2-889-550 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Tower on the Great Wall of China, 1850. 'At intervals, varying in distance from 200 to 500 yards, the Wall is flanked, on the Tartar side, by towers of brick, 45 feet square and 52 feet high. The one we examined was entered from the Wall by an arched granite doorway, 6 ½ feet high by 3 ½ broad. The construction of this arch...is most remarkable, for the Chinese have long ceased to use key-stones in their arches. A flight of steps to the right, within the doorway, leads up to the flat roof of the tower, which is surrounded by a parapet like that upon the Wall. The body of the tower is intersected at right angles by low arched vaults, each terminating in an embrasure, of which there are three on each outer face. From the construction of these vaults they seem to have been built for archers and spearmen, and not for any kind of artillery...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.