To the question - What is the longest architectural structure in the world? given by the author Accomplice the best answer is Great Wall of China
It began to be built back in the era of the Warring States. There were endless wars between the kingdoms formed on the territory of China. First of all, it served to protect the northern borders of China from the invasion of nomads (Huns). But you shouldn’t assume that it was built right away. At first it consisted of only separate sections erected to protect important strategic objects.

After the unification of China during the Qing era, construction of the wall continued. By connecting individual sections of the wall, it was possible to turn it into a long (10,000 li, approximately 6,700 km) and powerful defensive structure. During the Qing Dynasty, modern construction equipment did not yet exist. The fact that the Chinese managed to build such a grandiose structure at that time never ceases to amaze modern people. The Great Wall of China would not be fully Chinese if it did not exist interesting legends about its construction. I will be happy to describe one of the legends here.


The girl Meng Jiangniu was born in a gourd. The pumpkin was planted in the Meng family, but one branch of its tops spread to the neighboring Jing family, and therefore it was called that way - Meng Jiangniu. One day, when she was bathing in a pond, her servant Fan Qiliang saw her. Therefore, she had to marry Fan Qiliang. While on his honeymoon, he was captured and sent to build the Great Wall of China. She waited for him for many years, but without waiting, she went to look for him herself at the site where the wall was being built. But when she reached the wall, she was informed that her husband had died and he had been walled up in the wall. Her grief knew no bounds. She sat down on the edge of the wall, sobbed loudly and rushed down. This is the bitter truth of the construction of the Great Wall of China.


After the Qing era, during the Han era and the era of the 5 dynasties, the Great Wall of China further strengthened and expanded.
In the Ming era, due to constant raids by nomads, some sections of the wall had to be rebuilt many times. The wall that we can see now appeared exactly then. Its total length is more than 6,700 km. The average height reaches 7-8 meters, the width of the base is about 5-6 meters, and the width at the top is about 5 meters. The most amazing thing is that during its construction the mountain landscape was taken into account, that is, in some places it literally rests on the mountains.


It is currently listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

Reply from Say goodbye[guru]
Great Wall of China

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Reply from Neuropathologist[guru]
- The longest architectural structure in the world is the Great Wall of China, which runs through the mountains of northern China. Its total length is 6.7 thousand kilometers. Construction of the wall began during the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn, 770-475 BC) period and continued into the Zhangguo (Warring States, 475-221 BC) era.
The tiny islands of Japan are constantly hit by hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. But this does not prevent the Japanese from erecting completely unique architectural objects. in 1955 it was decided to build a bridge over the sea.
10 years of hard work were crowned with success - the six-lane road bridge of 3,911 meters was ready. It is the longest suspension bridge in the world and its central span also falls into the World's Longest category at 1,991 metres. Before the appearance of the Miyo Viaduct, Akashi-Kaikyo had another title - the owner of the highest pylon. Their height is 298 meters. But we had to give it up to the French building.
Sanjusangendo Temple
SANJUSANGENDO (officially Rengeoin) was built in 1164 and is the longest wooden structure in the world. Its name comes from the number 33 (sanjusan) - the number of spaces between the supporting pillars. The main magnificent image of the thousand-armed Kannon was carved in 1254 by the sculptor Tankei, who was then 82 years old. On the head
The statue houses ten other heads, including a miniature image of Amida Buddha. On both sides of the main statue there are 1000 smaller ones lined up. The Kannon is believed to have 33 manifestations, so those who worship her in this hall immediately appeal to the mercy of 33,033 Kannon. On January 15, Coming of Age Day, the temple organizes an archery competition among young women who shoot arrows from one end of the veranda of the main hall to the other.
And the longest in the world is shopping mall in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, which cost £40 million to build. Its total length is 720 m.
The longest tunnel under the seabed is the Channel Tunnel, which is 49.94 km long. Despite the fact that this tunnel is inferior in total length to the Seikan Tunnel (Japan), its underwater section is 14.7 km long. longer than Seikan. The tunnel officially opened in 1994.
The longest roller coaster in the world is the Ultimate ride at Lightwater Valley Team Park, Ripon, North Yorkshire. steel pipes has a length of 2.29 km.
The longest ring road is the London ring road M-25, which is 195.5 km long. Its construction, which lasted from 1972 to 1986, cost 909 million pounds, i.e. 7.5 million pounds per 1 mile - this is one of the most “expensive” routes in the world.
The most extensive and longest metro system in the world is in London. The total length of the London Underground is 408 km. , of which 154 km. accounts for underground tunnels, and 32 km. the paths run close to the surface and have above-ground floors.

Reply from Master Di[guru]
Great Wall of China

Reply from Alexander Touzov[guru]
The Great Wall of China.
Did you guess right?

Reply from Njord[expert]
Each country is associated with one specific image-symbol. For local residents and all foreigners arriving in the country, the Great Wall of China has been and will be a symbol of China. At the entrance to the restored part of it there is an inscription made by Mao Zedong: “If you have not visited the Great Wall of China, you are not a real Chinese.” The wall is one of the largest and most skillful civil engineering structures in the world. It stretches from the Liaodong Gulf, northeast of Beijing through Northern China to the Gobi Desert. Data on its length are different and vary. The distance from one end to the other is 2450 km, but if you take into account the other ramparts extending from it, you get 6000 - 6500 km. Currently, scientists want to carry out a topographic survey to determine the exact length of the wall.
The width of the top of the Wall made it expensive for military units. At the same time, 5 infantrymen or cavalrymen could march in a row. Indeed, it served only to patrol the border and completely block mountain paths that could not be blocked by other means. In the era of cold steel, the Great Wall of China reliably protected trade routes and protected peasants from raids by nomads. Only betrayal was able to cross the Wall several times.
Its construction began in the 7th century. BC e. rulers of small states (built fortifications around their territories in the form of earthen ramparts). Throughout the history of the country, there were 3 Great Walls of China, the construction of which took more than 2000 years.
The First Wall was built under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, known as the unifier of Chinese land. Its construction employed 500,000 people, among whom were many Confucian scholars. The emperor sought to destroy this teaching, so all the followers were shackled and sent to the construction site, ensuring the timely completion of the work. In fact, the Great Wall of China was built on the bones of people exiled from all over the country. Among the people, it became the “wailing wall.” Even one old story tells about a wife who, having learned about the death of her husband, destroyed a wall with a stream of tears. The Great Wall of China was conceived as a fortification against the attacks of the nomadic Mongols and as proof of the power and greatness of the emperor.
The Emperor entrusted the work to the most successful general, Meng Tian. The wall went through deserts and swamps, through the mountains. There were troops stationed along its entire length, and its military significance was enormous. From the watchtowers it was possible to spread information from one end to the other in a day! For the country of those times, this was enormous speed. Even the organization of work was an achievement for China at that time. One of the legends says that Emperor Qin Shi Huang was predicted that the wall would be completed when “Wang” (10,000) people were buried in it. When the emperor found a man named Wang, he ordered him to be killed and buried in the wall. The same fate befell all those who died during construction. That is why the Great Wall of China was previously called the Longest Cemetery in the World or the Wall of Tears.
The second wall was built in the period 206 BC. e. - 220 AD e. Emperor of the Han Dynasty to protect against the Huns, who made regular raids on China and destroyed the Wall. At this time earthworks were reinforced with stone.
For the construction of the third wall, the Ming Dynasty allocated about 1 million people. In some areas, several walls were built (up to 10), some areas were completely dismantled, a foundation was erected, and then a section of the wall was built. Each of the towers of the Great Wall of China had to be visible from the two neighboring ones. Messages were transmitted using smoke, drumming or fire (at night). Along the entire length from the Wall to the city, there were strongholds at a distance of one horse ride, where messengers with news rested and changed horses.
The Chinese themselves use the word “to rise, to ascend” when going to the wall. And it's no wonder

The Great Wall of China is one of the largest architectural monuments. Its length is 8851.8 km, it runs throughout almost the entire northern China.

According to historians, its construction began in the 3rd century BC under the control of Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty. It is believed that she defended the country, first of all, from the raids of the nomadic Xiongnu people. It is noteworthy that it was built by a fifth of the local population, or about one million inhabitants.

In addition to protection, the wall was supposed to perform other functions: to protect the subjects of the state from transition to a nomadic lifestyle, and also to fix the borders of the Chinese empire.

A little later, a line of watchtowers was built on it to protect against attacks by other enemies. By the way, the main part of the wall that has survived to this day was built during the reign of the Ming Dynasty (from 1368 to 1644). It was built from stone blocks and bricks, which made the structure quite strong. However, the next Manchu dynasty ((1644-1911) treated the building with great disdain, as a result of which it was practically destroyed in less than three centuries under the influence of time and external environment. At the end of the 19th century, newspapers even published a note according to which the wall would be completely demolished.

And so, in 1984, a program to restore the building began, cash which is allocated by both local and foreign companies. Until now, researchers are finding sections of the wall that date back to one time or another. According to scientists, there are a great many such lost fragments.

April 22nd, 2014

You might probably think that this is a frame from some kind of futuristic-sci-fi film about the future? No... this is quite a real building, which has the tallest blank wall in the world.

Let's find out more about it...

New York is famous for its skyscrapers. Every year crowds of tourists flock here to see the city from a bird's eye view. But there is one building 29 floors high that does not have a single window.

The AT&T Long Lines Building is located at 33 Thomas Street and was built in 1974. This is a striking example of brutality in architecture - no windows, just bare gray concrete that is not very pleasing to the eye.

Architect – John Carl Warnecke. Building height – 170 meters
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The main purpose of the building was to house telephone equipment. The average floor height is 5.5 meters, which is much higher than in a regular high-rise building. The floors here are incredibly durable - they can withstand 90–140 kg per square cm. (corrected! there were meters :-))
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There are six large air ducts on the tenth and 29th floors - these are the only openings leading outside. Many consider the AT&T Long Lines Building to be one of the safest buildings in the world, capable of protecting those inside from radioactive fallout for two weeks after a nuclear explosion. It is also known as the tallest blind wall in the world. This is not an ordinary tourist attraction.

Surprisingly, the ascetic appearance of the AT&T Long Lines Building met with understanding and sympathy from New York art critics. The New York Times wrote about the appropriateness of this object's location in Manhattan, simultaneously emphasizing its high aesthetic qualities. One of America's leading architectural analysts, William H. White, proudly noted that the AT&T Long Lines Building has the tallest blank wall in the world.
This positive attitude this skyscraper seems surprising if we remember that Manhattan is traditionally a platform for demonstrating new architectural structures, surrounded by which the AT&T Long Lines Building looks like a puritan who accidentally found himself among festively dressed aristocrats; nevertheless, it was he who ultimately turned out to be the center of this brilliant company...

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The minimalism inherent in the AT&T Long Lines Building brings to mind another minimalist project of brutalist architecture, which also appeared in 1974, the Buffalo City Courthouse.
The aesthetic principles present in the city courthouse were further developed in the Warnecke skyscraper, primarily due to the scale of the project. Both buildings strive to create the effect of monumentalism, and any monumentalism needs an appropriate scale. – The high altitude itself contributes to the emergence of “monumentalist effects.” And where there is a feeling of monumentality, a feeling of strength and power will inevitably appear.
The AT&T Long Lines Building is more than 2.5 times larger than the Buffalo building; and while the courthouse aesthetic is more consistent, the Manhattan Project benefits from its own size.
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In the depths of monumentalism, tanative elements are inevitably present. – Monumentalism, first of all, is associated with external parties life of reality - the same idea of ​​power, in particular, is demonstrated by monumentalism through external, quantitative techniques. – And such an emphasis on the external aspects of reality indicates an essential deficiency of internal content. – The internal reality of monumentalism is saturated with emptiness, and emptiness is an initially tanative element of reality.
Accordingly, the more powerfully monumentalism declares itself, the more powerful the tanative contents associated with it acquire. – And the AT&T Long Lines Building demonstrates this pattern to the fullest.

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Despite the fact that the cladding of the building is light, the building itself nevertheless produces a very gloomy impression; Along with the idea of ​​power, this object transmits negative psychological content - an increased degree of anxiety and depression. As a result, his image shifts into the “demonic dimension” and is infernalized.
AT&T Long Lines Building is quite consistent with the images of architecture that appear in American films dedicated to the theme of the future; more precisely, the building built by Warnecke corresponds to those segments of the future that represent destructive contents, acting as “evil empires” whose fate, according to most Hollywood scenarios, is to die in the battle with Good.
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And the same ventilation windows encircling the body of the building, in perception, lose connection with any rational function, acquiring the character of symbols pointing to something infernal and, at the same time, esoteric...
Perhaps the AT&T Long Lines Building demonstrated the result that can be considered inevitable when Brutalist minimalism takes on large-scale, monumental forms. – The idea of ​​power, gaining scale, becomes a strong translator of tanativity.

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The AT&T Long Lines Building could only appear in a certain social atmosphere. – The function of the building forces us to pay attention, first of all, to the foreign policy factor that negatively affects the life of society. But connecting the aesthetics of the AT&T Long Lines Building to the theme cold war, officially declared, does not seem, however, absolutely obvious. On the contrary, by the early 1970s, the threat of nuclear war had weakened significantly compared to the previous decade, and the world was experiencing a period of “détente.”
Rather, the aesthetics of this building may be associated with a domestic political factor; The 1970s are a time when depressive notes dominate the public mood, and this is due to the fact that the wave of the new left, which so powerfully declared itself in the 1960s, is experiencing an obvious decline. – This depresses both the left, who realize that the counterculture project has ended in failure, and the right, struck by the fragility of “social foundations” and not having at their disposal projects capable of strengthening these foundations. – The topic of nuclear war in this context becomes an external, sublimative channel capable of projecting the inner content of life onto external environment. – The world is the way we want it to be; The AT&T Long Lines Building is a symbol of tanative desire projected into the reality of material, frozen forms.

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It is very significant that for forty years in the States there were no voices questioning the need for the existence of this object in Manhattan, and this was when criticism of brutalism often turned into a “standard of decency.” This fact can be interpreted as a sign that Thanatos maintained its very strong position in the public consciousness of America throughout this time.

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But for comparison:

The Buffalo City Court Building is an example of the extremely consistent implementation of the principles of brutalist aesthetics in the field of skyscraper construction. The building was built by the architectural bureau Pfohl, Roberts and Biggie. The project was developed in 1971 and implemented in 1974.
The Buffalo City Court still operates in this building today.

When looking at this object, two of its features immediately catch the eye - monumentality and extreme closedness. We can say that in this case the presence of the second feature contributes to the actualization of the first.
From a distance the city court seems concrete structure, in which there are no windows at all; upon closer inspection, the windows are revealed, but total area façades they take up very little space. The creators of the project connected this feature of their brainchild with its social function: the absence of windows creates a feeling of isolation of the internal space of the building from the outside world and this allows the judges working here not to feel pressure “from the outside”. – I don’t know to what extent local judges actually feel free from influence external circumstances, but it seems that the city justice works for absolutely closed doors; Accordingly, the decisions they make also seem to be somewhat irrational: the impenetrability of the walls gives rise to the impression of the impenetrability of the motives on the basis of which the decision is made. – Similar impressions may well evoke associations with “The Castle” by Franz Kafka. – In both cases, the architectural object turns out to be a symbol of something irrational. But, on the other hand, the presence of an irrational phenomenon in real space is not in itself a uniquely “bad” or a uniquely “good” fact; assessments in this case are the result of purely subjective arbitrariness. (And negative assessments of the same “Castle” are just a stamp of perception; “The Castle” itself is axiologically neutral. Its essence can also be substantiated in a positive context. It is significant in this regard that Kafka himself avoided unambiguous judgments on this question.)
The irrational, manifested in the image of The Buffalo City Court Building, has obvious power; this is “strong irrational.” And, in this case, it doesn’t spoil it.

The irrational, possessing power, has every opportunity to acquire the status of “sacred” in public perception. – A modern secular state needs sacred foundations no less than the great empires of the past; power in general has sacred foundations. And, I suppose, the situation in which the “territory of law” begins to correspond to the status of “sacred” is much better than the situation in which some kind of Extraordinary Commission begins to have the status of sacredness...

Through its display of power, The Buffalo City Court Building reveals its own aesthetic dimension. It must be admitted that this object is beautiful in its own way.
But the “force field” of reality initially places the sphere of the aesthetic under the sign of relativity, i.e. endows real-life aesthetic objects with the character of imperfection. – There is no force that cannot be surpassed; Accordingly, an object that demonstrates “power” qualities can always be mentally improved and improved. – In other words, if two more floors were added to the ten floors of The Buffalo City Court Building, this building would definitely not get any worse; but what prevents you from adding five or ten more floors to the twelve? – The larger the aesthetic object that expresses the idea of ​​power, the more perfect it is. And in principle there are no essential limits to the growth of scale. The motto “Higher, higher, and higher!” is quite appropriate here. And space, as we know, tends to infinity...