Western section of the Great Wall of China (Jiayuguan Outpost Watchtower)

Of all the sections of the Great Wall of China, Jiayuguan Outpost is the best preserved and one of the largest. It was built over 600 years ago, has been constantly restored and strengthened, and as a result has become an outpost unrivaled in China.

The outpost was built at the foot of Jiayu Mountain, which explains its name. Jiayuguan was once an important transportation hub on the Silk Road. Today it is an outstanding architectural monument to the skill and hard work of Chinese workers who erected the wall and outpost.

The structure includes an internal wall and an additional wall, a semicircle located in front of the main gate, an earthen rampart, external mud walls and a moat. There are gates on the east and west sides of the outpost. Above them tower grandiose three-storey towers, each with a height of 17 meters. The most interesting is the Yuntai Tower. On its inner walls are carved bas-reliefs of the four heavenly kings and Buddhist texts.

According to legend, the workers who built the outpost so accurately calculated the amount of necessary building material that at the end of all the work was only one brick. In deference to the craftsmen, a few centuries later, the brick was laid behind the cornice of the arch of the gate of the outer western wall of Jiayuguan.