Great Wall of China, Fortified line across northern China spanning over 21,000 kilometers through multiple provinces.
This defense network consists of interconnected fortifications made from limestone, rammed earth, bricks, and stone that stretch across mountains, deserts, and plains. Watchtowers rise at intervals along ridges, with walls of varying height and width that follow the terrain, leaving many sections today in different states of preservation.
Early sections appeared around 700 BC under separate Chinese states, before Qin Shi Huangdi connected them into a unified system during the Qin Dynasty. Major expansion took place during the Ming Dynasty between 1368 and 1644, when most of the stone structures visible today were built.
The wall's Chinese name, Changcheng, appears in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian; the longer Wanli Changcheng, "Ten-Thousand Mile Long Wall", uses wan figuratively for "immeasurable". After the Qin, dynasties avoided the name, preferring terms such as Sai (frontier) or Bianqiang (border wall), and only under the Qing did "Long Wall" become the catch-all term.
The wall spans 21,196.18 km across fifteen provinces, from Liaodong in the east to Lop Lake in the west, so pick one section rather than planning to cover the line. Only about 30 percent survives; the rest is eroded or overgrown. The walkway on top is paved but narrow, with low parapets and steep flights of steps.
Sections in the south Gobi Desert and the Mongolian steppe are sometimes called the "Wall of Genghis Khan", although Genghis Khan built no walls or permanent defense lines himself. The wall also served as a transportation corridor and a customs line, levying duties on goods moving along the Silk Road.
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