The Great Wall
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How it came to be
The first walls were built by northern states in the 7th century BC and were joined together under the Qin. Later dynasties kept extending walls along the northern frontier against nomads from the steppe.
Most of the best-known sections date from the Ming. After its defeat by the Oirats at the Battle of Tumu, the Ming turned to building walls along the border, using brick and stone instead of rammed earth. The Ming held the Manchus at Shanhai Pass, but the Manchus crossed the wall in 1644, and once Qing rule pushed the border north, work on it as a defence stopped.
The Great Wall was inscribed in 1987. In 2012 China's National Cultural Heritage Administration put the total length of walls and trenches at 21,196.18 km. The same report found that 1,961 km, or 22 percent, of the Ming wall had disappeared.
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