Ancient cannons at the Pass

Five ancient cannons are displayed at the entrance to the Pass. They were advanced weapons of the Ming Dynasty to guard the Great Wall. The biggest cannon, 2.85 meters in the barrel and 105mm in the caliber, was engraved with the characters “Invincible Mighty General, granted by the Emperor”. There are lines of small characters recording the names of the ironsmiths and casting workers. It was built in the 11th year of Emperor Congzhen of Ming Dynasty (1638). The other four cannons were known as “cattle leg cannons”. They were unearthed in 1967 when renovating the Great Wall. There were accompanied with 235 cannonballs. The biggest was 12.5cm in the diameter and 6kg in weight. The smallest was 4cm in diameter and 0.25kg in weight. They were also built in Ming Dynasty.

The Walls

The walls are the most spectacular section of the Great Wall of China. They are largely 6-9 meters high, and 10 meters at the highest point. They average 7.8 meters in height. The walls are a little low in places leaning on impending slopes and cliffs. They become high when they are in gentle passes or stride over mountains and channels. The walls look terrace-shaped, thus fairly stabilized. They are 6.5-7.5 meters wide at the bottom part and 4.5-5.8 meters at the top. The walls with important passes are even wider. The walls are wide and flat to join the passes, accommodating to five horses or 10 soldiers in a row to meet fighting demands. The walls are lined with bricked low walls at the top, which are known as Zhidie (crenellation) or Duoqiang (buttress walls) from the external and Yuqiang or Nv’erqiang (parapet) from within. Duoqiang were used to meet enemies, showing the idea of “protecting ourselves while beating the enemies.” Yuqiang, about one meters high, are used to protect the safety of people and horses on the walls from falling out in emergency.