It’s an architectural marvel, a tourist hotspot, and one of the new seven wonders of the world.

And now, the UNESCO-listed Great Wall of China has revealed another one of its many secrets.

According to a report in the Chinese state-run Global Times, new archaeological evidence suggests that the world’s most famous wall is actually at least three hundred years older than we thought.

Over ten million people visit the Great Wall of China every year. And given that this magnificent structure is over two thousand years old, it’s easy to understand why.

It’s a wonder for good reason: not only has it stood all this time, its 21,000 kilometers of magnificent length – stretching from the eastern sea at Shanhaiguan and ending to the west of China, at Jiauiguan, the sight of the wall stretching over the mountaintops as far as the eye can see is a spectacle to behold.

As is the sight of thousands of people walking the Mutianyu or Badaling sections at the height of tourist season, where ancient infrastructure has been supplemented by a Subway restaurant, a giant slide from the top of the Wall down to the bottom of the hills.

Modern conveniences aside though, the Great Wall, astoundingly, was built over 2,000 years ago. However, counter to previous estimations that the Wall was constructed by several dynasties around the 7th Century BC, new evidence dates the architecture and construction of the wall back to the late Western Zhou Dynasty of 1046 BC-771BC.

Why the updated date? Well, a section of the Great Wall has recently been excavated, updating the knowledge of archaeologists and historians. The Great Wall of Qi State – a section of the Great Wall between Jinan to Qingdao in Shandong Province – has turned out to be the oldest section of the Wall yet to be discovered.

At 641 kilometres, The Great Wall of Qi is also the longest section of the Great Wall – though not one that is well known nor travelled by the majority of tourists.

Thanks to seven months of excavations at a 1,100 square meter section of the Wall in 2024, archaeologists have made huge discoveries at the site, allowing our understanding of the true nature and history of this architectural behemoth to be truly understood, as Liu Zheng – a member of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics – explained in the Global Times:

“This archaeological discovery pushes the construction date of the Great Wall back to the Western Zhou period, establishing it as the earliest known Great Wall in China. It marks a significant breakthrough in Great Wall archaeology and is a milestone in clarifying the origins and development of China’s Great Wall research.”

In exploring the Wall’s ancient secrets, the team of scientists, historians, and archaeologists collected a variety of samples and artefacts from the site, located in Guangli village.

The samples that they took from the site were carbon dated in order to ascertain exactly when this area of the Great Wall was constructed.

During their excavations, the teams uncovered evidence that suggested that the Wall had been erected in this area in numerous phases, with foundations, roads and pits around the site demonstrating that construction had been a drawn-out and staggered process.

With the evidence gathered, the scientists were able to revise the previously understood date of construction, as Zhang clarifies:

“the walls can be divided into two main phases: early and late. The earlier walls, which date back to the Spring and Autumn Period, are about 10 meters wide and could have been built as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1046BC-256BC). The later wall sections primarily belong to the Warring States Period (475BC-221BC).

The third phase of the walls is the best preserved, with the most advanced construction techniques and the largest size, measuring over 30 meters in width. This section was likely built during the peak of the Qi State in the Warring States Period.”

But this was not the only notable discovery at the site, with other excavated constructions getting historians around the world similarly excited.

In fact, while they were unearthing evidence about the Great Wall’s early phases of construction, archaeologists uncovered two ancient homes in the region, as well as confirming the location of a Zhou Dynasty settlement, named Pingyin City, which had been located in historical texts but never actually by historians.

While these discoveries are fascinating in their own right, particularly in terms of how they shed light on the ancient Chinese peoples’ lifestyles, their riverside location and proximity to the early Wall also gives historians key new information, as Zhang continued:

“The layout, location, and associated infrastructure of the Great Wall of Qi reflect the Qi State’s advanced military planning and strategic response to external threats. Its close connection to Pingyin indicates that the wall served not only as a defense mechanism but also played a strategic role in controlling key transportation routes.”

And with thousands of miles yet to fully explore, we can only wonder what other secrets are just waiting to be discovered.

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