In spite of all that may have been said or written on the subject, the Great Wall Of China cannot be seen from the Moon. A recent Chinese study has put and end to this historical riddle: with the help of theoretical study of “teledetection” and spot check, scientists have disproved this statement, which was, until then, even written in school books. This building can only be perceived from a high distance.

   Moreover, the Great Wall, made of bricks and earth, is neither a shining body nor a powerful reflecting panel, which doesn’t make a contrast with the rest. According to the science and the human eye’s perception, an ordinary man can see a ten meter wide tower from a maximum distance of six kilometres. This distance is of another scale than space. The width of the Great Wall is inferior to five meters.

   It is a very recent discovery as that on 11th May 2004, the European Space Agency published a high defensive picture on its website’s homepage, taken by the Proba Satellite on March 25th. It was called “The Great Wall from space.” The legend says that the fine zigzag line in the top right corner is the Great Wall. According to this announcement, aeronauts can see the Great Wall from naked eye if the weather conditions and the light are favourable. On May 19th 2004, the European Space Agency published another report, saying that they had misinterpreted this picture, mistaking a river flowing into the Miyun tank for the Great Wall.