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The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in
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 KICEM Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management [Link]
Online ISSN 2233-9582 [Link]

The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The

Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study
Jin Yang1, Fabian Hadipriono Tan2 and Adrian Tan3

Abstract: The Jinshanling section of the Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications in northern China that was constructed for
strategic military defenses. This section was first built in the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in AD 1368 and then underwent major
construction, reconstruction and renovation during the late Ming Dynasty, approximately in AD 1569. The Jinshanling section is
10.5 km long, a very short section compared with the entire 21,200 km wall. The wall section is located in Luanping County, Hebei
province, China. This research paper focuses on the construction methods and materials of the wall and the towers in the area. The
research methodology includes site visits, knowledge acquisition of experts and 3D graphic modeling. This study reveals that the
materials selected for the structure include rubbles and rammed earth, bricks, stones, timber, and mortar. The erection sequence of
the wall and the towers was a bottom-up fashion using various ancient construction techniques, such as the fire-setting rock blasting
techniques and the surveying techniques from the Sea Island Mathematical Manual.

Keywords: Great Wall of China in Jinshanling, Construction History, SOLIDWORKS, Ming Dynasty, Luanping County, Ancient
Construction Materials and Methods

I. INTRODUCTION around the capital, such as the Badaling section in Beijing

which is close to where the Jinshanling section is. Unlike
In recent years, the history of construction engineering
the Badaling section, the Jinshanling section is not a major
has become an increasingly lucrative research topic, since
tourist site, which is beneficial because it has been better
its combination of historical data and modern construction
preserved over the years.
principles has helped flesh out certain aspects of the past
This research will focus on the construction
which would otherwise be challenging to historians.
methodologies employed during the Ming dynasty.
Additionally, this field of study preserves ancient
Consultation with Yaohui Dong (the Vice Chairman of the
construction techniques, and can possibly bring them
China Great Wall Society and Director of the Management
forward for use in the modern civil engineering industry.
Committee of the Great Wall Protection Fund and an
Of particular significance in this research is the Great Wall
expert in the history of the Great Wall) during an interview
of China, one of the most iconic landmarks of the country.
in Beijing, China on May 23, 2015, has revealed that all
The whole Wall is approximately 13,171 miles (21,197
standing structures from the Jinshanling sector are from the
km) long according to the State Administration of Cultural
Ming dynasty. Any renovations would have occurred
Heritage in China [1]; as such, this research required a
during and after this period. Since some Jinshanling sectors
narrowing of focus to a smaller section of the wall.
have not been significantly renovated for tourist attraction,
Specifically, the focus of the research is upon the
parts of the wall are damaged enough that the authors could
Jinshanling section, which consists of a 10.5-kilometer
examine their constituency without intentionally damaging
stretch between two of the 67 watch towers located at
parts of the site. Therefore, the Great Wall of China in
regular intervals throughout the wall. This part of the wall
Jinshanling is suitable for a case study to examine the use
is located in Luanping County, roughly 155 km northeast
of digital technology to recreate ancient construction
of Beijing, China [2], and was first built in the beginning of
materials and methods.
the Ming Dynasty, ca. 1368; later on, during the Ming
Dynasty ca. 1569, this section was significantly renovated,
II. OBJECTIVES, SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
reconstructed, and expanded upon. This information was
displayed on site. Also, the Chinese inscription on the The objectives involved in this study included
bricks used to build the wall in eastern Jinshanling also acquiring, displaying, and discussing the ancient materials
verified the dynasty era. Because the Great Wall was and methods of construction of the Great Wall of China.
constructed for military defense from Mongols attacking The scope of the study focuses on the Jinshanling section
from the northern front, later Japanese pirates [3] and of the Great Wall during the period from the new
Manchus [4], fortifications were particularly reinforced construction work in the Ming Dynasty (1368) to the major
‫ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬
¹ Ph.D. candidate, The Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering 411A Bolz Hall 2036 Neil Avenue Columbus Ohio 43210, USA
yang.1089@[Link] (*Corresponding Author)
² Professor, The Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering 407B Bolz Hall 2036 Neil Avenue Columbus, OH 43210, USA
tan.184@[Link]
3
Ph.D. alumnus, The Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering 407B Bolz Hall 2036 Neil Avenue Columbus, OH 43210, USA
tan.191@[Link]

37
 The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study

renovations in the late Ming Dynasty (approximately

1569). The study mainly focuses on the towers and the wall
connecting them (Fig. 1). There are two types of towers,
those supported by bricks and arches (a configuration
influenced by ancient Roman architecture) in the interior of
the first floor (Fig. 2), and those mainly supported by wood
columns in the interior of the first floor (Fig. 3). While
there are architectural variances, for example, different
numbers of entrances and windows or different locations
for the arches or wood columns, within each type the
material selection and erection sequence are similar. The
authors therefore divided the towers into two categories.
The significance of the study included the extraction of the
construction materials and methods to be modeled using
SOLIDWORKS. The authors hope this paper would
contribute to and potentially engender 3D modeling work
FIGURE III
on other sections of the Great Wall of China and other Wood column tower
ancient structures. The 3D modeling is also useful for
showing missing, or hidden components of ancient III. LITERATURE REVIEW
structures, which can be essential for students seeking to
understand the construction sequence without having to Given the scale of the Great Wall compared to the
travel to the site directly. current state of engineering research, literature similar to
this paper is limited. Literatures written in English on the
Great Wall described the overall history of the wall
included Geil [5], Lovell [6], and general construction
materials and methods in different dynasties, including the
Ming Dynasty by Luo, Zhao [7] and Luo et al. [8]. No
literature on the systematic construction, or construction
sequence, is known for the Jinshanling area specifically,
especially not with regards to 3D modeling. However,
there are still literature reviews that are helpful to develop
this study. This includes Dark’s conference paper [9]
describing the structure performance and materials in the
Jinshanling and surrounding areas. An archaeological
report, written by Zheng [10], shows the onsite
measurements of the towers and the wall in Jinshanling.
Additional data related to the ancient surveying and
excavation methods in China is also known from Swetz,
Liu [11], Needham and Ho [12]; the authors of this study
FIGURE I believe that these methods were likely used on the Great
The wall
Wall in Jinshanling.

IV. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of the study included data
acquisition, construction of the structure using 3D
modeling and creation of the construction plans (sequence
of construction and material description).
The data (inputs) used for the outputs is derived from
the qualitative and quantitative measurements taken from
onsite visits, literature reviews and the expert knowledge.
For instance, the first author conducted onsite inspections
and took measurements of individual wall components
such as the bricks, foundation stones and other materials.
As stated before, Zheng’s report provided the overall
dimensions of the structures from their onsite
measurements. Dark’s conference paper described the
FIGURE II materials that were used to build the structure in the
Bricks and arches supported tower surrounding area, it specifically mentioned sticky-rice lime

38

KICEM Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management

 Jin Yang, Fabian Hadipriono Tan and Adrian Tan

mortar. In addition, the authors have visited and

investigated the Great Wall of China and their expertise to
simulate the reconstruction of the Great Wall.
The outputs included the reconstructed 3D modeling in
both rendered images and animation, sequence of
construction plan in a table form, and construction material
description plan in a table form. After the data collection,
the SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD design software was used to
rebuild the monument in a bottom-up fashion, meaning that
the individual parts of the structures and the wall were first
created, such as foundation stones and bricks, and then
assembled those parts to reconstruct the Great Wall. The
inputs were incorporated into the SOLIDWORKS
modeling, such as overall and individual dimensions and
material textures from onsite photos, as mentioned above.
As stated in the previous section, SOLIDWORKS was
selected for the study because it has the ability to display FIGURE IV
and visualize the missing or hidden components of the Material selection for the foundation of the wall
structure.
V. CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
The discussion of the construction material selection is
divided into three sections: the material selection of the
wall, the material selection of the wood column towers,
and the material selection of the bricks and arches towers.

A. Material Selection of the Wall

The material selection of the wall is divided into three
main components: the outer layer, the inner layer (inner
core) of the wall, and the walkway. The walkway includes
the battlement, the wall, and other features such as
stone/sanitary holes, drainage holes, barrier wall (if
applicable), stairs, and others. The outer layer of the wall
was built using foundation stones and fire kiln bricks (Fig. FIGURE V
4). Based on the visual inspection from the onsite visits by Material selection for the inner core of the wall
the authors and personal communication with another
investigator (D. Dark, personal communication, 2015), the
foundation stones were likely made of conglomerate. The
inner layer consisted of rubble, rammed earth, and possibly
small rubble bound by mortar used as adhesive and filler
(Fig. 5). The rammed earth originated onsite, and is most
likely what is known as cinnamon soil in Chinese (褐土,
Hetu in pinyin) with the soil texture of doras or loam (壤
土, Rangtu in pinyin). The soil data was extracted from
China’s Forest Resource Inventory with the help of
specialists from the Ecology Center for Earth System
Science of Tsinghua University (C. Huang and J. Yang,
personal communication, June 2015). Gray brick pavers
were used to finish the walkway and bricks were used to
build the battlement and wall. Fig. 6 show that some parts
of the stone/sanitary holes were from granite stones in the FIGURE VI
eastern part of Jinshanling, Mortar was used as adhesive Material selection (bricks and granite stone) for the stone/sanitary hole of
for all the material selection. Table 1 summarizes the the wall
material selection for the wall.

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Vol. 7, No. 1 / Mar 2017

 The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study

TABLE I TABLE II
Material Selection of the Wall Material Selection of the Wood Column Tower
Component Component of
Material Selection Material Descriptions
of the Wall the Wood
Material Selection Material Descriptions
• Gray conglomerate Column
foundation stones Tower
• Use of foundation
• Fire kiln bricks • Gray conglomerate
Outer wall stone and fire kiln
• Mortar may contain foundation stones
bricks with mortar
small amount of
sticky rice paste • Use of foundation • Fire kiln bricks
Outer layer of
• Earth came from the base
stones and fire kiln • Mortar may
• Use of rubble cinnamon soil with bricks with mortar contain small
• Use of rammed earth doras or loam soil amount of sticky
Inner (core) and possibly small texture rice paste
wall rubble bound with • Rubble likely came
mortar used as from cinnamon soil • Earth came from
adhesive and filler with doras or loam • Use of rubble cinnamon soil
soil texture • Use of rammed with doras or loam
Battlement, earth and possibly soil texture
Inner (core) of
guard-wall small rubble • Rubble likely
• Use of bricks and the base
and barrier • Fire kiln bricks bound by mortar came from
mortar used as adhesive cinnamon soil
wall (if
applicable) and filler with doras or loam
• Use of bricks and soil texture
Drainage • Fire kiln bricks • Use of timber
mortar
system and • Some holes were
• Use of stones in Wood columns
other supported by granite •
some stone/sanitary columns (first • Use of stone base Not available
openings stones floor)
holes and plinths
• Gray colored fire (monolithic)
• Use of bricks and kiln bricks • Use of bricks with
Pavers mortar *Possibly use of mortar and timber
cobblestone during columns
the new construction Exterior wall * Some towers did
• Fire kiln bricks
(first floor) not have wood
columns
embedded in the
exterior wall
• Use of timber for
doors and
windows frames
• stones and/or
bricks with mortar
Door and
for entrance steps
windows (first • Not available
(thresholds) and
floor)
windowsills
• Use of timber or
iron for the actual
doors and
windows
FIGURE VII • Use of stones
Stairs and and/or bricks with
Monolithic stone base and plinth for a wood column • Fire kiln bricks if
opening (to the mortar
used
second floor) • Use of timber for
the opening
• Use of bricks
Battlement • Use of stones for
• Fire kiln bricks
(second floor) windowsills and
drainage system
• Use of brick
pavers
• Gray fire kiln
Finishing • Use of timber for
bricks
windows and
doors

B. Material Selection of the Wood Column Towers

The materials of the base of the wood column towers
FIGURE VIII
(from foundation to the first floor) is parallel to the wall,
Material selection for components of a bricks and arches tower where rubble and rammed earth were selected for the inner
(mini tower entrance) core of the base, and foundation stones and bricks were
selected for the outer core of the base. The first floor of a

40

KICEM Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management

 Jin Yang, Fabian Hadipriono Tan and Adrian Tan

typical wood column tower (Fig. 3) consisted of wood arches (configuration of the brickwork) was influenced by
columns in the center and sides of the building (exterior an ancient Roman design. The side of the tower (exterior
wall). The wood columns on the sides of the building were wall) was also constructed from fire kiln bricks. It is
half- wrapped with bricks and supported by the plinth and believed that carved stones were used to reinforce the
base. The plinth and base are made from stone and are entrance and exit of some towers (thresholds, keystones,
monolithic, as shown in Figure 7. Note that some towers voussoirs, imposts, and piers). Door, window and other
that do not have any wood columns on the sides of the frames were most likely made from timber and the
building. Based on observations of the renovated towers, thresholds from stone, like the recently renovated entrance
the window frames, doorframes, and other frames were (Fig. 8). Some thresholds and windowsills were made from
most likely made from wood while the actual doors and bricks alone to reduce the weight on the mini tower. Stairs
windows were likely made from either wood or iron. By leading to the second floor were made of stone in some
contrast, the windowsills and thresholds were constructed towers (Fig. 9) and from bricks in other towers. A mini
from bricks and/or stones. The wood columns were placed tower (or tent) was built on the second floor using timber
to support the second floor. Most likely, the second floor and bricks in a way similar to the reconstruction of a mini
was to be built atop the first floor with timber boards and tower in middle Jinshanling (Fig. 10). The existing stone
brick pavers. There is no evidence to suggest that a smaller plinths on the second floor are evidence that a mini tower
tower (or tent) was built atop the second floor. If evidence was constructed. Smaller timbers (approximately Ø 31.75
of a smaller tower arises in the future, then the authors will cm, as shown in Table 4) were used for the columns and
add to their research database. Bricks were selected for the posts for the mini tower. Timber was also used for the
battlement on the second floor. The windowsills on the beams in the roof of the mini tower. For the battlement on
battlement were most likely made from stone. Storm water the second floor and the exterior wall of the mini tower,
drains, made from carved stone, were included on the sides brickworks were selected. Based on the recently renovated
of the second floor. Table 2 summarizes the material mini towers, ceramic roofing tiles were probably used for
selections of the wood column designed tower. roofing. Storm water drains (from carved stone) were
located on the sides of the second floor (Fig. 11). Table 3
summarizes the material selection for the bricks and arches
designed tower.

FIGURE X
Material selection for components of a bricks and arches tower (mini
tower on the second floor)

FIGURE IX
Material selection for components of a bricks and arches tower (stair)

C. Material Selection of the Bricks and Arches Towers

The first floor of a typical bricks and arches tower FIGURE XI
consisted of fire kiln bricks used for the interior walls, Material selection for components of a bricks and arches tower (drainage
vaults, and arches (Fig. 2). The design of the vaults and on the second floor)

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Vol. 7, No. 1 / Mar 2017

 The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study

TABLE III TABLE III

Material of Bricks and Arches Tower Material of Bricks and Arches Tower (Continued)
Component of the Component of the
Material Material
Bricks and Arches Material Selection Bricks and Arches Material Selection
Descriptions Descriptions
Tower Tower
• Gray • Use of timbers
conglomerate for posts and
Roof structure
• Use of foundation beams • Ceramic tiles
(second floor)
foundation stones • Use of roofing
stones and fire • Fire kiln bricks tiles
Outer layer of the base
kiln bricks with • Mortar may • Use of bricks
mortar contain small Battlement and mortar
• Fire kiln bricks
amount of (second floor) • Use of stone
sticky rice (windowsills)
paste • Use of brick
• Earth came pavers for floor
• Use of rubble
• Use of rammed
from cinnamon finishing • Gray fire kiln
Finishing
earth and
soil with doras • Use of timber bricks
or loam soil for doors and
probably small texture
Inner (core) of the rubble with windows
• Rubble likely
base mortar used as
came from
adhesive and
cinnamon soil Table 4 summarizes the material dimensions taken
filler (gap onsite in different areas of Jinshanling.
with doras or
between
loam soil
rubble)
texture TABLE IV
Interior wall (first • Use of bricks Material Dimensions in Jinshanling
• Fire kiln bricks
floor) and mortar Size
Material Location Size (cm)
• Use of bricks (Onsite Raw Data)
Exterior wall (first
and mortar • Fire kiln bricks Little Jinshan
floor) 15" by 15" 38.1 x 38.1
Paver Tower (second
(Length × Width) (L × W)
• Use of timber floor)
for doors and 14" by 14" by 3.5" 35.6 × 35.6 ×
Big Arc
window frames Paver (Length × Width × 8.9 (L × W ×
Tower
• Use of stones Depth) D)
and/or bricks Wall between
with mortar for Little Jinshan 30.5 x 20.3
Paver 12" by 8"
entrance steps and Large (L × W)
Doors and windows (thresholds) • Fire kiln bricks Jinshan Tower
(first floor) and if used Wall between
windowsills Yaogou and 38.1 × 15.2
Paver 15" by 6"
• Use of timber Unnamed (L × W)
or iron for the Building
actual doors Wall between
38.1 × 19.05 ×
• Use of timber Little Arc and
Paver 15" by 7.5" by 4" 10.16
for the Big Arc
(L × W × D)
windows Tower
• Use of stones 40.6 × 20.3 ×
Stairs • Fire kiln bricks Brick
Big Arc
16" by 8" by 4" 10.16
and/or bricks Tower
(to the second floor) if used (L × W × D)
with mortar
• Use of bricks Wall between
• Fire kiln bricks Little Jinshan 36.8 × 9.5
Ceiling (first floor) for arches and Brick 14.5" by 3.75"
if used and Large (L × D)
vaults
Wood column posts Jinshan Tower
• Use of timber • Not available Little Jinshan 36.8 × 18.3 ×
and roof (second floor) 14.5" by 7.2" by
Wall structure • Use of bricks Brick Tower 8.9 (L × W ×
• Fire kiln bricks (second floor)
3.5"
D)
(second floor) with mortar
• Use of timber Wood
Shazi 19.5" Diameter Ø 49.5
for doors and Log
windows Wood General
frames 12.5" Diameter Ø 31.75
Log (second floor)
• Use of stones
and/or bricks Wood
Corner 20" Diameter Ø 50.8
with mortar for Log
Doors and windows • Fire kiln bricks
entrance steps Unnamed
(second floor) if used Wood
(thresholds) (eastern 19.5" Diameter Ø 49.5
and Log
Jinshanling)
windowsills
Wood Building with
• Use of timber Log three holes
19" Diameter Ø 48.3
for the actual
doors and
windows

42

KICEM Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management

 Jin Yang, Fabian Hadipriono Tan and Adrian Tan

VI. CONSTRUCTION METHODS OF THE GREAT WALL OF foundation stones to be placed horizontally. The workers
CHINA IN JINSHANLING may have built the foundation using fire-setting [12]
among other ancient methods. The authors compiled four
This section of the study is divided into two
options for excavation known in antiquity:
subsections, the erection sequence of the wall and the
• Manual excavation, using hammers to break
erection sequence of the towers. The wall and the towers
off pieces of stone and cut the foundation
were built separately. Figure 12 shows the mortar stain
pieces down to their desired size;
after the wall had deteriorated, and it shows evidence that
the material of the tower and that of the wall are only • Fire-setting, raising the temperature of the
integrated by mortar. The construction of the wall and of stone and then cooling it with water or vinegar
the towers was therefore separate. to fracture it via thermal shock [12];
• Crack expansion, a cold-season method during
which cracks or holes made in the stone were
filled with water, which expanded and pushed
the pieces apart; and
• Explosive fracture, or inserting gunpowder
into drilled holes and lighting the gunpowder
to break the rock into smaller fragments – an
early form of which being “plug-shooting”,
involving 2”-diameter holes, 3 to 4 feet deep,
filled with gunpowder and sealed with wooden
bungs (Needham & Ho, (Note 12) pp. 536-
537).
With respect to crack expansion, David Dark, the
Technical Director at Infinity Design & Engineering in
China, has more than 25 years of construction experience
FIGURE XII
and has been to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall
Evidence (mortar stain) showing separate construction of tower and wall
numerous times; among the knowledge he provided, he
A. The Erection Sequence of the Wall specifically describe that holes were drilled into the rock
along any existing fracture lines. In the wintertime, the
The first stage of the construction process, the pre- workers would fill the holes with water. The water would
planning stage, began with the surveying of the worksite. later freeze, forming ice that would expand and break up
The ancient Chinese were thought to have relied upon the the surrounding rock. The process would then be repeated
Sea Island Mathematical Manual for this part of the until the desired effect was accomplished. This
process [11], relying on pre-calculated triangular and methodology would have worked because it took
rectangular dimensions such as those for the cut/fill of the advantage of the expansion and contraction of the
foundation, the base of the structure, and the floor plans, as freeze/thaw cycle, and thus maximized the utility of the
well as the shape of the natural terrain. The authors also lower temperatures at night and the warmer temperatures
believe that the wall was built in sections, as shown in during the day. Liquid water would seep into small cracks
Figure 13, which were then connected together. This during the day and the rock would later split apart due to
construction process would allow for better controlling of the expansion of the freezing water at night. This freezing
the global and local geometry of the structure compared to portion of this method would work best at night, when the
unidirectional horizontal construction (from the starting to temperature dropped to or below freezing; the daytime
the ending point). temperatures, meanwhile, were more conducive to thawing
Previous research [13] has shown that the structure was the frozen water. Spring and autumn weather were
mostly constructed directly upon the land natural slope, on therefore the most feasible seasons for this practice.
a bedrock or rubble foundation. To construct the wall However, there were six weeks in the winter when
section, the workers first cleared the site of weeds, rocks, temperatures were low enough that the water would stay
and other debris, and then began excavation with the intent frozen. The ice was therefore melted back into liquid water
of cutting the bedrock into a stair-like formation. This manually, via fire setting (D. Dark, personal
allowed them to place foundation materials such as rubble, communication, July 2015).
stone, and brick horizontally while still enabling them to While all four of these methods were likely used to
build a slanted wall later on. For areas where the break up the harder rocks at the work site, it is not known
foundation could not be excavated, where the ground-level which was used the most often. Most likely, which method
rock and earth was too hard to break for example, was used at any given time would have been based on
backfilled rubble could be used to level the foundation site which was most efficient, although explosive blasting was
as well as the surface of the foundation itself, allowing the

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 The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study

probably used only sparingly due to gunpowder being a TABLE V

Dimensions (Inputs) of the 3D modelling (Continued)
scarce and valuable wartime resource at the time.
Overall Dimensions in Meters
Fig. 13 shows the overall construction sequence of the Structure
(Length x Width x Height) [10][13]
wall as constructed in Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS
Wall connecting the towers 115.00 x 4.90 x 5.00
2014-2015 and rendered using PhotoView 360. For the
purpose of this paper, the authors consider any component
TABLE VI
below the pavers of the walkway as the substructure and Construction Erection Process of the Wall
any component at or above the pavers as the superstructure. Construction
Step Sequence Construction Methodology
With the foundation prepared, the workers could now Phase
begin construction on the wall proper, beginning by piling • The Sea Island
rubble and rammed earth in the middle (inner) wall layer Mathematical
Pre-plan and Manual
and facing it with foundation stones and bricks on both I
plan
Survey
• Surveying used every
sides (Fig. 13 I). The stones and bricks had to be stacked in phase of the
a stable, level configuration, and the bricks in particular construction
were viable for this purpose because they could be • Manual, fire-setting
Substructure
arranged in a relatively flat Flemish bonding formation, IIA Excavation and other methods
(base)
compared to the more haphazard size ranges of the rubble used cut to bedrock
pieces. Large rubble was stacked first, and the gaps then • Stair-like shape
filled with the smaller rubble, rammed earth, and mortar IIB Foundation bedrock and/or
(Fig. 13 II). The inner and outer wall layers where then rubble used to level
integrated with key-in feature, as shown in Figs. 13 III and • Foundation stones to
fire kiln bricks
IV; note that there were more bricks (for the outer core)
stacked using
and less rubble (for the inner core) used for this region than bottom-up fashion
in the previous steps of the sequence as shown in Figs. 13 I • Rubble stacked with
and II. The load-bearing portion of the wall was built to Outer wall rammed earth and
approximately five meters by repeating the previous steps III and inner mortar in bottom-up
(core) wall fashion
(including an additional key-in feature), shown in Figs. 13 • Wood scaffolding
V to VIII; at higher elevations, wooden scaffolding would used for safety
have been employed for safety purposes. After this, reasons and for
workers would then build the battlement on the north side building at higher
height
of the wall, and the guard-wall on the south, both of which • Brickwork
were angled to the slope of the terrain rather than the constructed in
foundation and brickwork. Other features such as the stone bottom-up fashion at
holes on the north side, the peepholes (or arrow holes) and Battlement, an angle following
wall, and the slope of the
the water drain holes on the south side were also included Superstructure
IVA (walkway)
barrier wall terrain
at this time. Finally, two or more paver layers were added (if • Wood scaffolding
for the walkway along with a water guide for the drain applicable) used for safety
holes (Fig. 13 IX). The overall sequence of construction reasons and for
was also rendered in the form of a video animation, which building at higher
height
was saved into .avi file. The file could be played using any Drainage
Window Media Player or Movie & TV app on Windows 10 • Brickwork and stones
system and
IVB with mortar used to
Home Edition, as shown in Figure 14. The resultant wall other
correct slope to drain
dimensions varied depending on the location of each build openings
• Bricks and mortar
site, and the various measurements can be found in used to correct slope
Zheng’s archaeological report [10]. The dimensions used in IVC Pavers • Second layer
the modeling of the structure were from Unnamed Building overlapped the first
10, 11, and the wall connecting it in western Jinshanling. layer’s mortar point
The overall dimensions of the focused structure were
summarized in Table 5 and some of the dimensions were
incorporated in SOLIDWORKS. Table 6 summarizes the
construction sequence of the wall.

TABLE V
Dimensions (Inputs) of the 3D modeling
Overall Dimensions in Meters
Structure
(Length x Width x Height) [10][13]
Unnamed Building 10 (wood
11.90 x 10.40 x 11.50
columns supported tower)
Unnamed Building 11
10.80 x 10.00 x 11.00 FIGURE XIV
(bricks supported tower)
Sequence of construction of the Great Wall animation

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KICEM Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management

 Jin Yang, Fabian Hadipriono Tan and Adrian Tan

FIGURE XIII
Erection process of the wall using SOLIDWORKS

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 The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study

B. The Erection Sequence of the Towers As before, the overall dimensions of each tower
As noted, the two types of towers of the Jinshanling depended on the location, defensive purposes, and
section of the Great Wall are wood column and bricks and architectural characteristics among other variables. The
arches supported towers. The design of these tower types onsite measurements for individual towers can be found in
varies in terms of architectural, structural, and defensive Zheng’s archaeological report [10]. Table 7 summarizes
strategy, e.g. domes on some of the bricks and arches the construction method of the towers (both wood column
towers, extra posts outside the brick walls, etc. Similar to supported towers and bricks & arches supported towers).
the wall, the authors consider any component below the
pavers on the first floor of the towers as the substructure TABLE VII
Construction Erection Process of the Tower
and any component at or above the pavers as the
Construction Construction
superstructure. The underlying material selection and Step Sequence
Phase Methodology
construction method of each tower, however, is relatively • The Sea Island
consistent. For the Jinshanling sector specifically, the Mathematical
foundation and the base were constructed in a similar Pre-plan and Manual
I Surveying
fashion to the wall itself, with rubble, rammed earth, and plan • Surveying used
mortar stacked up within a rectangular area marked by every phase of
foundation stones on opposite proposed corners. The tower the construction
itself was built from rubble and rammed earth faced by • Manual, fire-
foundation stones and bricks, stacked in a bottom-up Substructure setting and other
IIA Excavation
fashion to approximately five meters. (base) methods used cut
to bedrock
The wood column towers were constructed differently
(Fig. 15 II). The stone plinths and timber columns were the • Stair-like shape
first parts of the structure to be erected as a framework, and bedrock and/or
IIB Foundation
rubble used to
the bricks would be stacked around the columns to flesh level
out the tower (exterior wall). This method is evidenced by
the fact that the brickwork appears to wrap around the • Foundation stone
to fire kiln bricks
columns at the corners of the structure onsite and it is (bottom-up
shown in Fig. 15 I. After the first floor walls and columns fashion)
were erected, wooden beams, boarding and stairs were
• Stacked rubble,
installed for workers to reach the second floor and begin Outer layer rammed earth,
constructing the battlement there. Then, one or more layers and inner and possibly
III
of brick pavers were used to finish the first and second (core) of small rubble with
floor layers, also windows and door were installed at the the base mortar used as
adhesive and
edges of the floors. It is likely that the wood column towers filler for the gaps
did not have a mini-tower or tent, because the timber in the rubble
columns would not have had the compressive strength to
• Wood
support the mini-tower, unlike the bricks and arches scaffolding used
towers.
For the bricks and arches towers (Fig. 16 III), the • Timber columns
with stone plinths
interior brick columns were stacked either before or during erected in the
the erection sequence of the exterior wall. Arches and center and
vaults were constructed to support the structure once the Superstructure corners and sides
(floor of the floor plan
walls were raised to the desired height (Fig. 16 I); these IVA-1 structure of
Wood
components were similar to the ones seen in Roman columns
wood column • Use of timber
construction and required framework for assembly. Stairs towers) beams and
were also constructed at the same time, leading up to the broads for ceiling
second floor, and wooden scaffolding was likely included
• Wood scaffolding
as well, for safety reasons and to build at a higher altitude.
used
The plinths and timber columns were placed for the second • Bricks and
floor walls before the mini-tower walls were built, and a mortar used
few towers also have additional timber columns outside of Exterior (bottom-up)
IVA-2
wall
the wall bearing the mini-tower (Fig. 16 II). Bricks were • Wood
then stacked to fill out the walls of the second floor as with scaffolding used
the first one. The roof was then erected first with timber
• Door and
posts and beams, and then ceramic tiles. Battlements were Doors, window openings
constructed around the second floor tower. Finally, the IVA-3
windows built using
floors were finished with at least one or more layers of and other framework
openings
brick pavers, and windows and doors were installed on the
tower floors.

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KICEM Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management

 Jin Yang, Fabian Hadipriono Tan and Adrian Tan

FIGURE XV
Wood column tower modeling in SOLIDWORKS

Figure XVI
Bricks and arches tower modeling in SOLIDWORKS

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 The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study

TABLE VII TABLE VII

Construction Erection Process of the Tower (Continued) Construction Erection Process of the Tower (Continued)
Construction Construction Construction Construction
Step Sequence Step Sequence
Phase Methodology Phase Methodology
• Stones and/or
bricks with mortar • Window
Stairs and openings and
opening stacked in
bottom-up fashion door openings
IVA-4 (second Door built using
floor) • Wood scaffolding openings framework
used and
IVB-5.2 window • Bricks stacked
• Bricks stacked openings in a bottom-up
Battlement (second fashion
IVA-5 (second • Stone placed for floor)
floor) windowsills and • Wood
drainage system scaffolding
used
• Pavers, actual
doors, actual • Timber beams
windows, and erected for roof
IVA-6 Finishing configuration
other
miscellaneous
items installed • Timber posts
erected outside
• Bricks and mortar the tent wall (if
placed in bottom- Roof applicable)
IVB-5.3
up fashion structure
Superstructure • Ceramic
(floor roofing tiles
Interior *Roman arch,
IVB-1 structure of installed
wall vault, and dome
bricks and
design used
arches towers) • Wood
• Wood framework scaffolding
used used

• Bricks and mortar • Bricks with

stacked (bottom- mortar placed in
Exterior up) bottom-up
IVB-2
wall IVB-6 Battlement fashion
• Wood scaffolding
used • Stone used
windowsills and
• Stones and/or drainage system
bricks with mortar
used • Pavers, actual
Doors, and doors,
*Timber used for windows, and
windows IVB-7 Finishing
IVB-3 the doors and other
and other
windows in some miscellaneous
openings
towers items installed
• Wood framework
used
VII. DISCUSSION
• Stones and/or
bricks with mortar The construction sequence plan described in this paper
IVB-4 Stairs used is based on the authors’ own construction experience and
• Wood scaffolding on the most logical way to construct it. There are
used alternative sequences for constructing the structure, but not
all of them may be logical and so some could decrease
• Timber posts used
to support roof productivity. However, the Chinese would have had to use
Wood
column configuration an alternative sequence in situations where other variables
Superstructure were factors, for instance, lack of workers or material
IVB-5 posts
(mini tower) • Wood scaffolding
(second resources. Conversely, if they had more workers and more
used
floor) resources, construction sequences could have been
combined.
• Bricks stacked for Next, it was hard to identify whether some repairs were
Wall the wall (bottom- recent or from the time of the Ming Dynasty. Because the
Structure up)
IVB-5.1
(Second authors could not clearly identify some recent repairs on
Floor) • Wood scaffolding the Great Wall, they used their subjective judgment to
used describe the construction materials and methods used
during the Ming Dynasty in this study.

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 Jin Yang, Fabian Hadipriono Tan and Adrian Tan

There was evidence of the key-in feature in the eastern IV. FUTURE STUDIES
section of Jinshanling’s wall where pure rammed earth was
For future recommendations and studies, more sample
used for the inner core of the wall, as shown in the
data collection, such as dimensions of the columns, are
PowerPoint slides [14]. Based on logic, the authors believe
needed to fully analyze and support the authors’ results on
that the key-in feature was likely included during
the construction material selections and methodologies of
renovation of the wall as well as reconstruction or
the Great Wall of China in Jinshanling. Also, a more
expansion during later time periods. The key-in feature was
advanced state of the art display methodology, such as
also likely to have been used in new construction, because
Virtual Reality using Oculus Rift headset, can be employed
the key-in feature would have helped minimize the
to demonstrate the construction methods of this important
likelihood that the outer core of the wall would slide off
monument. Finally, knowledge acquisition from experts in
from the inner core in the case of earthquake, and other
other specializations within civil engineering, such as
natural disturbance. If later evidence shows that the key-in
surveying, structural, hydraulic/water resources,
feature was not used in the wall connecting the Unnamed
transportation and others, could also be obtained and
Building 10 to Unnamed Building 11, the model could be
utilized to improve the results in this paper.
adjusted and updated accordingly. Lastly, there is currently
no evidence that key-in feature was used on the base of the
towers, though this assertion may be subject to change ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
following future studies.
The first author would like to thank Mr. David Dark for
sharing the extensive knowledge on the Great Wall of
VIII. CONCLUSIONS China that has considerably improved this paper. All
authors wish to thank the reviewers for their comments that
In this research, the Great Wall of China in Jinshanling
have considerably improved this paper.
was investigated as a case study to determine the ancient
construction materials and methods. While there were
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 The Ancient Construction Materials and Methods: The Great Wall of China in Jinshanling as a Case Study

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

1. Mr. Jin Yang is a Ph.D. candidate at The Ohio State
University. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Civil
Engineering from The Ohio State University. He has
also worked as a construction inspector for the City of
Columbus. Jin is currently working toward a Ph.D. in
Civil Engineering with a focus in virtual reality on
ancient structures.
2. Dr. Fabian H. Tan is a Professor in the Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic
Science at The Ohio State University, where he has been
since 1982. Dr. Tan has an M.S. in structural
engineering, an M.E. in construction engineering and
management, and a Ph.D. in construction engineering
and management from the University of California in
Berkeley. Dr. Tan has served as a forensic consultant
with numerous law firms in Ohio as well as the United
States Air Force Weapons Laboratory in Kirtland, New
Mexico. Additionally, Dr. Tan has also served as a
project manager and engineer on multiple international
construction projects such as Leighton Australia-
Indonesia Construction Inc. and Mahkota-Ekman
Sweden Inc. Dr. Tan is currently teaching History of
Ancient Engineering at The Ohio State University.
3. Dr. Adrian Tan is a Ph.D. alumnus from The Ohio State
University. Adrian has a B.S. in Computer Science and
Engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering
from The Ohio State University. Dr. Tan’s dissertation
focused on the construction of the Colosseum of Rome,
with an emphasis on computer graphics and virtual
simulation in the engineering industry.

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KICEM Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management

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