European ideas and conceptions about the Great Wall spread to Europe, probably in the late 16th century where it merged with the European image of China. By the mid-17th century, the image of the wall was changing - the Ming wall was complete and impressive.
At the turn of the 18th century, the Western imagination was hooked on the idea of the Great Wall of China. Firsthand accounts were rare, however, and the image the West held of China was largely a romanticized one. Voltaire (1694-1774) referred to it often, although to what point is unclear, beyond describing it as superior to the Pyramids of Egypt. He later changed his mind, saying the wall had failed to defend the empire. He followed this by denouncing the wall as a monument to fear.
When China began to emerge in the 20th century from the institutions that had defined her earlier character, the notion of the Great Wall of China reawakened in Europe.
