Why does the great wall of china look the way it does?

Mongol invaders are nomadic people and they love to raid towns near the boarders. Those areas are mountainous and Mongols are very good in horseback riding. They have been a nuisance to the empire since before the unification of China to one gigantic nation. The great wall of China was not built by just one dynasty but a series of dynasties. Some of the walls were lost from structural defects or neglect since the construction was done by mostly farmers living near where the walls now stand. They are just supervised by soldiers which were forced to settle with their family in those locations, but with pay. The wall is not just a wall but a fortification.

The construction of the wall put a great strain on the treasury that the empire was brought to near bankruptcy. This shook the throne and brought about more chaos within China's Monarchy. The yellow lines, could be those portions built during the early years when China was not unified yet, and each provinces have their own Emperors or ruled by warlords. The Great Wall served its purpose, and it could have also failed from design, method of construction to sheer breach of gates located on the walls' trade routes.

Since mongols are nomadic then, they move from one portion of the country to the other to settle. Especially when weather conditions demands them to move. This could also be the reason why there were sporadic wall construction during those year.

different parts were built in different years and dynastys. the wall took a really long time to build

the colors are the legends of the map. only u can read the map, it's too small for me to read. the wall was buildt again and again, because it's been thousand of years.

The Great Wall served as a barrier to the barbarians in the north which would attack the Chinese in the south. Thus, the bordering kingdoms built walls to protect themselves. Now depending on the terrain the wall was built on, and the border of the states at the time of construction, the direction and length of the wall differs.
After the unification of all the states, the emperor decided to form an uniform front and linked all the existing walls together into one great one.
Since the borders of the states prior varied, the walls' constructions are not uniform by any mean. Hence the walls appeared to be randomly built and scattered before unification.
good luck

The Great Wall was build/rebuilt to keep out invading armies, mostly from the north. The wall was build in sections and construction spanned over a few dynasties, thus, fending off enemies at that particular time. You also need to look at the geography of the land, not just now, but also at that time. In some areas the shape of the land was enough to fend of enemies, so the extension of the wall is not needed. Plus, sections of the wall might have been taken down as China unifies.

If you were to pick some of them and go to Google Earth and locate them, I will bet you will find they go across valleys or otherwise connect natural structures that extend the blockage. The Wall is built with guard towers and gates and is intended to block invasions from hostile war lords. In fact, the fact that it runs continuously for long distances is rather more amazing than that it breaks off. You will note that the key at the bottom labels the yellow as the oldest parts of the wall - The Warring States. If you take a look at pictures, you will see that most of the standing wall is built along ridges, adding to the height of the defenses - but if it came to a vertical cliff or river bluff, it might break off.

You have to understand a bit about Chinese history, in which vast areas were ruled at one time or another by various warlords. it was not an uncommon practice for one warlord to suddenly change his allegiances and ally himself with a former enemy. As a result, different dynasties ruled over many different areas at different times, and built various defensive networks at various times as a barrier to whomever their enemy might happen to be at the time. Because this changed all the time, defensive works were built in seemingly random ways but actually reflected the alliances in effect at the time.

Those are walls that were built to protect vulnerable areas, like a valley.

It was built to keep out invading armies. In some areas the geography itself was sufficient to do this, so the wall was just built between those areas.

Because it is millions of years old and when the people working on it would die, they would build them into the wall. It took a very long period of time to build it so parts of it were dry when some were starting to dry and some parts look trashy some look good. But the most important thing is that they built it to keep north china away from south china. they hated each-other and they built it so they wouldn't have any more wars and to keep each-other off of each-other's land. Then later, in our time, it turned into a tourist attraction.