| Xian
City Walls (7th century onward)
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sites in Xian |
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Now shrouded in smog, the walls of Xian once gave the defenders of Chang'an ample warning against enemy attack. First built in the Tang dynasty (618-907), the 14 mile long walls were repaired in the Ming dynasty. The roughly quadrilateral walls were pierced by three gates on each side, twelve in all, that divided the city into an implicit nine-square grid, the Chinese ideal since ancient times.
Bibliography:
All images copyright 2001 Professor Kerk L. Phillips of Brigham Young University, Utah, USA. Visit his webpage at www.pomosa.com
Boyd, Andrew. Chinese
Architecture and Town Planning: 1500 B.C. - A.D. 1911
Holmesdale Press Ltd., London.
1962