The new ruins of Great Wall of China discovered by the archaeologists shows that wall is longer than expected and stretches eastward by 11 kilometres.
The newly discovered section, built during the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC to 220 AD) dynasties, was found in northeastern Jilin province, Xinhua reported.
“The site was found in Tonghua County, Jilin, 10.9 km eastward of what was previously thought to be the eastern end of the Great Wall in Xinbin County in neighboring Liaoning Province,” said ZhaoHailong, head of the Great Wall resources research team in Jilin, on Tuesday.
The team’s research was a part of a national project to measure the length of the Great Wall of the Qin and Han dynasties. It is generally believed that the Great Wall was built in different historic periods and adds up to about 50,000 km.
The government departments announced in December 2008 the exact length of the Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was 8,851.8 km, after conducting a first phase national survey of the Wall. Zhao said the archaeological site in Tonghua County was a well-preserved 172-meter section of ruins.
It is the first time a section of the Great Wall of the Qin and Han periods has been found in Jilin. He said there might be more forts in the 10.9-km distance between the new site found in Tonghua and what was previously thought to be its ending in Xinbin. “However, it is a meagrely populated area covered by dense forest and it is difficult to conduct archaeological surveys there,” he said.
