Jilu Fortress Great Wall
Located to the northwest of Dengkou County in Inner Mongolia, Jilu Fortress was the passage in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220) to the area north of the Great Wall. It was the gateway to the northwestern region of the Han Dynasty. Lying against the Han Dynasty Great Wall in the north and neighboring Tushenze (an ancient lake), Jilu Fortress was a strategic passage for transportation between the north and south of Yinshan Mountain in ancient times.
According to historical records, Jilu Fortress belonged to Yuhun Prefecture, Shuofang County which was set up in 121BC in the Han Dynasty. In 51BC, when Huhanye Chanyu (The Khan of Hun who ruled from 58BC to 31BC) returned to his territory from the central plains, it was out of Jilu Fortress that the Emperor Xuandi of Han Dynasty dispatched troops to escort him home. At that time, the climate was better, and the land where Jilu Fortress is positioned was grassland rather than today’s desert.
 Jilu Fortress |
 Jilu Fortress |
Due to favorable resources of water, soil and daylight, the land was brought into cultivation. The Emperor Xuandi allocated grains grown in the farmland near Jilu Fortress as the food for Huhanye and his men. In 89, it was again through Jilu Fortress that the generals Dou Xian and Geng Bing attacked the northern Hun tribes.
From these historical events, we can see that Jilu Fortress of the Great Wall had great military and agricultural importance in the Han Dynasty. Today, the relic of Jilu Fortress is a 68.5 meters (74.9 yards) square city standing at a platform on a mountain slope. The remains of the wall measure an average of seven meters (23 feet) tall. The top is 3.7 meters (4.0 yards) thick and the bottom is 5.3 to 5.5 meters (5.8 to 6.0 yards) thick. Unearthed cultural relics include cord-marked bricks and tiles, arrows and a bronze crossbow. Within the purview of 6.2 miles around the Jilu Fortress, there are a dozen sites of beacon towers from the Han Dynasty which were used as a line of definse and an alarm system.
Jilu Fortress and the beacon towers around it together made up the fortified strongholds on the northwest border of the Han Dynasty.
Inner Mongolia Great Wall List |
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| Jilu Fortress Great Wall | Gaoque Fortress Great Wall |
