China re-draws Great Wall route after new discovery
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China has been forced to re-draw the path of the Great Wall after archaeologists discovered more ruins in the northwest of the country.
Xinhua reports that new sections of the UNESCO-listed wall have been unearthed on the border of Gansu province and the Ningxia Hui region, despite the belief that the wall did not pass through this area.
The remains include nine separate sections of wall, with a total length of more than 10km. They are believed to be part of an early section of the Great Wall, built during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).
Unlike the sections of the wall more popular with tourists, these weather-beaten remains are made from stone and compacted dirt and rise a little over a metre from the ground.
In 2012, China revised the official length of the Great Wall to 21,196km – more than double previous estimates.
Rather than being on continuous structure, the wall comprises multiple sections that were built over centuries, from around 700BC to 1600AD. It passes through 15 provinces and regions, from Liaoning in the east to Xinjiang in the west.
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