Who decided to stop building the great wall of china?

Question

Does anyone know who gave the order to stop building the great wall. It took over 18 centuries to build. Why would anyone stop?

And please don't tell me because they finished or because a chinese guys said they should stop.

Thanks for answering

Answer 1

I don't think it was actually one order. A number of different rulers, warlords, societies etc. built different pieces of it at different times in different places.

Check out the link below for info on each piece.

Answer 2

The reason for stopping the building of the Wall was three fold.

Firstly it is not one wall. It is not even continuous. It is a series of hundreds of small walls which were constructed to protect against the barbarian hordes. Eventually as time progressed the barbarian hordes ceased to exist so protection was no longer needed.

Secondly it was meant to stop invasion by nearby enemies. As time progressed China invaded these territories so the wall was no longer a border but well withing the country of China.

Thirdly it was meant to keep it's people in the country. China has a long history of oppression and they didn't want people to leave and reveal what was happening. As their border increased Chinese people lived on both sides of the wall so continuing to build it was unnecessary.

Another myth about the wall is that it can be seen from space. It cannot as the first Chinese astronauts were embarrassed to find out. Bear in mind that it is only a few yards wide at it's thickest point and even large rivers much wider than the wall cannot be seen. In most places it is merely a mound of earth and it is only in the well publicised tourist photos where you see a real wall.