According to historical documents, in Chinese history, some city walls were built with steamed earth. People call it a legend, it is really a strange event.
Daxia Guotong Wancheng is 50 miles northwest of Hengshan County, Shaanxi Province, and 120 miles east of Yulin City. Tongwan City was built by Helianbobo, who was the king of Great Xia at that time. During the campaign, he rebelled against the Later Qin and established himself on his own. He dominated Shuofang, occupied Tongwan, established the Great Xia Kingdom and proclaimed himself emperor, and ruled for 19 years. Tongwan City is the old city of Xiazhou.
The significance of Tongwancheng, Helian Bobo himself said: "Fang unified the world and ruled over all countries, so he named it Tongwan." Later, the Great Xia Kingdom was destroyed by the Northern Wei .
Tongwan City is actually divided into East City and West City, which are about the same size. From the plan view, East City is dominant and West City is supplementary. The east city wall is 730 meters long from north to south and 500 meters wide. There are four city gates. The south gate is Chaosong Gate, the east gate is Zhaowei Gate, the north gate is Pingshuo Gate, and the west gate is Fuliang Gate. The south wall of the East City slopes slightly to the northeast and is not straight. The West City Wall is 650 meters long from north to south and 500 meters wide. There are remains of a turret in the southwest corner with a remaining height of 31 meters. There is a angled wall in the middle of the West City Wall.
Both Dongcheng and Xicheng are building mamian , and some mamian are used as warehouses to store wood and other materials. The planning of Tongwan City shows the left ancestors and right society, and adheres to the city building principles of Han people etiquette. The palaces and pavilions are connected into a piece, the turrets are very magnificent, and the cornices are also very pretty. The southern wall of the East City has been excavated and basically no longer exists. The walls of the entire city have horse faces, and the construction of the horse faces is very outstanding.
There are documented records that Tongwan City was the first city built with steamed earth, and it is famous. The city wall is so hard that it cannot be cut down with a pickaxe. There is a archery tower in Tongwan City. It is built with rammed earth. The soil is extremely hard. On the first floor of the archery tower, there are coupon-shaped holes, one every 3 meters. During the construction, scaffolding was still used. On the outer wall of the archery tower, there are still 3 to 4 rows of pole holes. The distance between rows is about 1 meter, and the distance between holes is 30 centimeters.
Actual map of the Tongwancheng ruins of the Daxia Kingdom
There are two explanations for the use of steamed earth to build Tongwan City:
The first explanation is that the earth for the city was stuffed into water, and then exposed to the sun. When it was half dry, the earth was transported The wall should be rammed so that the soil will not be soft or powdery. Under ramming, the water-stifled soil can become a lump that sticks together.
The second explanation is that when building the city, the soft soil was mixed with hot water. Because Tongwan City was located in Shuofang, the ground was frozen and the weather was cold, so hot water was used to mix the soil, and then rammed stones were added. Strength makes soil stick together. Tongwan City has a history of more than 1,500 years. After thousands of years of ups and downs, the walls, ruins and towers still remain. It is not easy. The buildings in the whole city need to be further investigated in the future.
