Evening star., 1932-04-10

a mighty, protecting serpent along
the old northern boundary of the
Celestial Kingdam-
Hadrians Wall the Great Wall of
Britain built and fortified to shut
the barbarians of the north cut of southern
Britain in the days of the Roman empire.
And now. added to this small select list of
great walls in the world is an American entry
the Great Wall of Peru, which has been dis
covered by explorers flying over the Andes
The American wall was built with hard labor
by an Indian people called the Chimu, who had
an important civilization long ago on the Pa
cific Coast of Peru, until finally they were
swallowed up in a terrific struggle by the pow
erful empire of the 1ncas.
That a great wall many milcs long should
be hidden or lost or forgotten seems incredible.
A great wall would seem to be as conspicuous
as the proverbial white elephant. But the
great walls of China and Britain have had
way of fading out of sight for many centuries
and coming to light again in modern times
And the new-found Wall of Peru is just like
them.
How very, very .inconspicuous great wan
can be was proved by the Chinese wall, which
was unknown outside of Asia for almost 1000
wears And it is 1,500 miles long-that Is half
the width of the United States. AS late as so
years ago articles were actually written argu-
ing that the Chinese wall was myth
In England archeologists still discover
ing Hadrian's Wall, which runs clear across
the island from east to west for 73 miles. Only
last wear a brand new fort along the wall was
unearthed with much excitement in England.
A for the Great Wall of Peru. it has just
N gained the worlds attention for the first
time 1t was sighted from the air unexpectedly
as the recent Shippee- johnson Peruvian expe-
dition few over the foothills of the Andes.
Never having heard of any barricade of such
size in Peru the surprised explorers, Robert
Shippee and George r. johnson and their
party, studded their air photographs and puz-
Eled over them and finally decided to make
another fight to trace the length OF this mys-
terious barricade.
This time the flying explorers started from
a point near the Pacific Coast where ruins OF
village lie buried in sand. There the great
wall springs up.
The whole Pacific Coast of Peru is a desert
strip of sand about SO miles wide, cut across
by number of rivers which make the lano
habitable East of that desert strip the ranges
of the Andes begin
THE great wall crosses this strip and rises
into the foothills 1t was apparently built
to follow the Santa River from sea to mountain
In many places the barricade wanders more
than a mile from the river. Occasionally 1t
comes close even crossing the rivers path
Like the Chinese Wall and the Wall Of Ha-
drian, the Great Wall of Peru was strengthened
by a series of forts The discoveries sighted
IA of these forts They stood on both sides OF
the wall and at short distance from 1t.
Some of the forts circular, some are
rectangular. Most of them were cleverly set
I'm the tops of small hills. where they would DC
mite invisible from the valley moor.
As the flyers followed the wall up into the
Andes at an elevation of 10000 feet In the
mountains they lost the trail. Weather condi-
tions were against them. The light was fall
ing.
wall for more than 40 miles. They had seen
enough to convince them that this construction
proiect of ancient America ranks with remark
able feats of the past.
Viewed from an airplane over the Andes
the Great Wall of Peru Is a seam, long, f1ne
scar on the face of the mountains After the
flyers had surveyed it from the air they set
out in automobile and on foot TO examine
the wall at close range
They found a tall, crumbl1ng rampant OF
mud-cemented boulders. Where it crosses gull
lies it rises as high as 20 or 80 feet. The av-
erage height appears to have been IL to Is
feet. At the base 1t was about II to Is feet
thick, and toward the top it tapered.
1T is interesting to compare this wall with
the other two previously mentioned.
The Great Wall of China built about 300
BIC, is $500 miles long, has $4,000 towers
for forts, rises from is to 80 feet high and
is Is feet thick at its base.
Hadrian's Wall in England was built around
$50 AID, is 73 miles long, has IA large forts
and 80 small ones, stands nearly 20 feet high
and is feet thick.
The Great Wall of America is known to be