Xian. The Xian City Wall, 24 May, Friday

 The old central city of Xian has an impressive wall surrounding it, for defense.
It is 39' high, and 7.4 miles in circumference.  It is nearly 60' wide at its base.  It was constructed in 1370 CE. It originally had a moat outside the wall.

Together with Athens, Cairo and Rome, Xian is among the four major ancient civilization capitals of the world. It is on the natural westward land route out of China into Central Asia, the starting point and terminus of the Silk Road, which brought the city material wealth as well as religious and cultural melting for over a thousand years.

It is 2,000 years older than Beijing!

I have been told that Xian was the first city the WORLD to reach a population of 1,000,000 people, and that 100,000 of them were foreign business men - in 700 CE.

A ceremony for tourists, inside the wall.
Lot's of formal marching about, and drumming.

Atop the wall.

A guard tower upon the wall.

A view from atop the wall,
looking down upon dwellings
just outside the wall.