Chinese archaeologists said they had identified some brick relics, which wind their way through 20 kilometers in northeast China's Liaoning Province, to be part of China's ancient Great Wall.

The relics, which were mostly bricks and stones left on the site of the walls, were found in the mountainous areas of Suizhong County, said a recent report jointly released by Liaoning Culture Relics Bureau and Liaoning Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.

The report said the walls were rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), though large parts had disappeared or had largely corroded after years of neglect.

As generations of local farmers did not know the bricks and stones were Great Wall relics, they sometimes used them to build their houses, said local authorities, adding that no appropriate measures had ever been put in place to protect the walls.

The Great Wall was originally built in the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-206 B.C.) to defend China against northern nomadic tribes. But most of the standing walls were rebuilt in later dynasties, including Ming.