Great Wall (continuous frontier wall)
Gran Muralla (muro fronterizo continuo)
- Date
- c. 214 BCE (muros anteriores, century VII a.C.) · confidence medium
- Place
- Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
- Credited to
- Qin Shi Huang and General Meng Tian
- People
- 👤 Qin Shi Huang259 BCE–210 BCE
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
After unifying China, the first emperor ordered the walls of the former northern states to be joined and extended into a defensive line against the Xiongnu, with signal towers and garrisons. Later dynasties, up to the Ming, rebuilt it.
The most visible remains are Ming (14th-17th centuries); few secure stretches of the Qin wall survive, and the idea of a single 'great wall' of 214 BC is partly a historiographical construction. Some sections of the Chu and Qi states date to c. 656 BC.
What it led to
- a system of smoke-and-fire towers to relay alerts over long distances
- the brick-and-stone Ming wall with loopholes for firearms
- other fortified frontiers such as the Roman limes