First Brick Stove Site Discovered on Badaling Great Wall

Beijing1111Jun 09, 2019

A brick stove site was unearthed in the No. 65 watchtower of Badaling Great Wall during a recent maintenance project in June, 2019.

A brick stove site was unearthed in the No. 65 watchtower of Badaling Great Wall during a recent maintenance project in June, 2019. The firewood stove, which was built inside a watchtower, has been discovered for the first time throughout the restoration and repair work of the Great Wall over the years.

A rectangular construction of a single bed size was cleaned out of the watchtower base, with a length of 1.8 meters, width of 1.3 meters and height of 0.4 meters. Supported by beams, a round pit shaped by bricks is believed to fit the size of a big cooking wok, analyzed by the Great Wall researchers. Made up of brick offcut, the entire structure was probably constructed a bit later than the No. 65 watchtower.

Two unique drainage channels were dug out on the second layer of the watchtower. Lined near the foot of the wall, the channels are about 5 meters long and 0.2 meters wide. In fact, most drainages of the Great Wall are generally made of special-shaped bricks to form water channels, but these newly-found drainage grooves are all lapped by pantiles at the bottom and glued by white lime.

Moreover, a 10-cm-long bricklayer's cleaver, 7 stone bombs and 1 stone cannonball were excavated from the site, and now they have been delivered to cultural relics department for preservation. The stove site and the drainage will be protected in the present.