166 THE GREAT WALL CHINA. 



sufficiently near for mutual defence, and having besides, at every 

 important pass, a formidable and well built fortress. In many places in 

 this line and extent, the wall is double and even tripple. But from the 

 entrance of the province of Chan-si, to its eastern extremity, the wall is 

 nothing but a terrace of earth, in many places so much obliterated that 

 the missionary could cross and recross it on horseback. There are 

 numerous towers on this part of the wall, but they, too, are chiefly built 

 of earth. The wall is in many places carried over the tops of the highest 

 and most rugged rocks. Near every one of the gates, Father Gerbillon 

 found a town or large village. Other writers describe, that near one of the 

 principal gates which opens on the road towards India is situated Siningfa, 

 a city of prodigious extent and population. Here the wall is said to be so 

 broad at the top, " that six horsemen, placed abreast, might run a race 

 along it without inconvenience to one another.'' The esplanade on the top 

 of the wall is much frequented by the citizens of Siningfu, the prospect 

 from it is exceeding pleasant, and the stairs which give ascent to 

 the walls are broad and convenient; they add, that from this city to that 

 of Sucien it is 18 days journey on the wall ! 



The great wall, which has now, even in its best parts, numerous 

 breaches, is made of two walls of brick and masonry, not above a foot 

 and a half in thickness, and generally many feet a part; the interval 

 between them is filled up with earth, making the whole appear like solid 

 masonry and brickwork; for six or seven feet from the earth these 

 encasing walls are built of large square stones, the rest is of brick, the 

 mortar used in which is of excellent quality. The wall itself averages 

 about twenty feet in height, but the towers, which are distributed along 

 it, are seldom less than forty feet high. At their base, these towers are 

 fifteen feet square, but they gradually diminish as they ascend ; both 

 walls and towers have battlements. There are inclined planes as well as 

 stairs to ascend to the top. The rapidity with which this work was 

 completed is as astonishing as the wall itself (it is calculated as being 

 1,500 miles in length), the whole is said to have been done in five years, 

 by many million of labourers, the Emperor impressing three men out of 

 every ten throughout his dominions, for its execution. It was finished 

 205 years before the birth of Christ ; the period of its completion is an 

 historical fact, as authentic as any of those which the annals of ancient 

 kingdoms have transmitted to posterity : it was built to defend the 

 Empire from the incursions of the Tartars. The contrast between the 

 country within the wall and the wilds without is described as being at 

 certain points most striking; looking down from the battlements and 



