The Ming Dynasty city wall in Nanjing,a famous ancient cultural city located in the East China,was built of earth coated with bricks.It stands 14 meters or more higher,and is 4-9 meters wide across the top,about 14 meters thick at the bottom.The city wall with 33.65 km in perimeter let it become the landmark architecture.Soils on the top,outside and inside of the Ming Dynasty city wall were surveyed in field,and some physical and chemical properties were analyzed in lab.The results showed there is more sand whereas less silt and clay on the top and outside the wall than that inside the city wall,suggested that some materials come from air dust and anthropogenic transported materials.There is darker value and chroma,more organic carbon,total nitrogen,total phosphorus,Olsen-P and available potassium,and higher mass magnetic susceptibility,frequency dependent magnetic susceptibility and Fed/Fet,whereas less thickness on the top and outside the wall than that inside the wall,respectively.This indicated that it is a younger soil.There are 2 percent or more calcium carbonate equivalent in soils.According to above properties,the soils were classified as ealcaric urbie Teehnosols in World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB).