When Was the Great Wall of China Built? Over 2,300 Years in 9+ Dynasties
When Was the Great Wall of China Built? Over 2,300 Years in 9+ Dynasties
Like Rome, the Great Wall of China wasn’t built in a day. Its construction lasted over 2,300 years (680 BC – 1681 AD). Different sections of the Great wall were being built, destroyed, and renovated by 9+ dynasties. As one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, it is by far the largest wonder and the one that took the longest to build.
Continue reading, and you will learn:
- When was the Great Wall first built, and why?
- Construction Timeline of the Great Wall
- How long did it take to build the Great Wall?
- How old is the Great Wall today?
When Was the Great Wall of China First Built?
According to historical records, the first Great Wall, named the Chu Great Wall or Chu Square Wall, was built and finished in the years between 680 BC and 656 BC, distributed in today’s Hubei and Henan provinces in eastern central China near the Yangtze River.
At that time, the eastern and central regions of what is now China consisted of seven main states, Qi, Wei, Zhao, Yan, Qin, Han, and Chu. To prevent invasion from his rich and aggressive neighboring state of Qi, the King of the Chu State ordered a wall built to link the existing watch towers (transmitting signals with beacon fires) for defense. So the original purpose of building the Great Wall was for self-defense.
In around 1046 BC, the Zhou Dynasty was established. The King of Zhou divided the conquered land among a few nobles, with five different ranks (Gong, Hou, Bo, Zi, and Nan). Chu, far in the south, was unhappy to be ranked No. 4 (Zi) and claimed he was king instead. Zhou found Chu was so rebellious that he set up more fiefs in the east and south of Chu, but they were finally conquered by Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC).
Chu was ambitious and aimed to take charge of all of central China by engaging in more wars. In the meantime, in order to defend against attacks from the northern fiefs, especially Qi, Chu began to build Great-Wall-like defenses, which played an important role in subsequent wars.
The inverted U-shaped Great Wall of the Chu State The original “Great Wall” was built in Fangcheng County, north of Nanyang City, Henan Province. Later, it was extended in both directions, forming an inverted U-shaped defense system surrounding Chu to the west, north, and east.
Later, Qi’s attack on Chu State was blocked by the Chu Great Wall. And later still, Jin was kept out by the wall when he brought a troop to attack Chu. Afterward, in the Warring States Period (476–221 BC), when more nobles became powerful in their own right, they started to build other “Great Walls” for self-defense.
A number of people also believed that the Great Wall was first built about 120 years before the Chu State, in the Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC) when watchtowers already existed in the Zhou Dynasty. This idea comes from the story of ‘Lit Beacons Fool Dukes’ written in China’s ‘The Records of the Grand Historian’ (史记).
However, the Great Wall is a complicated military system including not just watchtowers for surveillance and beacon towers for communications but also fortresses for command posts and logistics and adjoining walls. The watchtowers at that time were on a small scale and can only be treated as a prototype of the Wall.
King You of the Zhou Dynasty (795–771 BC) lit beacon fires a couple of times to fool his dukes into coming to defend against enemy invasion, only to amuse his beloved concubine Bao Si (an icy beauty with a poker face who did not laugh easily).Construction Timeline of the Great Wall
Over 2,300 years, many imperial dynasties and kingdoms built, rebuilt, and extended the Great Wall many times, but most of those walls subsequently eroded.
How Long Did It Take to Build the Great Wall of China?
The Great Wall of China’s history began in the Spring and Autumn Period (771–476 BC). The first-ever section of the ‘Great Wall’ was first built in the Chu State over a period of 24 years (680–656 BC). Afterward, new ‘Great Wall’ sections were built or rebuilt on their old sites to resist the invasion from neighboring states and later the northern nomads and nations, lasting over 2,300 years.
Among these 9+ dynasties of the Great Wall building, the Qin and Ming Great Walls played much more significant roles in history.
The Building of the Qin Great Wall — 15 Years
The Qin Dynasty connected together and expanded walls already in place on newly-united China’s northern frontier that were built by prior kingdoms. This began around 221 BC and continued in earnest for the Qin Dynasty’s brief reign of 15 years.
The Records of the Grand Historian suggested 300,000–500,000 soldiers were assigned to both build and guard the Qin Great Wall with the help of 400,000–500,000 conscripted laborers. Other records suggest that up to 1.5 million men were used during the peak of the Qin construction.
The Building of the Ming Great Wall — 276 Years
The latest imperial construction was performed by the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), and the total length of the Great Wall reached over 8851.8 km (5,500 miles). This is the wall often referred to today when we talk about the Great Wall.
The Ming Dynasty spent all 276 years of their time in power building the Great Wall. Decades of work went into constructing wide and paved turreted walls with towers. These walls (like Badaling and Mutianyu) served as troop highways in the rough terrain.
How Old is the Great Wall of China?
Jinshanling Great Wall, with a history of over 650 years.With the first ‘Great Wall’ built in the 7th century BC, the Great Wall of China is now over 2,600 years old. Most of the Great Wall (Badaling, Mutianyu, Jinshanling, etc.) standing today, was actually built in the Ming Dynasty (in the 14th to 17th centuries), and so most of it is around 400 years old.
Here’s a summary of the ages for the main Great Wall sections in China:
| Great Wall Name | Time of Building | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Jinshanling Great Wall | 1368 | Around 650 years old |
| Jiankou Great Wall | 1368 | |
| Jiayuguan Pass | 1372 | |
| Simatai Great Wall | 1373 | |
| Shanhaiguan Pass | 1381 | |
| Mutianyu Great Wall | 1404 | Around 610 years old |
| Huanghuacheng Lakeside Great Wall | ||
| Badaling Great Wall | 1505 | Around 510 years old |
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