Lost section of the Great Wall of China discovered in Mongolia

Mongolia and China are two countries with inextricably intertwined histories and this is no better demonstrated by one of the world's most famous and impressive manmade structures - the Great Wall of China.

The wall was built largely to repel raids into China by Mongol forces and it runs close to much of modern China's border with Mongolia in the north of the country.

An overland adventure to the region incorporating stays in both China and Mongolia is a great way to understand and experience the relationship between these two ancient cultures first hand and a trip to see the Great Wall of China is a must.

And in future, visitors may get a chance to see an exciting new archaeological discovery which further highlights the close shared history between the two nations.

A British explorer has discovered a section of the Great Wall of China that has been lost to close to a thousand years "marooned" in the Gobi desert in Mongolia.

It is the first section of the wall ever to be found outside China and last recorded in a 12th century atlas of Genghis Khan's battles.

The discovery was made by William Lindesay, who has been researching and helping conserve the wall since making a 1,530-mile journey, by foot, along the remnants in 1986.

"I have been looking at this area since 1997, when a friend gave me a copy of an atlas showing the red lines of Genghis Khan's attacks and counter-attacks, and underneath those are the strands of wall," he told the Telegraph.

"We found a wall that was around shin-high. But as we followed it for ten minutes, we came over a rise and there was a wonderful section, taller than my shoulders and stretching for several hundred feet," he said.

Carbon testing dates the section of the wall to the 11th or 12th centurie, but Mr Lindesay believes a wall may have been in place much earlier and rebuilt either by Genghis Khan's third son, Ogedei Khan, or by the Chinese Western Xia dynasty.