 CE and the Ming dynasty 1368 1644 The Great Wall of China stretches across northern China and has become one of the world’s most famous landmarks China Mongolia Jiayuguan Pass Shanhai Pass Beijing 6
Thousands of workers carry materials by hand to build sections of the Great Wall Building the Great Wall was a massive undertaking Many people and materials were needed to build this enormous structure Workers built the Great Wall without sophisticated equipment or machines They did not have electrical power or motors Instead people worked side-by-side to build the wall by hand The work was hard and many workers died during the Great Wall’s construction 7
