Unrecorded Great Wall beacon tower ruins found in NW. China

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 ◆ Unrecorded Great Wall beacon tower ruins found in NW. China

Chinese archeologists have discovered the ruins of 30 unrecorded Great Wall beacon towers, two fortified castles and two auxiliary buildings during a recent field study in northwest China's Gansu Province.

From its starting point at Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu to Shanhaiguan Pass on the shores of Bohai Bay at the eastern end, the Great Wall stretches for 6,000 kilometers, rising and falling, twisting and turning along the ridges of the Yanshan and Yinshan mountain ranges, crossing Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and Liaoning.

Known as the "Great Wall museum", Gansu is the site of Great Wall sections built in the Warring States Period (475BC-221BC) and successive Qin, Han and Ming dynasties. The wall sections built in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) are among the best preserved.

During the month-long study, the archeologists walked more than 2,000 kilometers along the Great Wall built in the Han Dynasty in Gansu.

This was the first study for 30 years of the Great Wall sections built in the Han Dynasty in Gansu. The investigation was of great importance in studying the political, economic and cultural development and the relations among different ethnic minorities in that period, said Zhang Defang, deputy head of the Gansu Provincial Archeological Research Institute.