Explorer Finds Lost Piece of China's Great Wall

The Great Wall of China is bigger than we thought. An undiscovered stretch of the wall was located last fall by a British explorer in the deserts of Mongolia, reports the Telegraph. Carbon testing reveals the 62-mile section, made of earth and branches, has been standing since the 11th or 12th centuries, and it's the only chunk believed to have been uncovered outside of China. The discovery will be detailed in China's National Geographic next month.

Adventurer William Lindesay had been searching for the lost wall since 1997, when he encountered an atlas written in the 12th century displaying Genghis Khan's battles. He ventured to Mongolia where he was told no such structures existed. Finally, a retired Mongolian geographer encouraged him to look on Google Earth, where Lindesay found a a promising faint line. He set off on an expedition into the Gobi desert, and "we reached it on the middle of the second day,” he says. (More William Lindesay stories.)