The “Great Wall” of China (”Great Wall, I laugh at you…I laugh in your face”)

Did anyone know that The Great Wall of China is one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated upon man. Oh, there is in fact a wall all right, and a long one at that, and one that spans centuries, stemming from the 5th century BC up through its most ambitious rendering at the time of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (approximately 220-200 BC) . It still sits there today, at least to some extent. The fraud I’m talking about is the notion of it being one of the wonders of the world. It is clearly not.

In order to understand the true nature of the wall, to see past its famous elongated form, about 1500 to 4000 miles (supposedly you can see it from very low space orbit if atmospheric conditions are just right), you must view it in terms of a single section, since it is merely the same repeated sectioning that characterizes “the great wall”(and has given it its wonder of the world billing. That’s all it is, an enormous labor intensive repetition of one section of rocks and mud, wood and bones from untold numbers of workers (many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, were entombed in the wall over the centuries). Was any real thought even needed in building the wall, except perhaps for some logistics of moving material and acquiring manpower? At least in building the pyramids the Egyptians used some math. The “great wall,” on the other hand,  has all the complexity of a child’s tree fort. The “great wall” certainly lacks any astounding building or design prowess, there is nothing in it or about it that inspires awe (that is if you can get past the length thing). It does not consist of any technologically advanced materials. It’s biggest improvement came during the Ming Dynasty, when brick and lime were used. Compare the “great wall” to a European Cathedral and, in modern terms, it will be like comparing a potted dirt road to a smooth asphalt interstate.

The wall today is kept up in tourist areas but in many other places it is in severe disrepair, and much of it is crumbling. Look at the Great Wall this way:  it is really no more than a rather poorly made adobe wall with a lot of death attached to it.

As for its military significance against Mongol invaders that too is a sham: “Since the Great Wall was discontinuous, Mongol invaders had no trouble breaching the wall by going around it, so the wall proved unsuccessful and was eventually abandoned. Additionally, a policy of mollification during the subsequent Ch’ing Dynasty that sought to pacify the Mongol leaders through religious conversion also helped to limit the need for the wall…”More here.

Keep in mind that the wall’s length is constantly shortening. Take a look at this report from Wired: Time nips at China’s Great Wall: “The Great Wall of China is the symbol of a nation, a wonder of the world and a tourist cash cow that generates millions of dollars a year. It’s also vanishing.” Here’s an article from MSNBC on the same theme: Sandstorms eating away at China’s Great Wall

Presenting…the glorious, the magnificent–The Great Wall of China