Great Wall Fort at Jiayuguan

5. View of the Fort from Outside

This would be the view attackers would see if they tried to attack the fort. During the Ming Dynasty Era (1368 AD - 1644 AD), the Fortress was the home of the western-most garrison stationed on the Great Wall of China and the last bulwark of Chinese civilization. Beyond Jiayuguan's protective walls lay essentially nothing, there were no more Chinese but only barbarian lands and the much traveled but always perilous paths of the Silk Road.