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-- construction continued --
Historical records show that 1,200 watchtowers
and blockhouses were built on the Great Wall between Shanghai Pass
and Beijing. Each watchtower was generally garrisoned by 60
officers and men, with half the number guarding the tower and the
other half deployed behind the battlements on the wall.
On several platforms were simply structured huts
called pu-fang, which provided shelter for the guards during
storms. Those at Badaling section ( nearby Beijing) commonly had
two stories, with accommodations for more than 10 soldiers on the
lower level. There were also drainage ditches on the walls to
shield them from damage by excessive rainwater.
There were two types of walls used while building
the Great Wall.
Although the wall had no master plan, all the sections of walls
were eventually combined. Since they were different walls combined,
they were made out of different materials. The two main types were
dirt walls and stone walls.
Dirt Walls
Dirt walls were made out of many different layers of pounded
earth. The dirt was dug by hand and workers carried the dirt to
the construction site. There the dirt was packed with wooden pounders
into a frame in layers that were 6 inches thick.
Stone Walls
Stone walls were more complex and expensive to build, but
they didn't need constant repair as dirt walls did. They were made
in a series of steps. The first step was the drying of mud bricks.
Then the bricks were baked in kilns. Then the materials were carried
by humans and animals to the work site. If the materials had to
cross valleys, they used pulleys and ropes to cross it. The foundation
was started with a huge slab of stone. Stone blocks were built up
along the sides and earth, rocks, and rubble were used to fill in
the spaces in between the bricks. Brick railings were built along
the sides and rain water drains were built along both sides.
Continued...........
 
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