Page 17 - The Great Wall of China

against the Wall in the south
of China because the Ming
emperors requisitioned the
southern rice harvest both
to feed the workers on
the Wall and to make the
mortar.
“The ancient mortar is a
special kind of organic
and inorganic mixture,”
said Dr Zhang, a professor
of chemistry at Zhejiang
university in the city of
Hangzhou in eastern
Great Wall of China’s strength China.

‘Comes From Sticky Rice’

Workers built the Ming dynasty sections
of the Great Wall about 600 years ago by
mixing together a paste of sticky rice flour
and slaked lime, the standard ingredient in
mortar, said Dr Zhang Bingjian.
The sticky rice mortar bound the bricks
together so tightly that in many places
weeds still cannot grow. However, there was
widespread was widespread resentment

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7785842/Great-Wall-of-Chinas-strength-comes-from-sticky-
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