The Great Wall is over 4000 miles long which translates to about 6300 kilometres.It is said that more then two million chinese people died during the period that it took to build the great wall,but that period was ran hundreds of years.
Translated the Chinese for great wall means the long city fortress.To properly explain to someone who has never visited the great wall exactly what it is,I would explain that it is may small series of large stones that have been built then repacked and rebuilt continually over many hundreds of years between the 5th century BC and the 16th century.
A good question to ask is why was the Great Wall built and the anwser revolves mainly around border protection the nomadic tribes or Xiongnu were often attacking the Northern borders of the Chinese dynastys.A good resource to learn more about these battles can be found here at wikipedia.
Another Brick in the wall
