For thousands of years, the Great Wall of China still stands and becomes the pride of the Chinese nation.
Over thousands of years of history, the Great Wall of China still stands firmly “racing the liver and the moon”. Perhaps many people think that this wall is built from rare and complicated materials, so it is so sustainable. However, in fact, for the Great Wall of China to stand upright as it is today, it is due to a special mortar made from glutinous rice – a very familiar food of Asians.
During the restoration of the city wall in the capital Xi’an, researchers found it difficult to scrape off the mortar on the ancient bricks. When tested with chemicals, the scientists found that this medium reacted with the same reagents as glutinous rice.
After thousands of years of fog and wind, the Great Wall of China still stands tall, defying time.
The results after infrared analysis also show that the molecular structure is similar to that of glutinous rice. Therefore, Chinese scientists have unanimously affirmed that the thousand-year-old Great Wall did not fall all thanks to the sticky rice mortar.
Studies show that, because glutinous rice contains amylopectin component , meanwhile, this substance is almost insoluble in water and has high adhesion. This is an important factor to help the sticky rice mortar become hard and firm. Maybe the ancients noticed this feature of sticky rice, so they put it in the construction industry.
The reason why the Great Wall of China has not fallen for thousands of years is because of the sticky rice mortar.
According to studies, experts discovered that ancient builders mixed sticky rice soup with limestone that was heated at high temperature, adding water and other ingredients to create sticky rice mortar. This structure is very solid and not waterproof at all.
Mr. Truong Bang Kiem, a Chinese scientist, said that sticky rice is the world’s first compound mortar made from organic materials combined with inorganic materials. This particular grout is also one of the greatest technical innovations in history.
In addition to building walls, the ancients also used sticky rice mortar to build large architectural works such as tombs, jade towers, etc. Works built with this mortar still exist, challenging the same time and stand firm even when impacted by many earthquakes.
Typically, the ancient city walls built in Nanjing, Xi’an and Xingzhou under the Ming dynasty, despite their 600 years of history, they still stand firm and show no signs of subsidence or collapse. In addition, when excavating ancient tombs built in the Ming Dynasty, even though they used hoes, shovels or bulldozers, excavators, excavation work still faced many difficulties because the walls were too strong.
Sticky rice mortar is used to build walls, tombs, and jade towers.
Although glutinous rice mortar is very strong, because sticky rice is one of the luxury products, it is not widely used. Before the glutinous rice mortar was born, the construction mortar also went through many different generations.
Before the Shang Dynasty, the adhesive mixtures used in architecture were mainly made from dry straw mixed with mud. By the Zhou Dynasty, lime was gradually used to replace it.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties from the 5th century BC, lime, clay, and sand were mixed together to form a mortar called a three-mix mortar . The three ingredients are mixed together in certain proportions and after drying, they become incredibly solid. Since then, this type of mortar was widely used and lasted until the 20th century.
Later, the ancients discovered that glutinous rice also had an effective adhesive effect, so it was used as a building material. After the Song and Yuan dynasties, glutinous rice mortar was widely used.