How wide is the Great Wall of China?

There is normally no concept of width but thickness of wall. For common buildings, the outer wall used for enclose is generally 24-40cm (9 - 16in) thick, and the inner wall for division is 10-24cm (4 - 9in) thick. On the Great Wall, the thickness of the wall is 40-50cm (16 -20in). The concept of Great Wall width came from that it is indeed wide. In ancient China, the Great Wall of China was used as a military fortification, and the space between the inner and outer walls were filled in for marching and transporting supplies, hence making the Great Wall as wide as 4-5 meters (13-16 feet), which can allow 10 soldiers to walk shoulder by shoulder. The current single-lane motorway is generally 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) wide. Assuming that cars can be driven up there, the Great Wall can accommodate two.

The wall structure of the Great Wall of China is different in different sections. In the plain or important military locations, the walls were built to be tall and solid; on steep mountain ridges, the walls were relatively low and narrow. Shanhaiguan, Jinshanling, Badaling, Mutianyu and some other Great Wall sections in Hebei and Beijing areas are relatively complete. They are about 10 meters (33 feet) high on average, 7 - 8 meters (23 - 26 feet) wide at the bottom, and 4 - 5 meters (13 - 16 feet) wide at the top of the wall. The brick used to construct the wall is 0.4 meters (1.3 feet) long, 0.2 meters (0.7 feet) wide, 0.1 meters (0.3 feet) thick and about 15 kilograms heavy for each.
 

The wide Great Wall is about 8-10 meters (26 - 33ft). The Juyongguan Great Wall has a big variation in width, with a maximum width of 16.7 meters and a minimum width of 1.2 meters (3.9 feet).
 

Northern Qi Great Wall in Zunhua City of Hebei Province has a length of about 1km (0.6 mi), a height of 1meter (3.3 feet) and a width of 70 cm. It was simply built of stones, because Qifeng Mountain where the Wall stands is precipitous, easy to keep but difficult to defend.  
 

The ratio of width to height decides how wide the Great Wall is. For instance, if the wall is 4 meters high (13.1 feet), the base should be 5 meters (16.4 feet) wide; if the height increases or decreases by 1 meter (3.3 feet), the width of the base should increase or decrease by 1 meter and the width of the top should increase or decrease by 0.5 meter (1.6 feet) accordingly.
 

No matter what kind of material was used for constructing the wall, the longitudinal section was a trapezoid with wide base and narrow top. This was formed by the upward contraction of the both sides of the walls to enhance the stability. The ratio of upward contraction was different based on different building materials and terrains. In history of Great Wall construction, there also seemed no regulations on the contraction ratio. In general, if the wall was 6 or 7 meters (20 or 23 feet) wide at the bottom, the top was 2 meters (7 feet) narrower, and the angle between the wall and the ground was about 80 degrees.  
 

How wide is the Great Wall of China?

Further Reading

How tall is the Great Wall of China?

Defensive Wall Structure of China Great Wall

How long is the Great Wall of China?

Fun Facts about Great Wall: 25 Things You didn’t Know