Much like an excavation, from the survey beforehand to the foundations, the core, and eventually the ruins, this book explores the majesty of the Wall through the objects it has inspired such as the appearance of the Wall in Ortelius atlas of the world to the unexpected origins of wolf smoke, proliferation of the blunderbuss in the 15th century Great Wall theatre of war, and Kafka s classic short story "At the Building of the Great Wall." Enhanced by stories of the discovery of the objects, and those of their modern-day keepers from curators to collectors, each artifact has been meticulously...