Behold! The Great Wall of China. So why does it snag a spot as one of the top World Wonders? I mean, we’ve all seen a wall before, and it’s not even the oldest of them. Well, this is no ordinary wall. It’s a formidable fortress, spanning almost for infinity, as wide as the Chinese history is long.
Strictly, it’s 13,000 miles/21,000 kilometers. Let’s think about that for a minute. The 2 capital cities furthest apart in the world are London and Auckland – they are still only 11,690 miles apart. For those who are not familiar with the location of those cities, it’s 90,943,478 chopsticks in length, but I tend to think that’s harder to imagine. But either way, my mind is completely blown! So this is the first reason this World Wonder takes a top spot.
Secondly, it’s a marvel of engineering. What you may not appreciate unless you visit it is, the Great Wall is not flat. Not flat at all! Sections of it meander through mountains, with very steep inclined steps. To build in such locations is mindboggling, and having been out of breath climbing these, I can only imagine how the soldiers protecting against nomadic tribes would have felt, climbing up and down all day in full body armour, sometimes under the baking sun!