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The Great Wall of China
Not so much one Great Wall than a whole series of them – 20,000km (12,000 miles) of fortifications in fact, not all of them connected. Building got underway in the 3rd century BC, when China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang began joining together various bits of older wall to keep out nomadic invaders from the north.Successive rulers continued adding to his work, creating horse tracks, watchtowers, shelters, barracks and fortresses up to the 17th century. The later sections from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) are the best known today.
