Hiking the Great Wall of China Part 3
Inside the rampart, we could see the wall's hodgepodge construction over many centuries: older brown bricks were nested in gritty mortar alongside clean dark gray ones used by restorers in recent decades.
Ming dynasty rulers began construction of the Jinshanling wall—roughly as it exists today, with strategic holes and chutes for weaponry and watchtowers—in response to raids by bow-and-arrow-wielding Mongols in the 1500s.
Their soldiers and artisans used bricks as a facing for a stone-and-mortar wall erected after a 1550 attack by Mongol horsemen, according to David Spindler, an independent scholar who has been researching the wall around Beijing for several years. It was bolstered by brick ramparts.
ut the wall's history likely stretches back further.
"Another section of wall in the Jinshanling area, parallel to the current wall, may have been built by the Northern Qi dynasty," which ruled from 550 to 577 A.D., Spindler added.
The Jinshanling wall, now almost silent except for the squawks of pheasants, was once the scene of a historic battle between Chinese forces and Mongol fighters in October 1554.
But the Chinese overwhelmed the Mongols in just three days.
Ming dynasty rulers began construction of the Jinshanling wall—roughly as it exists today, with strategic holes and chutes for weaponry and watchtowers—in response to raids by bow-and-arrow-wielding Mongols in the 1500s.
Their soldiers and artisans used bricks as a facing for a stone-and-mortar wall erected after a 1550 attack by Mongol horsemen, according to David Spindler, an independent scholar who has been researching the wall around Beijing for several years. It was bolstered by brick ramparts.
ut the wall's history likely stretches back further.
"Another section of wall in the Jinshanling area, parallel to the current wall, may have been built by the Northern Qi dynasty," which ruled from 550 to 577 A.D., Spindler added.
The Jinshanling wall, now almost silent except for the squawks of pheasants, was once the scene of a historic battle between Chinese forces and Mongol fighters in October 1554.
But the Chinese overwhelmed the Mongols in just three days.
