introduce
The ancient city wall of Datong was built in the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty. The city wall is tall and majestic, sturdy and steep, with tight defenses and complete facilities. It is a distinctive important town in the history of ancient Chinese military architecture. A major feature of the Datong City Wall is that the outer profile is like a gear, the piers are protruding, and the trapezoidal structure is a special shape for the Datong City Wall. The existing ancient city wall was built on the basis of the old cities of Han, Wei, Tang, Liao and Yuan in the fifth year of Ming Hongwu (1372), when General Xu Da guarded the city. It has a circumference of 7.24 kilometers and an area of 3.28 square kilometers. . The city walls are all based on regular stone strips, slabs, and stone cubes, rammed with "sanhe soil" and outsourced with blue bricks. The city wall is 14 meters high, 12 meters wide at the top, and 18 meters wide at the bottom. It is 6.6 meters wider than the Nanjing City Wall. There are 62 gate towers, turrets and watchtowers on the city wall. There are four city gate towers, among which the south gate tower is a three-storey building with a width of 61 meters and a depth of 23.35 meters. There are four turrets at the four corners of the city wall, especially the northwest turret, which is octagonal and is called Qianlou. Among the 54 watchtowers, Hongzilou is the watchtower, which is rare in other ancient city walls. At the same time, there are 96 nest shops. About 40 meters away from the wall, there is a moat, 10 meters wide and 5 meters deep. There is an urn outside the four gates, with a construction area of about 17,600 square meters. Outside the urn city, there is a moon city, which encloses the urn city and has a city gate. In this way, there are three gate cards to enter and exit Datong City. There are also "archery towers" or two-story "plaque towers" built on each gate. There are four gates in the city, Heyang in the east, Yongtai in the south, Qingyuan in the west, and Wuding in the north. Watchtowers, turrets, city towers and archery towers stand at intervals on the wall. The moat suspension bridge, Wengcheng, Yuecheng, Guancheng, and Ercheng are heavily guarded.
The city wall is tall and majestic, solid and precipitous, well-fortified, and well-equipped. It is a distinctive important town and famous city in the history of ancient Chinese military architecture. Because it occupies a very important position in the northern frontier defense and has played an important role in many battles, it has always enjoyed the reputation of "a towering town" and "the key to the north".
A special feature of Datong City Wall is that its outline is like a gear. There are fifty-two protruding piers in a trapezoidal structure, with a base length of about 23 meters, a top length of about 20 meters, and a top area of 400 square meters.
Corner piers: Slightly taller than the watchtowers. Outside the four corner piers, there is a military control platform (or Wangjun platform), about 16.6 meters wide and 15 meters long, with a distance of about 66 meters from the corner piers. meters, the upper shelf pedal communicates with the city wall. A special shape for the fortification of Datong City Wall.
opening hours
07:00-18:00 all year round (last admission 17:30)
