Imagine a wall 30 feet high, a wall thousands of miles long, a wall that crossed deserts and climbed over impossibly jagged peaks, a wall that contained thousands of individual forts and towers, a wall that was guarded by a million soldiers, a wall that took over 200 years to build. This is the story of thousands of miles of earth and stone that turned a nation into a fortress. The story of a people's struggle for absolute security in a violent and dangerous world. Needing defense against the Mongols, whose empire encompassed most of the known world, the Chinese built the Great Wall of China. This book tells the story. It is an illustrated throughout with detailed colour artwork by Alan Witschonke. It is part of the "Wonders of the World" - the award-winning series that tells the stories behind humanity's most extraordinary creations.