City Wall of Nanjing

The City Wall of Nanjing was designed by the Hongwu Emperor (1328–1398) after he founded the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and established Nanjing as the capital in 1368. To consolidate his sovereignty and defend the city against coastal pirates, he adopted the suggestions of advisor Zhu Sheng to build a higher city wall, to expand strategic food reserve and to postpone the coronation. The construction of the wall required the labor of 200,000 workers over twenty-one years to complete. Around 7 million cubic meters (250×10^6 ft3) of earth were shifted to create one of the largest city walls ever constructed in China. The enclosed Nanjing City is about 55 square kilometers.

Text adapted from “City Wall of Nanjing” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

City Wall of Nanjing ranks #967 of 5,793 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #28 of the 120 mapped in China. Founded 1368, it is older than 60% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 346 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. See how China compares in the castle statistics.

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