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Picture of the day - February 20, 2006
The Great Wall Of China
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Photo courtesy of Robert Ming.
Today's picture features the Great Wall Of China, the largest man-made
object on earth. Stretching some 4,100 miles along northern China, the Great Wall
is actually a series of short walls that more or less follow the ridges of
hills and cross desert and grasslands on the southern edge of the Mongolian plain.
The history of the Great Wall of China spans approximately 2,000 years and
several Chinese dynasties, finally taking it's current form under the famous
Ming Dynasty. Built as a defense against northern invaders, the wall ultimately
failed to fulfill that mission because of the gaps between the various sections.
Although it was believed for many years that the Great Wall Of China was so large that it
surely must be visible from the moon, the first successful Apollo Lunar
Mission debunked that theory once and for all. But the Great Wall is indeed the
last man-made object that can be seen with the naked eye from a spacecraft as it
travels away from the planet into space.
Today, the Beijing section of the Great Wall is China's most popular tourist
attraction, drawing over 4 million visitors each year.
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