history
For decades, a popular claim insisted the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space with the naked eye.
No, this claim is not true: astronauts say the Great Wall of China isn't easily visible to the naked eye from orbit. Multiple astronauts, including China's own Yang Liwei, have confirmed they could not distinguish the wall from space without visual aids, since it's too narrow relative to the distance involved.
It is not clearly visible from low Earth orbit, and photographing it with satellites is a different matter altogether from naked-eye visibility, so neither of those options accurately describes what astronauts have actually reported seeing.
The myth likely originated in a 1932 Ripley's cartoon, decades before spaceflight even existed, and ironically, many other structures like airports and highways are actually easier to spot from orbit than the wall is.
history
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