Where Is The Great Wall [Paperback]

More than two thousand years ago, with his land under constant attack from nomads, the First Emperor of China came up with a simple solution: build a wall to keep out enemies. It was a wall that kept growing and growing. But its construction came at a huge cost: it is believed that more than a million Chinese died building it, earning the wall its nickname--the longest cemetery on earth. Through the story of the wall, Patricia Brennan Demuth is able to tell the story of China itself, the rise and fall of dynasties, the greatness of its culture, and its present-day status as a Communist world power.Patricia Brennan Demuth is the author ofWhat Was Ellis Island?,What Was Pearl Harbor?,Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder?, andWho Is Bill Gates?

Where Is the Great Wall?
 
 
More than two thousand years ago, the emperor of China had workers start building a wall. It was a wall like no other on earth—then or now. It has earned its name: the Great Wall. It is the largest structure that humans have ever made!
 
It is impossible to give its exact length. That’s because the Great Wall wasn’t built at one time. It’s a series of walls constructed over two thousand years, starting in ancient times. Emperors built new walls and linked them to old ones. Some walls decayed and fell apart. But the last Great Wall, built from about 1400 to 1600, still stands. It stretches in an unbroken line four thousand miles across China’s northern border. If placed in North America, the main wall would reach from the tip of Florida to the North Pole. 
 
There are also side walls that reach down into China to protect and enclose important places. Altogether, estimates of the Great Wall’s length range from about six thousand miles to over ten thousand miles. By any measure, it’s huge!
 
Many compare the Great Wall to a dragon, a symbol of power and strength in China. The hlÃ6