Great Wall - Yangguan

Yangguan Pass is located west of Dunhuang and it’s essentially the end of the Great Wall. It was a major stronghold on the western border of the Han Dynasty, alongside Yumenguan Pass, east of Dunhuang. Emperor Wu ordered the construction of the two passes to protect the frontier and Dunhuang. The two passes were connected by a 40mi (64km) wall interspersed with beacon towers at 3mi (5km) intervals.   

Both passes served as trading posts on the Silk Road, providing food and water supplies to travellers and armies. Just like Dunhuang, Yangguan profited from the Silk Road trade, until its decline during the Ming era.

With the exception of one beacon tower, nothing else remains of the pass as it was buried beneath the sand dunes, long ago. However, there is a museum in its place exhibiting thousands of items from the two passes and the Silk Road.

The Great Wall is a remarkable structure, built by multiple dynasties across two millennia. It spans over 13,000mi (21,000km) across various parts of China. A lot of effort went into protecting the northern and northwest borders. Mountains and rivers were used as natural barriers and earth, reeds, bricks and stones were used to build and reinforce the Walls. Millions of people were conscripted to work on the Wall and many died on the job. Various ethnic groups ruled, each empire replacing the other through a series of rebellions or military campaigns.

The Great Wall is a Chinese cultural icon and a symbol of its unification. It is a representation of stoicism, cohesiveness and national pride. It has inspired paintings, poems, operas, stories and legends. But most of all it is an engineering marvel.

Let me leave you with a famous folk story called, The Tears of Meng Jiangnu:

Meng Jiangnu met and fell in love with the fugitive scholar, Fan Xiliang. Not long after they were married, Fan was found by the Imperial Guards and promptly dragged away as a prisoner to work on the Great Wall. Meng waited for him day and night. When winter came and Fan did not return, she packed some warm clothes and began her long journey to search for him. When she arrived at the Wall, she was informed that Fan had died and was buried inside the Great Wall. Devastated, she wept for days at the Wall until a section of it collapsed. There in the crumbled heap, Meng found her husband’s bones. She carefully wrapped them in his winter clothes and made the long journey home where Fan had a proper burial.

I may have started at the Old Dragon’s Head near the Bohai Sea but I think I have finally found the dragon’s tail. How about you?




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Great Wall - Laolongtou

The Great Wall of China (‘’the Wall”) is one of the most remarkable man-made structures in the world, with the longest building timeline. Beginning in the 7th century BC it continued on and off over several centuries until it peaked in the mid-17th century AD.

The Chinese were masters at building walls. First, they built them around their homes and cities as protection from their ferocious nomadic neighbours. Then, they built them to protect their borders from the wars that raged within their own nation. Most walls were of varying lengths and scattered throughout the land.

The Qin Dynasty squashed the various internal wars, unifying China in 221BC and established the First Empire. Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor and a ruthless ruler, used hundreds of thousands of people to connect and extend the existing walls for defence. By the end of this dynasty 3,000mi (4,800km) of wall ran along the northern border.

The Han Dynasty came next and building on the Wall ceased for a short period. Focus turned to peacetime and opening trade with the West. However, the nomads began raiding again, reprising the need for the Wall to be repaired and extended further. Safeguarding travelling traders became just as important as keeping the nomads out.

After the Han, the Wall was left neglected and crumbling. Vulnerable to attack, it was the sheer size of the Chinese army that kept most intruders at bay until Kublai Khan, a fierce Mongol warrior, forced his way into the capital and took the throne. With both sides of the Wall now Mongol territory, the Wall was no longer needed. Abandoned, much of the early construction disintegrated over time and very little now remains.

The Mongol rule was never accepted. A few decades after Kublai’s death, an uprising forced all the Mongols out and the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644AD) came into power. With the capital city in Beijing, it was much too close to the enemy border. A new wall was rebuilt from scratch. At time of completion, the Wall was 5,500mi (8,850km) long, built by millions of soldiers and forced labourers over a period of 200 years. It is the remnants of this Wall that continues to exist today.

This journey of 2,183mi (3,513km) will begin at its most eastern end where the Wall meets the sea. Regarded as the start of the Great Wall, it is known as Laolongtou (Old Dragon’s Head) because the structure, consisting of a beacon tower and battlement walls, resembles a dragon drinking water from the sea.

The Wall twists and turns its way through the landscape, just like the legendary Chinese Dragon. It crosses mountains tightly straddling narrow cliffs, over lakes and sometimes under, into valleys and through deserts until it reaches the westernmost point ending in a remote outpost in Yangguan.

From the sea breeze on the wall of Laolongtou to the searing sun of the Gobi Desert, I hope to piece together the lengthy story of the Great Wall and the Emperors, Dynasties and Generals that left their mark on it.

Fast facts to give some sense of timeline and the main dynasties during the Wall’s construction:

5th to 3rd century BC – Warring States (Chinese states fighting amongst each other)

221 to 206 BC – Qin Dynasty (First Empire)

206 BC to 220 AD – Han Dynasty

386 to 577 AD – Northern and Southern Dynasties

1125 to 1234 AD – Jin Dynasty (conquered by Mongols)

1368 to 1644 AD – Ming Dynasty (Builders of currently existing wall)



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Necropolis of Giza

 At the edge of the Western Desert, before the sprawling city of Giza stands the magnificent Necropolis of Giza. Within its boundaries the Necropolis is home to the Great Pyramids and their funerary temples, subsidiary pyramids, the Great Sphinx, mastabas and tombs. Built during the 4th Dynasty between circa 2575 and 2465 BC, the Necropolis' most fascinating history sits with the three largest pyramids and its sphinx.

UNESCO listed in 1979, the pyramids are the final resting place for one family. Beginning with Pharaoh Khufu, his pyramid was known as the Great Pyramid because it was the tallest at 479ft (146m) with each side 754ft (230m) long. The Great Pyramid is also the only surviving architectural site on the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World list. It took 20 years to build and a total of 2.5 million blocks. Each block weighed an average of 2.5 tonnes. The pyramid was topped with a triangular capstone covered in gilt but it is no longer on it. To the east of his pyramid are three small subsidiary pyramids used as burial grounds for family members. To the south are two boat pits. One of them was excavated and within the pit was a jumble of 1224 pieces of wood. After several years it was pieced together into a 142ft (43m) long funerary boat. It remains on site inside a custom-built museum.

As usual it is debated how long he reigned. According to Manetho an ancient historian, Khufu reigned for 63 years, however, modern historians believe it to be more like 26-46 years. Not much is known about him, besides having two wives and several off-springs. He was succeeded by his son, Djedefre, who was then succeeded by his brother, Khafre, who built the second pyramid.

Khafre was considered a cruel and heretical ruler who wanted his pyramid to be bigger than his father's. The pyramid is set in the middle of the three and although it seems taller because it was built on higher ground, the pyramid is actually 19.6ft (6m) shorter than Khufu's. To the east of his pyramid is his funerary temple and linked via a causeway is the Great Sphinx. To the south is a subsidiary pyramid but not known as to who it belongs to. Khafre's pyramid is the only one that still has the capstone on it.

The smallest pyramid belonged to Menkaure, the son of Khafre and grandson of Khufu. His pyramid stands at 213ft (65m) less than half the height of the other two. What is also noticeable is that the building materials used are different. Both Khufu and Khafre's pyramids' outer core was covered in expensive white limestone slabs. Menkaure's pyramid had limestone on the top two-thirds, however, the bottom third which is still in place today, was covered in cheaper blocks of granite.

Menkaure was regarded as a kind and wise ruler. Disputes brought before him were fairly judged and he seemed to be much more considerate of his people by not having them work as hard on his pyramid as his predecessors. To the south of his pyramid are three small subsidiary pyramids possibly for his two wives and a daughter. He had two sons of which the eldest predeceased him leaving the younger son to succeed Menkaure. The younger son was the last pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty.

Interestingly at the end of the 12th century, Saladin's son and heir who was Kurdish, attempted to demolish the pyramids in order to remove any signs of Egypt's power. He started with Menkaure's pyramid but after eight months with little progress – they were unable to remove more than one or two stones per day – he abandoned the effort, but not without leaving a large vertical gash on the northern face.

Standing guard on the east side of the Necropolis is the biggest statue in the world, the Great Sphinx. Measuring 240ft long x 66ft high x 62ft wide (73m x 20m x 19m), the sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a human thought to be of Pharaoh Khafre. Carved from a small hill of solid limestone, the sphinx used to be painted red and yellow which has over time worn away. Drifting sand eventually buried the sphinx to its shoulders and although evidence suggests attempted restorations during the New Kingdom era by Pharaoh Thutmose IV it wasn't until the early 19th century that the Sphinx was finally "dug out". Archaeological studies also concluded that the sphinx's nose was intentionally removed sometime between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD possibly a result of iconoclasm.

Somewhere between 2181-2040BC, Giza was abandoned and so was building pyramids. Low yields of crop in the 5th and 6th Dynasties cause widespread famine and a greatly reduced workforce. As such the Necropolis fell into decay, tomb robbers broke in and stole the buried treasures and many succeeding pharaohs during the Middle Kingdom broke up temples and walkways in order to reuse the materials on their own projects. By the New Kingdom (1570-1069BC) the reigning pharaohs reversed this approach and dedicated themselves to preserving the area.

Khaemweset, was the 4th son of Rameses II, and considered the "first Egyptologist", due to his commitment to restoring and preserving Giza. His efforts are well documented.

At the turn of the 19th century and as part of his Egyptian campaign, Napoleon Bonaparte brought with him a team of experts to record their discoveries about Giza. But the most widely recognised archaeologist is Sir William Flinders Petrie due to his vast contribution to Egyptology. One of his greatest discoveries happened when a worker found a small headless statue with a pharaoh's name at the bottom. Through careful digging, the head was found turning out to be the only known image of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid.