Xi'an City Wall is the best preserved, oldest and largest ancient city defense system in China. It is also one of the most important landmarks of the Xi'an city.The City wall of Xi'an is the fortifications of Xi'an--an ancient capital of China.
Appearance of the Xian City Wall
The Xian city wall measured 25.7 km in length, 12–16 m in thickness at the base. The wall is 12 meters tall, 16 meters thick and roughly 12 kilometers in circumference. It encloses the city of Xian which is basically square in shape. A wide and deep moat surrounds the wall and the city.
On top of the wall, there is an 11-meter wide roadway which was originally designed for soldiers to move rapidly. Today, the roadway is a perfect place for a scenic walk. You can even try biking on it.
Military Defensive Mechanism of the Xian City Wall
Each side of the square wall has a gate, named by their direction East, South, West and North. There are drawbridges at each of the four gates. Lifting the drawbridge would cut off the way in and out of the city. Once gates closed and drawbridges lifted, the city is completely enclosed. These make protecting the city easy and attacking difficult.
Each corner of the wall has an imposing watchtower. These are the major strategic control points at war time.
On top of the watchtowers there are corner ramparts, higher and larger than the ordinary ramparts. Ramparts are towers that extend out from the main wall to allow soldiers to monitor their enemies who tempted to climb the wall. They also allow soldiers to protect the entire wall without exposing themselves to the enemy.
The city wall, city moat, drawbridges, watchtowers, corner towers, parapet walls and gate towers once made up the most comprehensive city defense system.
The weapons in ancient times were primitive. The gates were the main attacking points should enemies wanted to break into the city. Therefore, the gates were important strategic points to defend.
Gates of the Xian City Wall
3-Layer Structure of the Gates
1. Outer most – Gate Tower – controls the lowering and lifting of the drawbridge
2. Middle layer – Arrow Tower – windows for shooting arrows and monitoring enemies
3. Inner most – Main Tower – main city gate
Arrow Tower and Main Tower are connected by parapet walls. Soldiers usually station here. There are gradually ascending steps made way easy for war horses to go up and down.
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