Great Wall crumbles

last updated 8 January 2015

Beijing

The Great Wall of China is disintegrating, China’s official news agency said this week. Once nearly 4,000 miles long, the wall has shrunk by two-thirds, largely because of centuries of pilfering by farmers and workmen who used the stones for their own projects. The wall was begun in 221 B.C., as a defensive structure made of earth. It was further built up, with elaborate stonework, from the 14th to the 17th century, under the Ming dynasty. The government blamed the increasing deterioration on “booming tourism and development, and lack of funds for protection.”