Great Wall of China more than twice as long as previous estimates

Ed Jones / AFP - Getty Images

Rain clouds pass over a section of the Great Wall at Jinshanling, Hebei Province on Sunday, June 10.

According to a recent BBC News report, the wall, which is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick and rammed earth, was subject to a recent archaeological survey that found its total length to be 21,196 km or 13,171 miles. Based on a 2009 study, it was thought to be much shorter at 8,850 km. The Great Wall, which was built in 500 BC to protect China's northern border, is the world's largest manmade structure. Read more.

Ed Jones / AFP - Getty Images

A tourist walks over a section of the Great Wall at Jinshanling, Hebei Province on June 10.

Ed Jones / AFP - Getty Images

Tourists look out from a section of the Great Wall at Jinshanling, Hebei Province on June 10.

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Why is it that they have the know-how to build a massive long wall thousands of miles long back in 500 B.C. but we still cannot manage to secure our much shorter border with Mexico in the 21st century.

    Reply#57 - Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:47 AM EDT

    Those who say it is not impressive have never been there! I have been there, climbed up to it, and walked it on a hot July day. (The barracks along the Wall are an amazing thing to experience... perhaps 20+ degrees cooler than outside the bricks on the wall.) All things considered, The Great Wall was then, and remains today, impressive! Is some of it in disrepair? Sure! Have farmers and villagers along the route stolen bricks to build their homes (MANY cornerstones came from the Wall) or to use to encompass the dirt in their gardens? Sure, but over 2,000 years who can blame them?

    People who have never seen or climbed on the Great Pyramids always claim they are insignificant also. LOL, my suggestion is that instead of belittling the great ancient landmarks, more American's should escape their hometowns and summer cottages... (and mental smallness and parochial values)... and actually SEE a bit of the world they normally belittle and complain about. By doing this, more of us will apprecaite the special places around the world, as well as feel blessed to have been born in our own nation when we return!

    • 1 vote
    Reply#58 - Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:36 AM EDT

    We should consider getting the Chinese to build us a wall on our Southern Border! Obviously, the President has no interest in protecting American sovereignty!

      Reply#59 - Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:33 PM EDT

      A highway is a's been engineered and constructed to carry loads. The great wall of china is not and never has been a contigious structure. It was built over a period of centuries in fits and starts by different rulers of the empire in different locations to make several different walls that are called "The Great Wall of China." So saying its the longest structure...nope. Since we're spitting hairs it should be known as the "great wall(s) of China. Plural. And find your own links!

        Reply#60 - Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:34 PM EDT

        I could really care less how big the stupid wall is. Its just a tourist trap now. As far as the three million that died building it ,They were sheep just like they are today. The reason china is a communist country is that most of their people are sheep fallowing the leader. As far as you dumb ass people that spend so much time admiring them go live there. Over a billion people and the only brave ones were in that square standing up to the army trying to get freedom for their people. If that had happened in the USA their would have been millions of people in the streets.But as I said most of them are just sheep. I have no respect for them. No American should.Not until they stand up for their own freedom and put down their Communist oppressers. By the way the dumbest thing ever said by an American president was that the cold war is over and we won.The cold war was not about the soviet union it was about Communism.We need to wake up people China is not our friend they are our enemies.They know it so why don't we?

        • 1 vote
        Reply#61 - Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:52 PM EDT

        Bill in Mill Creek, I do believe the greatest man made structure in the world is your brain... cause seriously... for someone to be thrown all kinds of facts showing how wrong and stupid he is... you sure to keep on truckin... keep smoking the good stuff my friend and maybe one day you can get a life.

          Reply#62 - Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:30 AM EDT

          The largest man made structure is called a WALL. I call it a BRIDGE... to the history of mankind.

          Walls protect, bridges connect.

            Reply#63 - Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:54 AM EDT

            Most people call it the Great Wall of China. It's a Great Bridge to me of man's history.
            Wall protect, and bridges connect. It's about perspective.

              Reply#64 - Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:00 AM EDT

              The Japanese thought that the wall was great, and did use parts of it as a bridge.

                #64.1 - Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:16 PM EDT
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