Photos! Shandan Great Wall

[chinoook]

The Shandan Great Wall shows on it's eastern section always Han and Ming Dynasty Great Wall close together. It very often seems that the Ming used the old and decayed Han Wall as an additional barrier. This is helped by the fact that the Han Wall shows a (sometimes deep) moat, which makes it difficult for horsemen to come close.
Geometrical considerations show, that the Han Great Wall has been much stronger than the Ming Great Wall. It had been built with about the double amount of material, meaning it was either double as thick or even more probable both thicker and about 1,5x as high as the Ming wall.
Here two examples:






-chinoook

[Bryan]

It looks like the moat is on the left side of the Han Great Wall in the first picture. Would that mean that the Han Wall is to the north and the Ming Wall is to the south, "behind" the Han Wall? If the Han Wall is 1.5 times as high as the Ming Wall, it seems like it would block the view of the enemy, unless one is looking from the top of a tower.

[chinoook]

Originally Posted by greatwallforum

It looks like the moat is on the left side of the Han Great Wall in the first picture. Would that mean that the Han Wall is to the north and the Ming Wall is to the south, "behind" the Han Wall? If the Han Wall is 1.5 times as high as the Ming Wall, it seems like it would block the view of the enemy, unless one is looking from the top of a tower.

Yes, the moat is always to the north.
Did I say the Han Wall _is_ 1,5 times or did I say it _was_? Today and probably in Ming times it is only very low because it is all in debris.


-chinoook

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by chinoook

Did I say the Han Wall _is_ 1,5 times or did I say it _was_?

Well, that answers my silly question...

[chinoook]

Some additional photos of the Shandan GW from my Visit in September 2011.

Some of you know that in the mountains behind the wall in the north runs another, much older wall ...











On one tower I found clear signs of overbuilding. I will check this on a later visit at Shandan, check whether this applies for all towers or for only single ones.



A fortress with the Qilianshan in behind. View to the south.






-chinoook