the great wall-impressive indeed

[Guest mirela_violeta]

Isn't the great wall an impressive construction, to reach so far even in the desert, no mountain too high, to defy all obstacles, all costs. When you're standing on the wall you think it goes on and on. Only someone as crazy as Qinshi Huangdi could have come up with an ideea to build a wall to defeand the north border. No wonder you can see it from the moon, it's as long as the north border. The materials they used in building the wall are also very interesting, they used the hardest brick and they used different kinds of materials according to the region. The millions of people that died while building it makes one wonder if it was all worth it. It surely help China to prevent from being conquered for hundred of years but eventually that happened anyway during the Yuan dinasty. They wondered if they burried the dead in the wall, but they didn't. It would have weakened the wall. They were very good constructers cause they built the wall even on mountain tops. The foundation lookes like more triangles made of brick which were cut into the mountain, like some sort of steps, which mede it possible for the wall not to collapse. If you know any interesting story about the wall I'm interested to hear it.

[confucius]

You can't see it from the moon! It is barely visible from 10,000 feet. I have the aerial photographs to prove it and have seen satellite reconnaissance photography that also dispels this common myth.

[roddy]

Apparently the 'only man-made structure visible from the moon'

thing was a diplomatic gift from the Americans to the Chinese. If you think about it, if you can see the Great Wall from space, then you should be able to see every long, wide construction - ie every highway everywhere.

[Guest mirela_violeta]

I haven't been on the moon myself but everybody says so. I guess everybody is wrong. I believe you though. It would be hard to think that you could see any construction from there. It's just a myth maybe but it sounds nice.

[roddy]

Oh, you can see loads of manmade stuff from the moon. Lights of cities. Smog. The Sahara Desert . . .

Roddy

[Guest CJM]

I haven't been into space myself, but I was under the impressions that (if you look hard enough), the outline of the great wall can be identified from Space. A case of "Chinese" whispers turned this into it being visable from the moon. This was for a long time the only individual man made structure identifiable from space. Now you can also make out a series of flood protection barriers on the Dutch coastline. I think they are the only two.

Chris

[roddy]

I'm sorry, if you can see the Great Wall, then surely you must be able to see every three-lane highway in the world?

Roddy

[Guest CJM]

Decided to do a little research in my lunch hour on this. Some sources state that along with numerous other manmade structures, the wall can be made out from a low altitude orbit. http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/great.wall.from.space/

However this was one astronauts response to the topic:

Astronaut Andy Thomas wrote about what you can see from orbit while aboard the Russian space station Mir: "Evidence of human habitation is visible from low Earth orbit. Cities can be seen, although, surprisingly, they do not stand out readily. But we can make out their grid-like patterns of streets. In remote areas, certain roads and railway lines can be seen as faint lines across the Earth, such as the road through the rain forests of Brazil, and the long straight railway line crossing south western Australia, but generally these are too small to make out clearly. The fencing off of farm land into individual fields can also be made out, particularly in the Midwest of the U.S. and Canada. There is even one area in South America where they alternate their growing cycles on adjacent fields, giving rise to a very obvious checkerboard pattern. Of course, national boundaries do not stand out by themselves as on a map, but some national boundaries can be seen where there are different land usage policies in effect on each side of a border, giving rise to different surface texture or color. In this way the southern border of Israel can be made out, as can part of the division between the U.S. and Canada. The stories about the Great Wall of China being visible from space may be true, but I have yet to see it."

I'm sure that doesn't clear up the matter, but I guess I and whoever reads this, is a little more informed.

Chris

[Guest hacta]

Great Wall cannot be seen from space. I read this in my textbook when I was a child and I believe it. When I grow up, I know it's a myth.

[roddy]

"The scenery was very beautiful," Yang said in an interview on China Central Television about his 21-hour space voyage. "But I didn't see the Great Wall."

Story in Al-jazeera, thanks to The Oriental List

Roddy

[Bamboozle]

I believe the greatest scenery is not Great Wall but the Grand Harmony Temple in Forbidden City. Just imagin you were the King himself, with hand setting on the armrest, your sight exceeding the Wu Gate facing the Tian'an Men Square, THEY ARE MINE-------

[tetsuo500]

I read a short article in an Australian newspaper last year. It said what some people thought was The Great Wall when looking at Earth from space is actually a river. I forget which river the article named.

[Quest]

Also, Qinshihuang used stones not bricks to build the wall. The bricks portions were added later mostly in the Ming Dynasty. The main purpose of the wall was to prevent the Huns from raiding the vast Chinese border in the north. Just as Americans cannot prevent Mexicans from crossing the border today, it was hard to prevent the Huns from raiding border towns in a hit and run fashion. The wall itself was never meant to prevent outright invasions, because like city walls, they knew well no walls were impenetrable in a real siege battle. Of course, the fact that the wall was built on mountainous terrains made it very hard for a potential enemy to move siege weapons around.

[Ian_Lee]

Quest:

The Great Wall that was built in the Qin Dynasty was located much northward. Part of its remnants is still found inside North Korea.

That Great Wall should have been mostly dilipidated by Ming's time if my guess is right. Probably it had never been repaired for centuries during Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties since it did not make sense to do so because those regimes were set up by nomadic tribes (which the Wall was built to prevent from intrusion) and the Wall was entirely within those dynasties' territories.

[Quest]

Ian_Lee:

Did I say something wrong that you addressed me individually? What you have posted do not seem to conflict with what I said.

[Ian_Lee]

Quest:

What I said was that the Great Walls built in Qin and Ming dynasties seemed to be two different structures judged by their locations which were hundred miles apart in some sections.

[Quest]

Ian_Lee:

That is what I said, I said the Mings added the brick walls.

[Guest greenpine]

its controversy about national security and cultural influence aside, the great wall is truely an exceptional achievement, from its engineering to the brick quality, all are wonders that amaze people, but the legend regarding whether it is possible to see the wall from the moon, my view is no,you can't see. reason being is that great wall is long, not big, unless the structure occupies a large surface area, it is not possible to see a structure that is small but is repeated in a very long succession.

[Jack MacKelly]

ESA's Proba satellite here shows a winding segment of the 7240-km long Great Wall of China situated just northeast of Beijing. The Great Wall's relative visibility or otherwise from orbit has inspired much recent debate.

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/Proba/cina.jpg

...'but I did not see our Great Wall," Liwei said after returning from his Space flight

People called for Chinese school textbooks to be revised to take account of Liwei's finding.

However such revisions may be unnecessary, according to American astronaut Eugene Cernan, speaking during a visit to Singapore: "In Earth's orbit at a height of 160 to 320 kilometres, the Great Wall of China is indeed visible to the naked eye.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Proba_web_site/SEMTTHGHZTD_0.html

[bathrobe]

The story that the Great Wall can be seen from space is what is known as an 'urban myth'.

Do a Google search on 'urban myth great wall' and you'll get lots of results!

For example:

http://www.snopes.com/science/greatwal.htm