A new 80-km section of the Great Wall was recently discovered on the southern slope of Helan Mountain in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
The section, about 40 km west of Yinchuan, the regional capital, was built in 1531 and gradually buried by moving sand. When the wall section was repaired in 1540, three watchtowers were added at different parts of the section which meanders from east to west. The forward post is well preserved.
The seven-meter-high wall is 6.5 meters wide at its foot and 3.5 meters at the top. It has seven drainage ditches and parapets at both flanks of the wall. Some parts were protected by stone segments forming a double-layered wall.
The Great Wall, known in China as the "Ten Thousand Li Wall", was listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site on July 25, 1991.
From its starting point at Jiayuguan Pass in northwest Gansu Province to Shanhaiguan Pass on the shores of Bohai Bay at its eastern end, the Great Wall stretches for 12,000 li, or 6,000 km. Rising and falling, twisting and turning along the ridges of the Yanshan and Yinshan Mountain chains, it traverses Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and Liaoning.
As Ningxia has been at China's frontline since ancient times, it was a strategically important place throughout history. The region is the location of Great Wall sections built in the Period of the Warring States (475-221 BC) and the following Qin, Han, Sui and Ming dynasties with a total length of more than 3,000 km. The walls were built with different materials such as bricks, stone, earth and sand.
(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2002)
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