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We are surrounded
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by extraordinary feats of engineering
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constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
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Without engineering, there'd be no modern world.
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Gigantic cities, amazing infrastructure,
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and ingenious inventions.
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Engineering is the key to turn dreams into reality.
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To reach these dizzying heights,
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today's technology relies on breakthroughs
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made by ancient engineers.
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It's mind-boggling how they did this.
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How did early civilizations
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build on such a scale?
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They raised the bar for construction in a way
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that no one thought possible.
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The sheer engineering ability, which is a self-impressive.
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By defying the known laws of physics
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and daring to dream big.
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They constructed wonders of the world from gigantic pyramids
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to awe-inspiring temples and mighty fortresses.
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All with the simplest of tools.
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Can you imagine the skills people would have needed
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to build like this now?
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Now, it's possible to unearth the secrets
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of the first engineers.
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They managed to construct edifices
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that has survived the ravages of time.
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And reveal how their genius
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laid the foundations for everything we build today.
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(dramatic music)
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One type of engineering has shaped the world
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for at least 12,000 years.
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Brick by brick.
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The way we live has been defined by the wall.
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Human civilization is a product of walls.
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Fundamental to everything we build,
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the genius of the wall is often overlooked.
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Concept of a wall is simple.
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It's a boundary, it's a barrier.
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Without walls there'd be no houses,
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skyscrapers or churches.
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Even the world's most pioneering construction
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relies on its walls.
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Today, architects and engineers
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are designing new types of wall
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needed to build next generation cities.
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But the planet's greatest wall was built in ancient China.
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When this early civilization took wall building
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to epic proportions.
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The great wall of China
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is one of the most incredible engineering achievements.
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2,000 years in the making,
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the great wall was built
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with the blood and toil of millions.
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The workers paid a terrible price.
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It was hell on earth.
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Its purpose: to protect the nation
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against barbarian enemies.
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This was the stone dragon, the chilling symbol of a nation
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that refused to compromise.
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But how did the ancient Chinese build a wall
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that spanned deserts, rivers and even mountain peaks?
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They built a wall on a knife edge
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on the top of a mountain.
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It looks incredibly powerful and impressive.
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It's just amazing.
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Could there be secrets
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waiting to be discovered within its very structure?
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People began to wonder if there was something awful
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hidden in the walls.
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And did the great wall ultimately caused
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the downfall of the dynasty it was designed to protect?
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But this engineering masterpiece
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was not the first wall ever constructed.
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It came after centuries of architectural breakthroughs,
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that began with the dawn of civilization.
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20,000 years ago, the world was locked into an Ice Age.
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At this time, humans still had no need for walls or houses,
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because they were always on the move, struggling to survive.
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In the Ice Age, life was really hard.
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{\an8}You've got extreme weather conditions,
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{\an8}but you're moving around that landscape
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{\an8}trying to make the most of some really scarce resources.
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So you're taking everything you own with you,
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you're trying to create shelter wherever you go.
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{\an8}All you have is basically your wits to protect yourself
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{\an8}and the others around you to help protect yourself.
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Gradually thousands of years,
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the earth began to warm up.
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The ice sheets slowly retreated.
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The world blossomed.
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In an area of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent,
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there were rivers, natural springs, rich soil
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and an abundance of plants and animals.
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For the hunter-gatherers who lived here,
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this was now a world of plenty.
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It becomes far easier for people to survive.
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You can stop and stay where you are.
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Life is less brutal.
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The fundamental nature of human existence
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was about to change dramatically.
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After tens of thousands of years on the move,
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people started to farm the land.
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And these farmers needed permanent homes.
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So in places like the Fertile Crescent,
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we start to see the beginnings
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of what we really understand as urban life.
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In place of rough shelters,
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the first fixed structures appeared,
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and even these early buildings
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would reveal some incredible engineering genius.
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At the center of this revolution was Jericho
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in modern day Palestine.
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Archeologists long believed a muddy hill was that remained
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of the Stone Age settlement.
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But when they started digging this site,
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they made an astounding discovery:
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the remains of circular houses with solid walls.
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They'd found the world's first city.
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Incredibly, 10,000 years ago, these Stone Age peoples
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had already engineered something
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that would become the building block of global civilization.
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Bricks!
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(brick crashing)
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There are two key ingredients for brick-making
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and the Middle East has each in abundance:
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mud and sunshine.
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So bricks are essentially made from clay.
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Clay is a very fine-grained soil
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that you can find pretty much all over the world.
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{\an8}So it's a very easy material to locate and to work with.
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The ancients molded clay
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into rectangular blocks and left them in the sun.
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Drying made them stronger
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and they could then be pushed out in little units.
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{\an8}And with this engineering leap, the world changed forever.
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{\an8}Bricks were here to stay.
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These individual blocks
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were glued together with mortar,
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making the first known walls.
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When you're building with a brick,
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what you're essentially doing
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is taking the earth beneath your feet,
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{\an8}finding a way of turning that into a wall.
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Humanity's 10,000 year love affair with a brick
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is evident across the globe.
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From the first handmade mud varieties
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to the mass produced examples of today.
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Down the centuries, bricks have hardly changed.
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I think bricks are absolutely amazing.
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{\an8}And the reason they're much the same
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{\an8}over the history of building
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is that they're all broadly the same size,
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and for a really good reason.
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The reason that brick is the size that it is,
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is it fits in your hand.
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The world today produces
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an estimated 1.5 trillion bricks a year.
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Instead of some dried, modern bricks are hardened in kilns
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at over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Once fired, they become as tough as rock.
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Bricks keep homes cool in summer, warm in winter
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and to some they're even beautiful.
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I love bricks!
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I mean, what isn't there to love about bricks?
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I love seeing a brick building.
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There's something romantic about it.
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The brick is a timeless technology.
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But the people that built the first brick walled homes
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had a shotgun store.
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Their new shelters could actually make them more vulnerable.
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As archeologists further explored the ruins of Jericho,
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they made another discovery.
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Inventing the brick was just the beginning.
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The thing about stopping in one place
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and expanding all the things you can do,
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like agriculture, keeping cattle,
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starting your first crops, that makes you prosperous.
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And if you're prosperous, you need to defend that stuff
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from the people that wants to take it from you.
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So early settlers
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then made a second great engineering leap:
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creating a massive defensive wall surrounding their town.
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Jericho became the first known walled settlement
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anywhere in the world.
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Its final wall was over 11 feet tall,
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visible for miles around,
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a statement of power and a warning to anyone
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who wanted to attack.
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{\an8}What the wall does is not just make us safe and secure,
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but it provides the symbolism of that,
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because the wall defines this as home,
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or this is my place, and that is outside my home.
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So human civilization is literally a product of the wall.
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With Jericho, the defensive wall had arrived.
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In the next few centuries, great walled cities
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sprang up across the region,
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their defenses becoming ever bigger, ever more complex.
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Damascus, sitting at the crossroads of Africa and Asia.
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Uruk, ancient city of Mesopotamia
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and at the time largest in the world.
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Babylon, the sinful city of the Bible,
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famed for its huge walls, hanging gardens
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and mythical tower of Babel.
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And Jerusalem, the Holy City,
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lying just 19 miles east of Jericho.
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Methods may have changed,
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but the construction of defensive walls in this region
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continues to the present day.
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Standing between Jerusalem and the ancient side of Jericho,
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a very modern defensive wall:
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the Israeli West Bank wall.
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The Israeli government call it a security barrier.
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It divides their population from the Palestinians.
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Walls are to a certain extent a testament of fear,
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because they are about building something
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to stop someone or something from getting in.
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Cutting through 440 miles of undulating land,
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the West Bank wall is a feat of modern engineering,
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like it or love it.
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It's made of concrete slabs up to 26 feet tall,
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bristling with watchtowers and cameras.
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At other points, giant electric fences
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supplemented by patrol roads, razor wire, and trenches.
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Modern walls can be built fast,
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but for thousands of years the defensive walls purpose
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has remained the same: keeping other people out.
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Just a few hundred miles away from this modern border
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lies the home of a very different civilization.
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One that began its own period of wall building
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and construction 5,000 years ago.
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(dramatic music)
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Ancient Egypt.
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When it came to building walls,
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the Eguptians were brilliant.
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Egyptian civilization took building in stone
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to another level:
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jaw dropping palaces, soaring pyramids,
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and temples featuring beautiful decorated columns.
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When it came to that temples,
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in which gods were worshiped,
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the Egyptians tended to surround these temples,
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which were built from stone,
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with thick huge walls of mud brick.
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Solid walls fortified the temples,
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defining the land within as sacred
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and protecting the complex.
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But in some cases,
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there was something highly unusual about them.
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Bizarre undulating forms,
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no other Egyptian walls looked like this.
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So was this pragmatic engineering
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or did it have a deeper purpose?
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It's one of the great mysteries of ancient Egypt.
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In search of answers, archeologists and engineers
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make detailed structural examinations.
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Finding no engineering explanation
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for the undulating design, historians had a brainwave.
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And there is the school of thought
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{\an8}that this is meant to replicate the waters of chaos.
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Ancient Egyptians believed
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that the world was born from the sea.
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And archeologists now think
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the wavy walls reflect that myth.
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But could there be another reason why curvy walls
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appealed to the engineers of Egypt?
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Neuroscientists at the University of Toronto
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may have come up with an explanation.
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00:15:20,093 --> 00:15:24,293
After testing volunteers in a brain imaging machine.
270
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,510
Participants were shown pictures of internal architecture,
271
00:15:29,510 --> 00:15:31,653
both curvy and straight edged.
272
00:15:32,500 --> 00:15:35,263
Their brain scans revealed a fascinating truth.
273
00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:39,600
So, as humans, when we're viewing structures
274
00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,310
that have very sharp lines or sharp edges or corners,
275
00:15:43,310 --> 00:15:45,260
it almost conveys threat.
276
00:15:45,260 --> 00:15:48,440
Whereas curved lines, soft edges
277
00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:51,163
much more comfortable and welcoming.
278
00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:55,280
This insight could help explain
279
00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:57,753
why most defensive walls aren't curvy.
280
00:15:59,390 --> 00:16:01,410
So defensive walls are there
281
00:16:01,410 --> 00:16:03,660
to not only physically keep people out
282
00:16:03,660 --> 00:16:06,993
but also to look intimidating and domineering.
283
00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:15,320
This may also explain
284
00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:18,590
why many modern architects are creating buildings
285
00:16:18,590 --> 00:16:19,933
with curved walls.
286
00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:24,160
The Guggenheim in Bilbao
287
00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:28,760
with its dazzling curves of titanium, limestone and glass
288
00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:31,573
creating surfaces that ripple in the change in light.
289
00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:39,850
The Metropol Parasol, largest wooden structure in the world,
290
00:16:39,850 --> 00:16:43,393
like a giant mushroom springing up in the heart of Seville.
291
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,030
And the National Museum of Qatar
292
00:16:48,030 --> 00:16:49,580
with its interlocking discs
293
00:16:49,580 --> 00:16:51,663
inspired by the desert rose crystal.
294
00:16:53,650 --> 00:16:57,793
Across the globe, a new generation of iconic buildings,
295
00:17:00,300 --> 00:17:02,603
abandoning the tyranny of straight edges.
296
00:17:05,340 --> 00:17:07,880
Their designs too mathematically complex
297
00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,053
to draw on paper,
298
00:17:10,410 --> 00:17:14,023
created instead with cutting edge 3D technology.
299
00:17:15,420 --> 00:17:17,410
What the computer enables you to do
300
00:17:17,410 --> 00:17:22,250
is to model not just the design, not just the building,
301
00:17:22,250 --> 00:17:24,843
but also how you're going to construct it.
302
00:17:25,850 --> 00:17:28,330
Working at the limits of the possible,
303
00:17:28,330 --> 00:17:31,010
this is high risk engineering.
304
00:17:31,010 --> 00:17:32,750
If you get it wrong,
305
00:17:32,750 --> 00:17:35,110
it's not just that these buildings will look bad,
306
00:17:35,110 --> 00:17:38,490
it's that they simply won't stand up.
307
00:17:38,490 --> 00:17:41,100
These mind-bending modern structures
308
00:17:41,100 --> 00:17:43,273
are changing the language of architecture.
309
00:17:44,300 --> 00:17:45,920
but they're follow in the footsteps
310
00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:49,070
of an earlier architectural revolution.
311
00:17:49,070 --> 00:17:52,140
One that 2,000 years ago to wall building
312
00:17:52,140 --> 00:17:56,166
to a whole new level and set out to build the impossible.
313
00:17:56,166 --> 00:17:58,916
(dramatic music)
314
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:09,993
Ancient Rome.
315
00:18:11,670 --> 00:18:15,350
Roman roads, bridges, monuments and public buildings
316
00:18:15,350 --> 00:18:18,243
were constructed on an unprecedented scale.
317
00:18:19,660 --> 00:18:22,690
And one leader would push their engineering prowess
318
00:18:22,690 --> 00:18:26,350
to the very limit, creating one of the most extraordinary
319
00:18:26,350 --> 00:18:28,223
defensive walls in history.
320
00:18:30,430 --> 00:18:31,823
The emperor Hadrian.
321
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,700
Hadrian, above all, was a wall builder.
322
00:18:35,700 --> 00:18:38,070
{\an8}He was someone who wanted to set the boundaries
323
00:18:38,070 --> 00:18:39,150
{\an8}of the Roman empire,
324
00:18:39,150 --> 00:18:43,070
{\an8}to divide what was Roman from what was not Roman.
325
00:18:43,070 --> 00:18:45,863
Hadrian came to power in 117 AD,
326
00:18:46,820 --> 00:18:49,663
inheriting the Roman empire at its height.
327
00:18:52,380 --> 00:18:54,790
It's stretched from the sands of the Sahara desert
328
00:18:54,790 --> 00:18:58,990
in North Africa, to the rivers of Mesopotamia in Iraq
329
00:18:58,990 --> 00:19:02,813
and northward to the Rhine and Danube in central Europe.
330
00:19:04,460 --> 00:19:07,560
But on the remote fringe of this vast empire
331
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:11,943
laid one troublesome province: ancient Britain.
332
00:19:17,590 --> 00:19:19,660
{\an8}For the average Roman infantryman,
333
00:19:19,660 --> 00:19:21,580
{\an8}the prospect of traveling to Britain
334
00:19:21,580 --> 00:19:23,603
{\an8}would have been absolutely terrifying.
335
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:26,480
The tribes of ancient Britain
336
00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:28,593
were not taking occupation lightly.
337
00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:33,100
One of the defensive tactics was to create displays
338
00:19:33,100 --> 00:19:36,130
of hysteria, supposedly, to really play up
339
00:19:36,130 --> 00:19:37,870
the role of the barbarian,
340
00:19:37,870 --> 00:19:40,363
and the Roman soldiers were petrified.
341
00:19:41,650 --> 00:19:42,810
One part of the country
342
00:19:42,810 --> 00:19:46,293
proved particularly nerve wracking: Caledonia,
343
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:48,943
modern day Scotland.
344
00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:53,460
Faced with unruly locals
345
00:19:53,460 --> 00:19:56,103
and the inhospitable Caledonian landscape,
346
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,653
Hadrian came up with a unique solution:
347
00:20:00,610 --> 00:20:03,503
a gigantic wall like no other.
348
00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:10,900
Hadrian decided to build what we now know
349
00:20:10,900 --> 00:20:12,580
as Hadrian's wall,
350
00:20:12,580 --> 00:20:16,640
which was to be a boundary, but, but also a checkpoint,
351
00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:18,760
a place where the Romans could control movement
352
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:20,600
between what was their territory
353
00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,730
and what was controlled by the tribes north of the wall.
354
00:20:23,730 --> 00:20:27,060
His plan would require a massive defensive wall
355
00:20:27,060 --> 00:20:29,820
studded with forts and towers.
356
00:20:29,820 --> 00:20:32,810
It would have to be manned by thousands of troops,
357
00:20:32,810 --> 00:20:35,990
built across mountains, valleys and rivers
358
00:20:35,990 --> 00:20:39,483
running the width of Britain, dividing the land.
359
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,390
The wall would begin at the banks of the river Tyne
360
00:20:43,390 --> 00:20:46,190
near the North Sea and continue all the way
361
00:20:46,190 --> 00:20:49,260
to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea,
362
00:20:49,260 --> 00:20:52,283
cutting across the country for over 70 miles.
363
00:20:54,510 --> 00:20:57,410
For the Roman occupiers far from home,
364
00:20:57,410 --> 00:20:59,553
it was an incredibly ambitious goal.
365
00:21:01,020 --> 00:21:03,330
Anyone who's visited Cumbria or Northern England
366
00:21:03,330 --> 00:21:06,010
will note it is a spectacular landscape
367
00:21:06,010 --> 00:21:08,460
but not the easiest to traverse.
368
00:21:08,460 --> 00:21:09,810
Engineers would have to deal
369
00:21:09,810 --> 00:21:12,660
with fast flowing rivers, hard rock
370
00:21:12,660 --> 00:21:15,443
and mile upon mile of rolling hills.
371
00:21:21,630 --> 00:21:24,083
But where would they find thousands of laborers?
372
00:21:25,630 --> 00:21:27,250
The hard graft of the wall building
373
00:21:27,250 --> 00:21:31,343
was all done by Roman soldiers from three different legions.
374
00:21:32,940 --> 00:21:34,880
30,000 men were available
375
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:36,523
for wall building duties.
376
00:21:37,870 --> 00:21:42,540
The Roman army spent very much more of its time building
377
00:21:42,540 --> 00:21:46,250
and making and putting infrastructure in place.
378
00:21:46,250 --> 00:21:49,640
In the army itself, we don't just have skilled fighters,
379
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:54,590
but also engineers, surveyors, doctors,
380
00:21:54,590 --> 00:21:56,910
chefs, people who made trumpets,
381
00:21:56,910 --> 00:21:59,290
people who looked after the animals.
382
00:21:59,290 --> 00:22:01,023
It was a whole community.
383
00:22:04,500 --> 00:22:07,643
Construction began in 122 AD.
384
00:22:10,090 --> 00:22:14,330
Soon, men from every legion were hard at work on the wall.
385
00:22:14,330 --> 00:22:18,460
Over 75,000 cubic yards of stone was torn from the ground
386
00:22:18,460 --> 00:22:20,330
and taken where needed.
387
00:22:20,330 --> 00:22:23,953
Stonemasons dressed each stone with hammers and chisels.
388
00:22:25,770 --> 00:22:26,980
They were then set in place
389
00:22:26,980 --> 00:22:28,853
by the hands of the legionnaires.
390
00:22:33,730 --> 00:22:36,610
Two columns were built and the space between them
391
00:22:36,610 --> 00:22:40,280
filled with a core of rubble, earth and mortar,
392
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,500
and for added strength Roman engineers had invented a way
393
00:22:43,500 --> 00:22:45,533
to set their mortar rock hard.
394
00:22:46,887 --> 00:22:49,510
What you do is you take a limestone
395
00:22:49,510 --> 00:22:51,050
and you roast it at a temperature
396
00:22:51,050 --> 00:22:55,650
anything between 900 to 12,000 degrees centigrade.
397
00:22:55,650 --> 00:22:58,883
This drives out all the moisture, creating quicklime.
398
00:23:00,380 --> 00:23:01,213
And what you can do with quicklime
399
00:23:01,213 --> 00:23:05,160
is you grind it into a powder, you can slake it with water,
400
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:09,370
and then what you had in essence is a form of concrete.
401
00:23:09,370 --> 00:23:11,890
The Romans used this super tough concrete
402
00:23:11,890 --> 00:23:13,423
to lock stones together.
403
00:23:14,580 --> 00:23:17,070
And it's still in evidence in some parts of the wall
404
00:23:17,070 --> 00:23:19,183
nearly 2,000 years later.
405
00:23:21,099 --> 00:23:24,061
(sheep bleating)
406
00:23:24,061 --> 00:23:26,098
(gentle music)
407
00:23:26,098 --> 00:23:28,920
And the wall today holds other secrets,
408
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,340
carved into its fabric.
409
00:23:31,340 --> 00:23:33,280
We know that Roman soldiers built the wall,
410
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,333
because they left their signatures on some of the stones.
411
00:23:38,980 --> 00:23:41,830
We have the names of the legions who were stationed there.
412
00:23:41,830 --> 00:23:43,710
Sometimes we have the emblem
413
00:23:43,710 --> 00:23:45,913
for the legion as well, their identity.
414
00:23:48,420 --> 00:23:50,150
But how did the Romans ensure
415
00:23:50,150 --> 00:23:51,890
their mighty fortification
416
00:23:51,890 --> 00:23:54,183
would succeed in its intended job?
417
00:23:56,940 --> 00:23:59,300
Only monumental engineering could hold
418
00:23:59,300 --> 00:24:01,233
the so-called barbarians.
419
00:24:02,140 --> 00:24:05,330
The main stone wall stood almost 10 feet wide
420
00:24:05,330 --> 00:24:06,913
and nearly 20 feet high.
421
00:24:07,820 --> 00:24:11,740
Small forts built into the walls a Roman mile apart
422
00:24:11,740 --> 00:24:13,853
housed 32 soldiers.
423
00:24:14,980 --> 00:24:18,573
And two stone lookout turrets were placed between each fort.
424
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:21,090
Any sign of trouble
425
00:24:21,090 --> 00:24:24,273
and reinforcements could be deployed rapidly along the wall.
426
00:24:25,540 --> 00:24:29,113
14 much larger forts were also built next to the wall.
427
00:24:31,540 --> 00:24:34,210
A purpose was to fortify the wall.
428
00:24:34,210 --> 00:24:36,370
Soldiers would be stationed in these forts
429
00:24:36,370 --> 00:24:40,130
to keep control over who was passing through the wall
430
00:24:40,130 --> 00:24:42,890
to keep watch at who might be approaching.
431
00:24:42,890 --> 00:24:44,220
And so that they could send signals
432
00:24:44,220 --> 00:24:47,120
to assemble a field army if necessary.
433
00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:50,193
Hadrian's wall was a huge statement of intent.
434
00:24:51,060 --> 00:24:53,740
To the local tribes, this would have been
435
00:24:53,740 --> 00:24:57,180
a powerful expression of Roman dominance.
436
00:24:57,180 --> 00:25:00,760
This was a structure which sent the message:
437
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:01,733
We're here to stay.
438
00:25:02,910 --> 00:25:04,550
This is something alien.
439
00:25:04,550 --> 00:25:06,050
This is something brutal.
440
00:25:06,050 --> 00:25:09,353
And this is something that's been designed to control us.
441
00:25:14,380 --> 00:25:16,870
But massive walls weren't the only deterrent
442
00:25:16,870 --> 00:25:18,033
in Rome's arsenal.
443
00:25:19,430 --> 00:25:23,110
The occupiers also engineered small-scale defensive weapons
444
00:25:23,110 --> 00:25:24,873
that were surprisingly effective.
445
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:30,480
And in the soil beneath the imposing battlements,
446
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:33,600
archeologists discovered a piece of Roman engineering
447
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:36,760
so simple, yet so devastating
448
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,163
that it's design is still in use today.
449
00:25:41,810 --> 00:25:45,340
The caltrop scattered on the ground.
450
00:25:45,340 --> 00:25:49,233
Its sharpened edges can lame a soldier or a horse.
451
00:25:50,270 --> 00:25:52,100
Modern equivalents are now used
452
00:25:52,100 --> 00:25:54,823
to take on horsepower of a different nature.
453
00:25:56,100 --> 00:25:59,863
Deployed by armies and police forces to disable vehicles.
454
00:26:02,671 --> 00:26:05,754
(helicopter buzzing)
455
00:26:10,163 --> 00:26:12,270
For the Roman military forces,
456
00:26:12,270 --> 00:26:15,860
the ability to stop the enemy was equally important.
457
00:26:15,860 --> 00:26:17,880
Thanks to their incredible manpower
458
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:19,730
and engineering prowess,
459
00:26:19,730 --> 00:26:23,183
Hadrian's wall was completed in 128 AD.
460
00:26:24,150 --> 00:26:26,663
It had taken just six years to construct.
461
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,520
Hadrian's wall served as the Northwest frontier
462
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,123
of the Roman empire for 300 years.
463
00:26:34,970 --> 00:26:38,000
At its peak, more than 10,000 men lived
464
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,303
and worked here as border guards.
465
00:26:41,140 --> 00:26:43,643
Today the wall is a world heritage site,
466
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,563
recognized as a landmark in military engineering.
467
00:26:49,730 --> 00:26:52,030
It's rumored that Hadrian's masterpiece
468
00:26:52,030 --> 00:26:55,870
was inspired by word of an even bigger defensive wall.
469
00:26:55,870 --> 00:26:58,130
One being built in a mysterious kingdom
470
00:26:58,130 --> 00:27:00,633
thousands of miles away from ancient Rome.
471
00:27:08,830 --> 00:27:09,663
China.
472
00:27:13,100 --> 00:27:16,040
Today at the forefront of engineering,
473
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:20,130
over the last 30 years China has transformed itself,
474
00:27:20,130 --> 00:27:23,210
rebuilding infrastructure on a massive scale.
475
00:27:23,210 --> 00:27:27,060
Modern day China is a huge engineering project.
476
00:27:27,060 --> 00:27:31,450
60% of the population now live in urban areas,
477
00:27:31,450 --> 00:27:33,923
including six of the world's mega cities.
478
00:27:35,250 --> 00:27:38,990
The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest
479
00:27:38,990 --> 00:27:42,290
and possibly the greatest single engineering project
480
00:27:42,290 --> 00:27:43,603
of the 20th century.
481
00:27:45,530 --> 00:27:47,860
This manmade mountain took wall building
482
00:27:47,860 --> 00:27:49,373
to record breaking heights.
483
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:55,700
Standing nearly 600 feet tall and 1.4 miles long,
484
00:27:55,700 --> 00:28:00,090
it required 988 million cubic feet of concrete
485
00:28:00,090 --> 00:28:03,123
and 463,000 tons of steel,
486
00:28:03,980 --> 00:28:07,133
enough to build 63 Eiffel towers.
487
00:28:08,550 --> 00:28:10,790
Other gigantic engineering projects
488
00:28:10,790 --> 00:28:14,683
include the fastest supercomputer, highest bridge,
489
00:28:14,683 --> 00:28:18,130
and the world's largest high-speed rail network.
490
00:28:20,630 --> 00:28:23,550
China is a civilization on the move.
491
00:28:23,550 --> 00:28:25,720
They find out how to remove the barriers.
492
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,760
They don't let things hold them back.
493
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,590
They will advance and keep developing
494
00:28:29,590 --> 00:28:31,190
and keep pushing the boundaries.
495
00:28:32,510 --> 00:28:33,960
Groundbreaking engineering
496
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:35,493
is in the country's DNA.
497
00:28:36,690 --> 00:28:40,790
China first became a unified nation 2,000 years ago
498
00:28:41,870 --> 00:28:43,780
and almost immediately embarked
499
00:28:43,780 --> 00:28:46,033
on the legendary engineering project.
500
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,423
One that defines the nation to this day.
501
00:28:53,900 --> 00:28:58,900
The Great wall of China, the most astonishing fortification
502
00:28:59,140 --> 00:29:00,583
ever seen on earth.
503
00:29:04,470 --> 00:29:05,630
It's so long.
504
00:29:05,630 --> 00:29:07,840
The guards at the eastern end of the wall
505
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,310
would witness the sunrise one hour and 20 minutes
506
00:29:11,310 --> 00:29:13,103
before guards at the western end.
507
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,520
This gigantic stone dragon is an iconic image
508
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:22,273
recognized through the world,
509
00:29:25,170 --> 00:29:27,750
and even from space.
510
00:29:27,750 --> 00:29:30,240
The great wall of China is undoubtedly
511
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:34,460
one of the great sights of the whole world.
512
00:29:34,460 --> 00:29:37,120
As a work of architecture, it's extraordinary
513
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:39,420
and a work of engineering, it's extraordinary.
514
00:29:40,270 --> 00:29:43,633
The story of wall begins in 221 BC.
515
00:29:53,410 --> 00:29:57,680
China was a newly unified country and under attack.
516
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,830
To the north of China were a nomadic group of people
517
00:30:00,830 --> 00:30:02,210
known as the Xiongnu.
518
00:30:04,530 --> 00:30:07,590
The so called barbarians lived in the mountains
519
00:30:07,590 --> 00:30:09,993
and the plains of what is today Mongolia.
520
00:30:11,290 --> 00:30:14,670
They regularly crossed into China, raiding farms
521
00:30:14,670 --> 00:30:16,706
taking food and goods by force.
522
00:30:16,706 --> 00:30:19,456
(riders yelling)
523
00:30:21,580 --> 00:30:24,810
These nomadic warriors work famous for their use
524
00:30:24,810 --> 00:30:27,730
of bow and arrow and also for their horsemanship.
525
00:30:27,730 --> 00:30:31,543
So they were renowned for their lightning fast attacks.
526
00:30:31,543 --> 00:30:33,560
It would have been absolutely terrifying
527
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:34,710
being attacked by them.
528
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:37,790
With a huge border to defend
529
00:30:37,790 --> 00:30:40,350
and unable to mount a military response,
530
00:30:40,350 --> 00:30:43,113
emperor Qin came up with an audacious plan:
531
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,513
to keep the enemy out with a wall,
532
00:30:50,030 --> 00:30:52,440
a wall thousands of miles long
533
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:57,440
to be built across extreme terrain, deserts, high mountains,
534
00:30:58,420 --> 00:31:01,210
plunging valleys and rivers.
535
00:31:01,210 --> 00:31:05,490
Only a madman would contemplate such a feat of engineering.
536
00:31:05,490 --> 00:31:08,690
But the emperor Qin had the resources of an empire
537
00:31:08,690 --> 00:31:10,400
at his disposal.
538
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,840
He was one of the most powerful autocrats in history.
539
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:18,463
He was the most ruthless of the most ruthless.
540
00:31:19,333 --> 00:31:22,083
(dramatic music)
541
00:31:24,190 --> 00:31:25,800
Nothing would stand in the way
542
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:29,393
of the emperor's dream of the biggest wall of all time.
543
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:36,053
Especially, when it came to assembling a huge workforce.
544
00:31:38,700 --> 00:31:41,260
{\an8}Well, the most forced labor, ordinary people,
545
00:31:41,260 --> 00:31:43,160
{\an8}were taken from the heart of China,
546
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,530
{\an8}and criminals also sent off to the great wall.
547
00:31:49,567 --> 00:31:52,840
More than 200 crimes were punishable
548
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:54,450
with laboring on the wall.
549
00:31:54,450 --> 00:31:56,930
And if someone died during their sentence,
550
00:31:56,930 --> 00:31:59,743
one of their family members had to take their place.
551
00:32:01,140 --> 00:32:02,820
For the next 10 years,
552
00:32:02,820 --> 00:32:05,520
more than 3 million soldiers, peasants,
553
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,373
prisoners, and laborers were forced to build the wall.
554
00:32:10,130 --> 00:32:13,243
They started in the barren lands of the Gobi desert.
555
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,050
Here, there was little stone to be found
556
00:32:17,050 --> 00:32:18,540
for hundreds of miles.
557
00:32:18,540 --> 00:32:20,230
So engineers had to find
558
00:32:20,230 --> 00:32:22,323
a different material for construction.
559
00:32:25,130 --> 00:32:28,480
For centuries Chinese farmers have been building walls
560
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:31,713
out of rammed earth to protect their homes.
561
00:32:36,500 --> 00:32:39,700
Working in large groups, they create a wooden frame
562
00:32:39,700 --> 00:32:42,883
and then fill the space with a mixture of earth and reeds.
563
00:32:44,870 --> 00:32:48,503
They then ram the earth down using tools or bare feet.
564
00:32:50,300 --> 00:32:53,193
Engineers call this downward force compression.
565
00:32:54,980 --> 00:32:58,363
Pressure packs the earth together, making it very strong.
566
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:03,500
Workers then added another layer and continued the process,
567
00:33:03,500 --> 00:33:06,973
building ever higher until the wall stood 20 feet tall.
568
00:33:09,530 --> 00:33:12,440
The finished earth and structures were so tough,
569
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,440
that section still stand in the desert today
570
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,493
more than 2,000 years later.
571
00:33:19,090 --> 00:33:22,790
Now, if you came galloping in across the Gobi,
572
00:33:22,790 --> 00:33:25,010
you would have seen a wall
573
00:33:25,010 --> 00:33:28,463
such as no one had seen the history of Asia,
574
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:31,780
and perhaps in human history.
575
00:33:31,780 --> 00:33:33,380
Beyond the desert sections,
576
00:33:33,380 --> 00:33:35,870
walls erected by farmers already stood
577
00:33:35,870 --> 00:33:37,163
along some of the route.
578
00:33:38,220 --> 00:33:41,570
So the Qin emperor, he took these sections of old wall
579
00:33:41,570 --> 00:33:45,030
which already existed, and he built new sections as well
580
00:33:45,030 --> 00:33:48,193
to create a single unified barrier.
581
00:33:55,330 --> 00:33:57,360
As the wall snaked on through valleys
582
00:33:57,360 --> 00:33:58,780
and across mountains,
583
00:33:58,780 --> 00:34:01,050
Qin's engineers used whatever materials
584
00:34:01,050 --> 00:34:04,993
they could get their hands on: stone, earth or wood.
585
00:34:06,420 --> 00:34:08,790
The Chinese people paid a terrible price
586
00:34:08,790 --> 00:34:10,240
for their emperor's vision.
587
00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:14,180
{\an8}It's been estimated that more than 400,000 died of disease,
588
00:34:14,180 --> 00:34:16,173
{\an8}malnutrition or exhaustion.
589
00:34:18,230 --> 00:34:20,010
The wall stretch from Lintao
590
00:34:20,010 --> 00:34:22,500
into deserts of Northwest China,
591
00:34:22,500 --> 00:34:25,020
to the banks of the Yellow River
592
00:34:25,020 --> 00:34:27,703
and onto the steps of inner Mongolia,
593
00:34:28,750 --> 00:34:31,853
ending in the Northeastern region of Liaodong.
594
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,033
A truly formidable defense.
595
00:34:37,690 --> 00:34:40,543
Emperor Qin's wall was known as the Long Wall.
596
00:34:42,180 --> 00:34:44,140
It wasn't finished in his lifetime.
597
00:34:44,140 --> 00:34:47,010
It would take hundreds of years and a twist of history
598
00:34:47,010 --> 00:34:49,513
for it to become the Great Wall we know today.
599
00:34:50,690 --> 00:34:53,523
Emperor Qin died in 210 BC.
600
00:34:54,550 --> 00:34:57,860
In life he ruled with an iron fist.
601
00:34:57,860 --> 00:35:01,133
And it turned out he planned to do the same in death.
602
00:35:03,610 --> 00:35:06,220
In 1974, workers unearthed
603
00:35:06,220 --> 00:35:08,823
another incredible construction project:
604
00:35:11,540 --> 00:35:15,540
thousands of life-sized warriors made of clay
605
00:35:15,540 --> 00:35:18,323
ready to fight for the emperor in the afterlife.
606
00:35:19,750 --> 00:35:21,403
The terracotta army.
607
00:35:23,490 --> 00:35:26,410
Like most walls, emperor Qin's Long Wall
608
00:35:26,410 --> 00:35:27,983
was built to keep people out.
609
00:35:29,210 --> 00:35:31,140
Throughout history walls have been built
610
00:35:31,140 --> 00:35:35,600
as a defining point to say: on this side, we are civilized,
611
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:37,523
but on that side, you are not.
612
00:35:38,510 --> 00:35:41,310
But perhaps the most famous modern wall
613
00:35:41,310 --> 00:35:43,283
was created to keep people in.
614
00:35:53,690 --> 00:35:55,690
The Berlin wall.
615
00:35:55,690 --> 00:35:59,513
It's purpose to stop East Germans escaping to the West.
616
00:36:02,390 --> 00:36:05,980
In the early hours of August the 13th, 1961,
617
00:36:05,980 --> 00:36:07,930
East German construction workers
618
00:36:07,930 --> 00:36:10,160
backed up by soldiers and police
619
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:12,633
began erecting barriers throughout Berlin,
620
00:36:14,940 --> 00:36:17,683
dividing the city street by street.
621
00:36:18,970 --> 00:36:21,220
What began as barbed wire and fences
622
00:36:21,220 --> 00:36:24,600
evolved into a sophisticated reinforced concrete wall
623
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:27,943
with watchtowers, kill zones and minefields.
624
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,343
Guards were ordered to shoot anybody who tried to escape.
625
00:36:34,620 --> 00:36:36,590
For 28 years, the wall stood
626
00:36:36,590 --> 00:36:39,763
as a symbol of the Cold War, dividing Europe.
627
00:36:44,630 --> 00:36:47,990
Until the 9th of November, 1989,
628
00:36:47,990 --> 00:36:51,180
when thousands of demonstrators marched on the checkpoints,
629
00:36:51,180 --> 00:36:53,743
forcing overwhelmed guards to open the gates.
630
00:36:55,610 --> 00:36:58,323
Rejoicing crowds poured into West Berlin.
631
00:36:59,190 --> 00:37:02,603
Revelers danced on top of the wall and demolished it.
632
00:37:04,820 --> 00:37:07,013
The years of separation were over.
633
00:37:08,300 --> 00:37:11,193
The Berlin wall had fallen.
634
00:37:12,540 --> 00:37:17,540
A reminder that throughout history regimes come and go.
635
00:37:22,770 --> 00:37:24,990
And in the year 1368,
636
00:37:24,990 --> 00:37:29,910
a new regime was taking power in China, the Ming dynasty.
637
00:37:29,910 --> 00:37:32,520
And they would push Qin's architectural legacy
638
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:33,723
to the next level.
639
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,290
China really changed under the Ming dynasty.
640
00:37:38,290 --> 00:37:41,330
The Ming were a modern, outward looking dynasty
641
00:37:41,330 --> 00:37:44,520
sending trade missions abroad and selling their silk,
642
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:46,630
brocade and porcelain.
643
00:37:46,630 --> 00:37:48,813
This trade brought them great wealth.
644
00:37:50,270 --> 00:37:52,150
Before they tackled the Great Wall,
645
00:37:52,150 --> 00:37:55,520
the Ming first chose to stamp their identity on China
646
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:58,953
with another extraordinary construction project:
647
00:38:00,140 --> 00:38:03,823
the Forbidden City, the emperor's new palace.
648
00:38:05,430 --> 00:38:07,380
10 years in the planning and built
649
00:38:07,380 --> 00:38:10,180
with some of the most ingenious engineering techniques
650
00:38:10,180 --> 00:38:11,253
of all time.
651
00:38:12,910 --> 00:38:15,750
It was a palace unlike any other
652
00:38:15,750 --> 00:38:17,880
that had ever been built in China.
653
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:19,360
And it was a real statement
654
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:22,510
that the man living in the middle of this palace,
655
00:38:22,510 --> 00:38:24,933
the emperor, was the son of heaven.
656
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:28,490
But like many cities around the world,
657
00:38:28,490 --> 00:38:32,290
the Forbidden City was built on a geological fault line.
658
00:38:32,290 --> 00:38:34,580
Earthquakes are a really devastating force
659
00:38:34,580 --> 00:38:36,920
that gets applied to our structures.
660
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:38,230
It's a large force.
661
00:38:38,230 --> 00:38:42,250
It's chaotic, that often very unpredictable.
662
00:38:42,250 --> 00:38:44,180
And while modern engineers seek ways
663
00:38:44,180 --> 00:38:47,360
to defend their buildings against earthquakes,
664
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:48,890
it seems they have much to learn
665
00:38:48,890 --> 00:38:51,283
from their ancient Chinese equivalents.
666
00:38:52,980 --> 00:38:56,830
The Forbidden City has been hit by over 200 quakes
667
00:38:56,830 --> 00:38:58,603
and survived them all.
668
00:39:00,740 --> 00:39:03,453
Present day architects wanted to learn how.
669
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,570
Researchers examined the wooden buildings
670
00:39:07,570 --> 00:39:11,183
and discovered the answer lay with their complex carpentry.
671
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,450
Wooden beams and columns formed the structural core
672
00:39:15,450 --> 00:39:17,600
of all the forbidden cities buildings,
673
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,973
and between their crossbeams and roofs are ornate brackets.
674
00:39:23,020 --> 00:39:25,943
They're made of interwoven beams and blocks.
675
00:39:27,070 --> 00:39:28,413
None of them fixed.
676
00:39:29,490 --> 00:39:32,200
They support the eaves and roof,
677
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:36,140
and sit on a large beam supported by tall columns.
678
00:39:36,140 --> 00:39:38,400
But the columns are free standing.
679
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:41,553
All these structural parts bear the roof's immense weight,
680
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,290
but nothing is fixed glued or nailed.
681
00:39:45,290 --> 00:39:48,603
So when quake strikes, all parts are free to move.
682
00:39:50,110 --> 00:39:52,440
They figured out how to allow the buildings
683
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:55,600
to rock in an earthquake without breaking.
684
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:59,170
We're now fully understanding how that works.
685
00:39:59,170 --> 00:40:00,710
The forbidden city was built
686
00:40:00,710 --> 00:40:03,190
to survive natural disasters,
687
00:40:03,190 --> 00:40:06,600
but there's another secret hiding within its walls.
688
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:09,630
The flashy show palace doubles up as a fortress
689
00:40:09,630 --> 00:40:11,700
defended by soldiers.
690
00:40:11,700 --> 00:40:16,363
33 feet high defensive walls, a moat, and watchtowers.
691
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:22,240
Walled cities may no longer have a role in the modern world,
692
00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:24,390
but even today the most important buildings
693
00:40:24,390 --> 00:40:27,083
are still designed with security in mind.
694
00:40:30,070 --> 00:40:33,253
One of the most recent is the U.S. embassy in London.
695
00:40:35,130 --> 00:40:39,930
It's been designed to look open, transparent
696
00:40:39,930 --> 00:40:42,717
and be a symbol of equality.
697
00:40:42,717 --> 00:40:46,270
$1 billion buys a lot of subtlety.
698
00:40:46,270 --> 00:40:47,600
It looks lightweight.
699
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:51,133
It looks very soft and almost delicate.
700
00:40:53,550 --> 00:40:55,170
But don't be fooled.
701
00:40:55,170 --> 00:40:57,470
The glass is blast proof.
702
00:40:57,470 --> 00:40:59,493
The interior is solid concrete.
703
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,900
And the embassy boasts all the latest defense systems,
704
00:41:03,900 --> 00:41:07,680
including a 100 foot blast zone, defensive ditch,
705
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:11,720
hidden steel and concrete bollards, even a moat.
706
00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:13,940
Inside, there's a barracks for soldiers,
707
00:41:13,940 --> 00:41:17,513
anti surveillance technology, and a fully staffed hospital.
708
00:41:21,790 --> 00:41:25,460
The pursuit of security would also lead the Ming dynasty
709
00:41:25,460 --> 00:41:28,710
to a groundbreaking engineering solution.
710
00:41:28,710 --> 00:41:30,660
One that would go down in history
711
00:41:30,660 --> 00:41:35,120
as among the most amazing feats of construction of all time.
712
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:37,400
Although the Ming dynasty was looking outward
713
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:38,350
as much as possible,
714
00:41:38,350 --> 00:41:41,320
there was still a problem with the Northern border.
715
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:43,240
In the 15th century,
716
00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:45,520
China's old barbarian enemies
717
00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,613
were threatening the nation once again.
718
00:41:49,510 --> 00:41:53,160
And sections of the emperor Qin's ancient walls
719
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:54,830
were now crumbling.
720
00:41:54,830 --> 00:41:57,610
The Ming dynasty decided to rebuild the wall
721
00:41:57,610 --> 00:42:01,183
to firm up that boundary between China and the North.
722
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,830
The Ming aimed to create a huge new wall
723
00:42:06,830 --> 00:42:08,513
thousands of miles long.
724
00:42:09,670 --> 00:42:11,750
It would be manned by guards
725
00:42:11,750 --> 00:42:14,523
and dotted with towers and fortresses.
726
00:42:15,860 --> 00:42:17,810
This time their engineers would use
727
00:42:17,810 --> 00:42:19,920
the same basic building block,
728
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:23,100
first created thousands of years earlier:
729
00:42:23,100 --> 00:42:26,600
in the wall cities of the ancient Middle East.
730
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,750
The wall was built out of bricks
731
00:42:28,750 --> 00:42:31,920
and they created these enormous kilns
732
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:36,140
to create those many, many thousands of bricks.
733
00:42:36,140 --> 00:42:37,820
But no brick is effective
734
00:42:37,820 --> 00:42:39,283
without a good mortar.
735
00:42:41,550 --> 00:42:44,633
And for this, the Chinese had a secret weapon.
736
00:42:46,500 --> 00:42:49,060
So I've read that they use sticky rice in there,
737
00:42:49,060 --> 00:42:50,860
which is not something you would see
738
00:42:50,860 --> 00:42:52,400
on a materials list today.
739
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:54,710
And the reason we believe that that was done
740
00:42:54,710 --> 00:42:57,200
is because the starch and the sticky rice
741
00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:00,010
gave the mortar a little bit of flexibility,
742
00:43:00,010 --> 00:43:02,930
so that when the wall was experiencing
743
00:43:02,930 --> 00:43:05,000
the temperature variations it did,
744
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,220
it just allowed that little bit of flex,
745
00:43:07,220 --> 00:43:10,060
so that you wouldn't get any major cracking.
746
00:43:10,060 --> 00:43:12,710
This mixture of clay, lime and rice
747
00:43:12,710 --> 00:43:17,483
was so strong, it's still bonding many of the bricks today.
748
00:43:21,610 --> 00:43:24,660
The wall was an epic production line of quarrying,
749
00:43:24,660 --> 00:43:27,733
stone cutting, brick making and construction.
750
00:43:28,780 --> 00:43:29,883
And it was brutal.
751
00:43:30,950 --> 00:43:33,940
Some sections ran across mountain ranges,
752
00:43:33,940 --> 00:43:36,690
angles as steep as 70 degrees,
753
00:43:36,690 --> 00:43:40,170
before plunging down into deep valleys.
754
00:43:40,170 --> 00:43:41,003
It's incredible.
755
00:43:41,003 --> 00:43:43,220
You can hardly walk or climb up there.
756
00:43:43,220 --> 00:43:45,490
You'd need ropes to hang on.
757
00:43:45,490 --> 00:43:47,380
And yet they've built a wall
758
00:43:47,380 --> 00:43:49,670
on a knife edge on the top of a mountain.
759
00:43:49,670 --> 00:43:52,710
So the people who did this, they were incredibly brave.
760
00:43:52,710 --> 00:43:54,760
And it's an amazing piece of engineering.
761
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:02,000
Solutions to these physical challenges
762
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:06,073
came from an expert in an entirely different field of study.
763
00:44:07,490 --> 00:44:10,450
Liu Hui was one of the greatest mathematicians
764
00:44:10,450 --> 00:44:11,683
of ancient China.
765
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:16,913
He wrote a book that solved complex engineering problems,
766
00:44:18,150 --> 00:44:21,490
such as how to calculate the depth of a ravine,
767
00:44:21,490 --> 00:44:24,343
the width of a river or the height of a building.
768
00:44:25,860 --> 00:44:27,480
Using these instructions,
769
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:29,950
an army of engineers plotted the course
770
00:44:29,950 --> 00:44:31,790
and construction of the Great Wall
771
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:36,420
and one simple but effective bit of Chinese engineering
772
00:44:36,420 --> 00:44:39,673
helped get their equipment up the steep and narrow paths.
773
00:44:41,330 --> 00:44:44,270
It is believed the Chinese invented the wheelbarrow
774
00:44:44,270 --> 00:44:48,423
somewhere around 200 AD, and it remains in use today,
775
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:52,173
a staple of the modern building site.
776
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:57,730
But other aspects of wall construction
777
00:44:57,730 --> 00:45:00,003
were far removed from the modern world.
778
00:45:01,380 --> 00:45:04,650
The Ming weren't big on health and safety.
779
00:45:04,650 --> 00:45:07,060
The building work would have been incredibly difficult.
780
00:45:07,060 --> 00:45:09,700
We know that they suffered badly from lack of clothes.
781
00:45:09,700 --> 00:45:12,810
And we know they also suffered badly from a lack of food.
782
00:45:12,810 --> 00:45:15,993
And yet, the wall still managed to be built.
783
00:45:17,220 --> 00:45:20,630
Thousands of people died building the Ming wall
784
00:45:20,630 --> 00:45:23,750
and the horror of the work gave rise to superstitions
785
00:45:23,750 --> 00:45:25,403
that persist to this day.
786
00:45:26,890 --> 00:45:29,730
It's no surprise that myths and legends of grownups
787
00:45:29,730 --> 00:45:32,720
suggesting that the ball may have actually been packed
788
00:45:32,720 --> 00:45:35,490
with the bodies of dead laborers.
789
00:45:35,490 --> 00:45:36,940
Some stories, even claim
790
00:45:36,940 --> 00:45:39,150
the famous white rice mortar
791
00:45:39,150 --> 00:45:41,713
was actually made from the bones of workers.
792
00:45:42,970 --> 00:45:46,270
Generations lived and died on the wall.
793
00:45:46,270 --> 00:45:49,733
It was a building project that took 200 years to complete.
794
00:45:50,830 --> 00:45:52,620
So the Wall still stands today
795
00:45:52,620 --> 00:45:54,900
as a magnificent engineering achievement
796
00:45:54,900 --> 00:45:56,510
but there's a shadow here,
797
00:45:56,510 --> 00:45:58,780
because it could never have been constructed
798
00:45:58,780 --> 00:46:02,053
without the deaths of thousands of Chinese people.
799
00:46:11,130 --> 00:46:13,050
The world's greatest defensive wall
800
00:46:13,050 --> 00:46:17,300
begins in the East, on the edge of the Gobi desert
801
00:46:17,300 --> 00:46:19,590
at Jiayu Pass.
802
00:46:19,590 --> 00:46:22,910
From here it runs through mountains and across rivers
803
00:46:22,910 --> 00:46:26,113
to the Shanhai Pass and the coast of the Yellow Sea.
804
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:31,910
When finished, it was patrolled by a huge army
805
00:46:31,910 --> 00:46:35,693
occupying 25,000 watchtowers and garrisons.
806
00:46:36,650 --> 00:46:40,150
If attacked, they send smoke signals by day
807
00:46:40,150 --> 00:46:41,483
or fire by night.
808
00:46:43,428 --> 00:46:46,120
And the wall would become a highway
809
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:48,243
bringing reinforcements into battle.
810
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:53,060
But despite this extraordinary engineering triumph,
811
00:46:53,060 --> 00:46:56,193
the Ming dynasty fell in 1644.
812
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,420
The cost of building and maintaining the wall
813
00:47:00,420 --> 00:47:02,823
contributed to an economic crisis.
814
00:47:04,230 --> 00:47:08,470
The rebel army of peasants angered by poverty and starvation
815
00:47:08,470 --> 00:47:09,763
stormed the capital.
816
00:47:10,700 --> 00:47:12,980
Historians believe that the wall was actually crucial
817
00:47:12,980 --> 00:47:14,870
to the collapse of the Ming dynasty.
818
00:47:14,870 --> 00:47:18,130
So expensive was it to build and then to maintain
819
00:47:18,130 --> 00:47:19,880
and to man with soldiers,
820
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:22,813
that it led to financial and strategic collapse.
821
00:47:27,970 --> 00:47:29,420
Shortly afterwards,
822
00:47:29,420 --> 00:47:31,950
an army of Mongols from the north invaded
823
00:47:31,950 --> 00:47:33,173
and took over China.
824
00:47:35,150 --> 00:47:38,153
The very people the wall had been built to keep out.
825
00:47:44,010 --> 00:47:46,390
It may not ultimately have succeeded,
826
00:47:46,390 --> 00:47:50,440
but the Great Wall of China is a landmark in human history,
827
00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:52,963
almost incomprehensible in scale.
828
00:47:54,700 --> 00:47:56,133
But it was never one wall:
829
00:47:57,140 --> 00:48:00,803
different emperors added to it across 2,000 years.
830
00:48:01,690 --> 00:48:03,610
And in fact, it's precise length
831
00:48:03,610 --> 00:48:06,883
has been something of a mystery until now.
832
00:48:07,790 --> 00:48:09,680
After a five-year survey measuring
833
00:48:09,680 --> 00:48:11,480
all known sections of the wall,
834
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:14,270
the Chinese government announced that the official length
835
00:48:14,270 --> 00:48:19,270
of the Great Wall of China is just over 13,170 miles.
836
00:48:19,410 --> 00:48:21,920
The Great Wall of China stands as testament
837
00:48:21,920 --> 00:48:24,430
to those extraordinary engineers
838
00:48:24,430 --> 00:48:26,810
but also the people who had the vision
839
00:48:26,810 --> 00:48:30,093
of creating a wall to defend an entire empire.
840
00:48:35,777 --> 00:48:38,610
(dramatic music)
841
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:41,580
The need for protection
842
00:48:41,580 --> 00:48:43,913
is as old as civilization itself.
843
00:48:45,610 --> 00:48:49,263
Defensive walls first appeared 10,000 years ago,
844
00:48:50,540 --> 00:48:52,693
built around the earliest cities.
845
00:48:53,740 --> 00:48:56,183
The Romans went on to supersize them.
846
00:48:58,490 --> 00:49:00,670
And they reached their absolute peak
847
00:49:00,670 --> 00:49:02,443
with the Great Wall of China.
848
00:49:05,050 --> 00:49:06,993
Many still stand today,
849
00:49:09,090 --> 00:49:12,663
their construction involved thousands of workers,
850
00:49:13,510 --> 00:49:16,730
overcoming enormous challenges,
851
00:49:16,730 --> 00:49:19,823
learning to build ever more complex structures,
852
00:49:20,830 --> 00:49:25,373
ancient engineers paving the way for the modern world.
853
00:49:26,708 --> 00:49:29,458
(dramatic music)
67409
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