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Hello everyone. I'm Olympia. Thank you for being here with me in this wonderful place called Lights Out Library, and I have a great story to tell you.

The first millennium BC.

In the immense steps, deserts and forests of Northeast Asia, a storm is gathering.

Groups of nomadic warriors, ferocious mounted archers, fast as lightning on their horses,

suddenly appear on the northern frontiers of Chinese kingdoms.

They're unpredictable and deadly rays wreak havoc on villages, towns, and cities.

But they vanish before they can be confronted.

In response, the Chinese start building walls to discourage them or slow them down enough to organize their defense.

The walls spread dozens and hundreds and thousands of miles.

But the threat never entirely disappears,

and centuries pass.

Earthworks, wood, and adobe are replaced with brick and stone.

Kingdoms and empires rise and fall south of the wall for more than two thousand years and the masters of china repair and expand the wall when they can

no construction site in the history of humankind was ever larger or lasted longer than this one.

The wall ran from the sea in the east to the center of Asia and the west,

crossing plains, forests, steps, mountains, and deserts, becoming a web of old and new constructions

that was too large to be maintained and manned continuously.

Long portions of the wall, the oldest ones, were eventually forgotten by the descendants of their builders.

...