Posted on 06/29/2015 4:47:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Around 30 percent of China's Ming-era Great Wall has disappeared over time as adverse natural conditions and reckless human activities -- including stealing the bricks to build houses -- erode the UNESCO World Heritage site, state media reported.
The Great Wall is not a single unbroken structure but stretches for thousands of kilometres in sections, from Shanhaiguan on the east coast to Jiayuguan in the windswept sands on the edge of the Gobi desert.
In places it is so dilapidated that estimates of its total length vary from 9,000 to 21,000 kilometres (5,600 to 13,000 miles), depending on whether missing sections are included. Despite its length it is not, as is sometimes claimed, visible from space.
Construction first begun in the third century BC, but nearly 6,300 kilometres were built in the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, including the much-visited sectors north of the capital Beijing.
Of that, 1,962 kilometres has melted away over the centuries, the Beijing Times reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
maybe they can move some of the remaining pieces to Vegas or the border here..
Paging Donald Trump.
Donald Trump. Please have a look, thanks. :D
Sounds like an off the wall situation.
The parts of the Great Wall being scanvenged for building materials are very remote and aren't much more than a raised dike that's hardly more impressive than a couple hundred cubic yards of earth that a bulldozer could pile up in a few hours work.
Besides, there's a noticeable lack of Mongol horse archers threatening to attack China, and if they ever did rise up again from the Mongolian steppes I do believe that the People's Liberation Army would fix their wagons pretty quick.
“reckless”?
What a pathetic joke.
Still no word or actions to stop ISIS....
Can't we just have UNESCO tax the world to save this World Heritage site? They have an enforcement group. I have seen them, they have powder blue helmets.
OH, NO! Not Trump! He’ll rename it the TRUMP GREAT WALL OF CHINA
Stones from Hadrian’s Wall were used in the 18th century to build a military road when the English were trying to repel Bonnie Prince Charlie’s invasion. It worked, and the English were spared from having to eat haggis.
Stones from Hadrian’s Wall were used in the 18th century to build a military road when the English were trying to repel Bonnie Prince Charlie’s invasion. It worked, and the English were spared from having to eat haggis.
But do they really need the Great Wall?
A successful sustainability action....
If enough bricks go missing it may have to be downgraded to the Pretty Good Wall of China.
I actually had haggis while in Scotland. It kind of taste like corned beef hash.
But we can’t build a 2,000 mile chain link fence along our border.
TRUMP Great Wall of China ... and Casino!
A Mail Pouch Tobacco sign would look good on it.
Love it!
Langoliers? :
“The Great Wall is indeed crumbling in remote spots, but this World Heritage Site is not exactly vanishing. There’s lots and lots of impressive unbroken miles of the Great Wall Of China that’ll be left standing for a long long time. “
So, a fundraising ploy? Save the great wall from global warming?
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