Sticky rise was the key ingredient in the mortar used to build the Great Wall of China and other ancient Chinese structures. Researchers found that the mortar with sticky rice had smaller calcium carbonate crystals than mortar without it, creating a more compact structure and causing the crystals to stick together. Mortar with sticky rice is less permeable to water and more resistant to the stresses of changing weather than standard mortar. Some religious structures and bridges built with sticky-rice-containing mortar even survived a magnitude-7.5 earthquake in 1604.
The mortar was stronger and more resistant to water than pure lime mortar, and what Zhang termed one of the greatest technological innovations of the time. Builders used the material to construct important buildings like tombs, pagodas, and city walls, some of which still exist today. Some of the structures were strong enough to shrug off the effects of modern bulldozers and powerful earthquakes.
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