Ming Dynasty - Great Wall

In 1368, as Europeans were enduring the miseries of the Black Death, rulers of China’s Ming Dynasty began a huge project - a wall, made mostly of stone - stretching across China for thousands of miles.

Much of the work was done by convicts. If a worker died, he was replaced by another member of his family until the original worker’s sentence was completed.

Learn more about this dynasty, and their contribution to the Great Wall, in this video clip from Secrets of the Great Wall.