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We all have studied the Seven Wonders of the World and surely we have heard about the Great Wall of China. It has been mentioned in our course books since we were kids and the memory of this spectacular piece of magnificence never fades away from our mind. However, a majority of us only know that it is a very long wall over the mountains somewhere in China. Well, there is more to it; this article briefly describes all we should know about the Great Wall of China. 

All of us were made to believe that the 6,700-kilometers wall can be seen from space with the naked eye, but it is not so. It can be seen with the help of equipment such as a telescope. The wall covers the east and west of China; it starts at the Jiayuguan Pass of Gansu Province in the west and ends at the Shanhaiguan Pass of Hebei Province in the east. 

During 220?206 BC, the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China - concerned by the invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe in the North decided to build a wall as a line of defense against those attacks. The Chinese weren't building this wall from scratch; there were existing walls that had previously separated different Chinese states. Through centuries The Great Wall was rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced over various dynasties; the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty (1368?1644). Over a million people died building the Wall and archaeologists have found human remains buried under parts of the wall. 

Lots of beautiful legends and stories about the Great Wall took place following along the construction. The legends about the Great Wall help to keep alive Chinese history and culture. Meng Jiangnu's story is the most famous and widely spread of all. The story happened during the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC). It tells of how Meng Jiangnu's bitter weeping made a section of the Great Wall collapse. 

Meng Jiangnu's husband Fan Qiliang was caught by federal officials and sent to build the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu heard nothing from him after his departure, so she set out to look for him. Unfortunately, by the time she reached the great wall, she discovered that her husband had already died. Hearing the bad news, she cried her heart out. Her howl caused the collapse of a part of the Great Wall. This story indicates that the Great Wall is the production of tens of thousands of Chinese commoners. 

The Great Wall, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was enlisted in the list of World Heritage sites by UNESCO in 1987. In 2007, after a 100 million people voted for the seven wonders, The Great Wall of China was chosen as one of the new seven wonders of the world. Over 10 million people visit the Great Wall of China every year.              

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