The watchtowers built on the Great Wall of China are also known as beacon towers or guard towers.The beacon towers served as a Chinese military passage and also to keep an eye on their enemies. During the daytime, smoke used to be created by soldiers and during the nighttime, a fire was lit to warn their fellow troops.Watchtowers were typically placed on high elevations such as mountain summits or hilltops to provide greater viewing opportunities. The Great Wall’s watchtowers are generally around three stories tall. The first floor of the guard tower was utilized as residential quarters for the Chinese soldiers and as storage rooms for grain and fuel. The second floor was utilized as the lookout post. On the summits of the towers are guns that can fire at invading soldiers. Soldiers could retreat inside the narrow towers once the invaders ascended the wall, where adversaries were forced to approach in a single file, allowing the defending soldiers to pick them out one by one.The oldest Great Walls had linked such watchtowers as vital components for its defensive function because they had existed and played a key role in looking over the enemy out at the furthest layer of the land. During the Han dynasty, construction progressed and the wall was strengthened, and it was finished during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE).The Han Dynasty devoted close attention to the construction of watch towers because they were critical for transmitting signals before battles.If you love reading fun facts articles, why not also check out our other articles: bodies in the Great Wall of China and Great Wall of China.When were the Great Wall towers built?The Great Wall is China’s, and the world’s, largest defense project, with the longest building time.Since the seventh century BCE, it has been under construction on and off for almost 2000 years, covering wide swathes of land in northern and central China.The earliest Great Wall was built during the Western Zhou Dynasty in the ninth century BCE when the emperor wanted to stave off attacks from northern nomadic groups by erecting barriers. For defense purposes, a line of fortifications was constructed. The state monarchs of the Autumn and Spring Periods, as well as the Warring States Period, began to construct border walls in the seventh and eighth centuries BCE to meet their defense demands.What were the towers originally used for?The Great Wall guard towers were originally built to keep a watch on their enemies.In ancient times when the men on the tower noticed the enemy approaching, they would puff smoke during the day and ignite a fire at night to relay messages to their soldiers one by one. The smoke was dubbed ‘wolf smoke’ because it was created by burning wolf excrement throughout the day.Because the smoke from burning wolf dung did not spread in the wind, it was regarded to be ideal for quickly transmitting messages. If just one or two enemy soldiers, or even up to 100 enemy soldiers, were detected, those on the Great Wall lit one beacon on fire and shot one volley. The soldiers lit two beacon fires and shot two fireworks if the enemy count reached 500. With the number of enemy soldiers, the number of ignited beacon flames and fireworks changed.The Great Wall of China’s beacon towers were typically placed on high sites such as mountain peaks or hilltops to provide better viewing points. The high altitude of the tower ensured that the troops from the nearby towers saw the signals prominently.There were three stories in each beacon tower. Soldiers’ residential quarters and grain and fuel storage rooms were on the first floor. If necessary, the supplies in the tower could keep the men alive for a long time. While the soldiers patrolled the Great Wall, the beacon tower was an excellent spot to stay out of the wind and rain.The majority of the watchtowers were built on the highest peaks, allowing soldiers to keep an eye on enemy movements more easily. If a conflict broke out, the watchtower became the generals’ command center and a relay station for messages to the emperor in the capital city. The soldiers on the Great Wall had to pass past the watchtowers if they wished to retreat or climb onto the wall from the ground. Along the Great Wall of China, the distance between towers was not uniformly distributed. Some of them were very close to one other, with a distance of less than 3 mi (4.8 km) between them, while others were several miles apart.The beacon towers came in a variety of shapes. The majority of them were square, with a few round or rectangular ones thrown in for good measure. Also, the materials that went into their construction were different. The materials were reliant on the availability of materials in the area.Who built the Great Wall towers?The Ming Dynasty (1368-1662 CE), which built the characteristic beacon towers, is largely responsible for the wall that people recognize today.The Chinese Chu Kingdom built the first defensive wall in the seventh century BC, followed by the kingdoms of Qi, Han, Wei, Zhao, Yan, and Qin.The walls built during this time were small in length and erratic in direction, with lengths varying from a few hundred to 1242.7 mi (2000 km) in each direction. To differentiate them from the Great Wall built by Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, historians deem them as the Pre-Qin Great Wall.Qin Shi Huang defeated the six kingdoms and unified China in 221 BCE, putting an end to the political strife of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Since then, Qin has established itself as the first Chinese feudal state.Qin Shi Huang began building the Great Wall to protect against incursions by powerful nomadic groups in the north, consolidating his dominating status and ensuring a stable environment for life and production. New walls were built in the Zhao and Qin kingdoms to extend the length of the Great Wall, which stretched over 3107 mi (5000 km) from Lintao in the west to Liaodong in the east.Emperors of subsequent dynasties, including the dynasties of Han, Jin, Ming, Tang, Northern and Western Wei, Northern Qi, Liao Northern Zhou, Sui, Song, Jin, Yuan, and Qing, all continued to build the wall on various scales after the Qin Dynasty.Typically, beacon towers are square, rectangular, or spherical in shape. Those constructed in northwest China during the Han Dynasty are essentially square, with side lengths of 6.6-7.7 yd (6-7 m) and a residual height of around 26 ft (8 m). The Ming Dynasty erected square or rectangular structures with side lengths of 5.5-8.7 yd (5-8 m ) and a height of 19.7 ft (6 m). The beacon towers were generally built with local materials and in accordance with local requirements. They are constructed by stacking stones and bricks in mountainous terrain. They are made of rammed-loam in grassland and desert areas. Different materials were employed to create smoke and fire in different dynasties, and different amounts of smoke and flames denoted different numbers of oncoming foes.Camping in Great wall towers is a fun tour option. Hope you had fun reading our article on the Great Wall watchtowersHere at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Great Wall towers then why not take a look at Eiffel Tower Las Vegas height or Eiffel Tower vs Statue of Liberty.
The watchtowers built on the Great Wall of China are also known as beacon towers or guard towers.
