The Great Wall of China is one of the wonders of the world. Your map of China will show you that this wall begins on the east at a bay of the Yellow Sea. It winds across mountains, rivers, and deserts, half the lenght of China. The wall is about 1,500 miles long. This great structure, if set down in the United States, would reach from Boston to Guthrie, Oklahoma, or from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Palm Beach, Florida. It marks the boundary between China proper and Mongolia. It was built 200 years B.C. This means that is is over 2,100 years old. This great wall is 30 feet in height and 25 feet in thickness. It is made of bricks, earth, and stones. Earth is placed between the outside layers of bricks and stones and is packed very hard. Six hundred million cubic feet

of materials were used to build it and it was all built in 10 years. One wonders still more, when he sees the kind of country the wall passes over, how this work could have been done. The clay and bricks were carried for miles and miles. Rivers had to be bridged. Mountains were climbed - cliffs so steep that mules could not get over them. Certainly this great wall shows the wonderful patience and industry of the Chinese people. Why was it built? The Tartar tribes of Mongolia were constantly coming down on the Chinese. At last a Chinese emperor decided to stop these invasions. He called about him an army of engineers and builders, and the Great Wall began. When it was done, the Chinese soldiers could hold back the northern raiders easily. The view shows one of the famous gates in the wall. The road here is the great highway between north and south China.