The Great Wall of China
Thursday, 21st July 2005 by James Turnbull
It's a very common misconception that the great wall of china is the only man made object visible from space (sometimes others say from the moon, or from a satellite). Apparently the rumour started long before anyone had even been to space to check and in fact you can see a lot more man made objects than just the great wall (otherwise this website would be quite dull!).
So here it is, part of the great wall of china. Not very exciting is it? If you don't believe me this Space Radar Image from NASA confirm that this is indeed a bit of the great wall (bear in mind that the NASA image is slightly rotated).
You can scroll east or west to follow the wall's path, it goes on for 3,946 miles so you'll probably get bored before it runs out 😉
Thanks to LJS for the links
Does anybody know where the old sections of the Wall are that are supposedly visible from space? I remember hearing that not too long ago, some people discovered that there were ruins of the wall that could not be seen from the ground, but only appreciated from a distance, where a portion of the wall was destroyed and rebuilt centuries ago. I ran up and down the length of it, but I don’t think we’ve got a close enough zoom to really see that kind of detail from here…
Some discussion on its visibility from space
You can see anything from space with a satelite. The rumour said that you can see it from space with the naked eye. But you cant, only the shadow of the wall in winter is visible.
Part of the “only man made object visible from space myth” comes from soviet propaganda. When the russians put a cosmonaut up before us, they made this claim as a one upmanship thing. Also it was a bone thrown to China, supposedly an ally at the time. They had a whole list of these. Of course it is nonsence, the suez canal and panama canal are very visible. A bic lighter, (lit) would be visible in a dark enough place.
Great , Chinese !
I got lost here: View Placemark
anybody know where it goes further west?
The Chinese authorities finally conceded that it wasn’t visible, and asked publishers to remove that assertion from text books. But then they changed their minds. There were some articles about it quite recently on BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4459311.stm
I spent ages the other week looking for the Great Wall. Looking at it now that I can locate it, I feel rather disappointed. While the length of the wall is impressive, I suspect you really have to go there to fully appreciate it.
Quote: “(otherwise this website would be quite dull!).”
I was under the impression that most of the images linked from this site were taken with airplanes.
It comes as a surprise that in fact the wall is neither white (presumably a highway) nor black (presumably a railroad) at the spot noted. Comparing to the wall pictured in the NASA article, it appears that the wall is barely visible in google images.
I can’t believe that anyone ever feel for the “visible from space” story. I mean, the Wall is very LONG, but it’s only a few yards WIDE. No way you’d be able to see it from space. Some people even extended it to “visible from the MOON with the naked eye” which is just crazy talk.
I thought the rumour was that the Great Wall of China was the LARGEST man-made object visible from outer space.
I actually submitted much earlier this month (July 2005) about the east starting point of the Great Wall. It is URL is here
But I guess googlesightseeing stuff do not believe it or missed it.
The section is inside a modern city and the city map clearly marks it. Here. I know you guys don’t read in Chinese, but look out for the zig-zag gray pattern running from NW to SE. And at the crossing of this section and the railroad is the famous east post – “Shanhaiguan Pass”. The google map in fact shows it clearer than the city in this sense.
This pass and section of Great Wall are documented at wikipedia. Here for the pass and here for the whole Wall.
> it’s only a few yards WIDE
At many sections, it is as wide as 7 meters, converting to NOT just “a few” yards. (1 yard = 0.914 401 8288 meter ) I know what Rob tring to say though and I personally don’t think it is visible to naked eye in space.
Interestingly, it is a U.S. astronaut, Gene Cernan, who declared the Great Wall “is, indeed, visible to the naked eye”.
My wife actually had a chance to meet two US and two former USSR astronauts recently. She asked one from US and one from USSR. One answered no and the other said yes. 🙂
You cannot see the Great Wall of China from space. As mentioned above, the wall is only a few meters wide. Just because you can see it from google maps after zooming it many times does not mean its visible from space. An astronaut would see soemthing more like this: View Placemark It has already been cleared by a few astronauts that they cannot see it.
But then they changed their minds.
you cannot see in google earth! very clear.
I think these kind of rumours (for deceiving mankind) are just the principals of ‘new world order’. You must swallow your portion of drinking-is-a-must soup from that order and then shut up. There’s an interesting and also very complicated race (it’s impossible to decide who’s whose enemy etc.) between ‘super powers’. But the truth is out there lying under their ‘bloody’ feet; and if the eyes of a man / woman can’t see the truth, be sure that they persuade you their lies are the only truth. Open your eyes to see the real Great ‘Green’ Wall seperating them from us. Anyone can see it clearly with naked eyes anywhere…
I saw it for real but wheres it on google earth!?But i know english cause i went north america onece.
ansowa
I was standing on the great wall jst to weeks ago. Amazing that’s all I can say about it. Truly amazing. Yeah u see pictures of it on the tv or Internet and so on but its 1000000000 better than any pictures. I highly recomend seeing it in real life. But the main thing is. I dont think you would be able to see it from space with your naked eye. It takes a jet engine to fly it 6hours and full throatal if it was fully streched out. But I still struggle to see how they would be able to see it because its surrounded by moutains and would blend to the hillys and would just look like rock.
my sister went and she said it was beautiful:)