Great Wall of China Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe with an eye to expansion. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built in 220–206
Great Wall of China the western edge of the Yellow River loop at Yinchuan. Here the first major walls erected during the Ming dynasty cuts through the Ordos Desert to the eastern edge of the Yellow River loop. There at Piantou Pass "Piāntóuguān") in Xinzhou, Shanxi province, the Great Wall splits in two with the "Outer Great Wall" "Wài Chǎngchéng") extending along the Inner Mongolia border with Shanxi into Hebei province, and the "inner Great Wall" "Nèi Chǎngchéng") running southeast from Piantou Pass for some , passing through important passes like the Pingxing Pass and Yanmen Pass before joining the Outer Great Wall at