The Great Wall beacon towers are distributed east to west in an area two kilometers north of the Yumen Pass. The Han Dynasty Great Wall sections in the jurisdiction of Dunhuang city extend around 150 kilometers long in total and the best-preserved parts are found near the Yumen Pass. There are nearly 80 beacon towers along the Great Wall.
The Western Han Dynasty Great Wall was constructed with laminated plates of gravels and reeds/rose willows. The best-preserved parts are about 400 meters long, 3.25 meters high, three meters wide at the bottom, and one meter wide at the top. A six- to seven-meter wide defense was established along the inner side of the Great Wall.
In 1979, Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Dunhuang Municipal Museum discovered the Maquanwan Beacon Tower ruins of the Han Dynasty, which is 11 kilometers west of Yumen Pass. During excavation, 337 items were unearthed, including 1,217 pieces of bamboo slips. Before the discovery, a total of 2,285 slips had been discovered around the Yumen Pass and the Han Dynasty Great Wall.
The Yumen Pass, Hecang City and Maquanwan Beacon Tower ruins are cultural relics units under provincial protection.
