Who was the first Westerner to note the existence of the Great Wall of China? (It wasn't Marco Polo!)?

Question

Polo is silent about the Great Wall. So who was the first Westerner to see it, or even hear about it?

Answer 1

Tough question, and with the resources I have, I can't rightly answer it. However, I can help narrow the time period down considerably.

The great wall as it is known today, in the place it is today, was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Before that time, the 'great wall' was simply a series of diconnected fortifications dating back as early as the 3 century BC. Starting around the year 1368 and lasting till the end of the dynasty in 1644, the project took these crumbling relics of chinese antiquity from no less than 4 dynasties and combined, repaired, adjusted and remodelled them into the Great Wall. Marco Polo would not have reported on the Great Wall, as constructiono of the structure as we know it didn't begin until 40 years after his death.

Accepting that, we've narrowed the period of time to after 1368. We can narrow it further. The Ming Dynasty opened with a period of maritime expansion and exploration. The most famous of these explorers was Zheng He a muslim eunich, who travelled from 1405 to 1433. He made it all the way to southern Africa, the persian gulf, India, and across south east asia. Through his influence and others, there was a narrow 'golden age' of exploration and medievil foreign influence in China...which ended sharply in 1433. The emperor implimented draconinan confucian policies, which effectively ended official interaction between China and the rest of the world. Trade continued, but was largely limited to the southern and eastern coasts of China.

The Great Wall was known to the Europeans in the 1500s, and was actually listed as one of the '7 Wonders of the World', as understood by Medievil Europe. This in contrast to the 7 wonders of the ANCIENT world, this new list was supposedly updated by 15th century European Scholars. So.....after 1368, but before the 1500s, the Great Wall became 'known' to the West. Taking into consideration that closing of the country to the West in 1433, I think we can reasonably narrow the time period to between 1368 and 1433.

I think we can narrow it even further. During the early Ming Dynasty, there were sizable communities of Muslims and immigrants from Turkestan. 'Turkestan' in this era spanned from Northeast Iran and northern Afgahanistan to the Chinese border. Western influence and immigrants could have moved back and forth into China along this route. This was also the backbone of the silkroad, that collapsed in the very early years of the Ming Dynsasty (the last silk caravan along the road was 1400 AD).

As the Ming Dynasty abolished Christianity in 1368, it is unlikely that any of the many christian missions that existed in China during the Yuan Dynasty would have been able to transmit much information about the great wall.

So...the most likely time period that the in which the revelation occured was between 1368 (when construction of the modern Great Wall) began, and 1433 (when the country closed itself to outside influence). However, most of the western interactions with the Chinese from 1400 to 1433 were by sea, limiting western exposure to the inland great wall. Thus, we can further limit the likely first contact with the wall to the tail end of the use of the Silk Road.....between 1368 and 1400. As Christianity was already long since banned, the most likely person to have seen the wall first would most likely have been a trader, and not a missionary.

Best guess....the first westerner to see note the great wall was a silk trader who operated between 1368 to 1400, along the Silk Road through Turkestan. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Well, first a couple of things about Polo. Leaving aside the debate about whether or not he even went to China, or if he just made it up from stories he'd heard from others, it's important to remember that when he was there the wall probably wasn't the huge "can be seen from space" kind of structure that it is today. More likely it was smaller, and made of piled earth instead of stone. And he wasn't the first westerner to make it to the Far East. There were already merchants trading there, such as Polo's father and brother, and before that there were missionaries and ambassadors travelling in the wake of the Mongols, so it's most likely it was some unrecorded priest wandering around who first saw the wall. As for who first recorded seeing it? I have no idea, sorry.

Answer 3

The Macedonian (not greek) expedition send by Alexander III Macedonian The Great in 333 b.c. for exproring the unknown East world.

Answer 4

Arie Haan. He found a way there, but didn't stay long. He returned to his native Holland and after a short while he moved to Germany. There was not a lot of news about him visiting China in those days, but if you look it up in articles you should find something about it!

Answer 5

Probably Ferdinand Magellan.