On top of the Great Wall

Once up on the wall the views were spectacular! It stretched off as far as the eye could see. Towers were interspersed at regular intervals. Some you could climb to the top of, some had stairways to the outside of the wall.

My pictures don't do the Great Wall justice in terms of representing how steep it was in sections. At times the steps were as tall as just below my knee cap. The ups and downs of the wall follow the ridge line. I guess no one thought that leveling off a little of the closely spaced hills would have made the wall a little easier to build, much less traverse. I can't imagine soldiers running up and down, especially in the dark when the surface changed rapidly from smooth stone to shallow steps, to smooth pavers on a steep incline and then steep steps.