Walls and wall building have played a very important role in Chinese culture. In ancient times, not only towns and villages, but also the houses and the temples within them were surrounded with walls. Also, the houses had no windows overlooking the street. Thus, walking in a city would give the feeling of wandering around a huge maze  . The word "city" in Chinese also means "wall". The god of walls and mounts, whose duty was, and still is, to protect and be responsible for the welfare of the residents in these cities, villages, houses and temples. So a great and extremely hard task such as constructing a wall, which was supposed to run the length of the country, might not sound absurd .    However, it is indeed a common mistake to think of the Great Wall as a single building structure, and it would also be a mistake to assume that it was built during a single dynasty. Actually, several dynasties somehow contributed to the construction of the Great Wall, the foundations of which had been laid many centuries ago. It was during the fourth and third centuries BC that warring states started building walls to protect their kingdoms, both against one another and against the northern nomads  .    The Great Wall played an important role in the growth of Chinese economy in history. Many settlements were established along the new border. Armies were instructed to reclaim   wasteland and to plant crops there. Also, roads and canals were built. All of the work greatly helped increase the country's trade and cultural exchanges with many remote areas and also with the southern, central and western parts of Asia. Why did ancient Chinese cities seem like a maze?
Because there were usually more walls than houses. Because the outside walls of houses had no windows. Because the word "city" means "wall". Because there were legends about the god of walls.