Famous Walls in History

As long as humans have existed on the planet, we have had borders and territories. Sometimes through peace and sometimes through violence, groups of people have decided who would and wouldn’t live where. A common way of implementing these territorial restrictions has always been to build walls. Both in ancient times and today’s world, nations build walls to stop people from passing their or others’ borders. Now, let’s look at some of the most (in)famous walls in history.

Amorite Wall
Also known as the Wall of Mardu, Amorite Wall was made by the Sumerians in the 21st century BC. It is one of the earliest examples of a border wall, stretching for nearly 1600 kilometers inside the region that is now Iraq. The wall was the Sumerian King Gimil-Sin’s attempt at keeping the Amorite people away from the borders of the kingdom.

However, the wall did not cover the whole border of Sumeria, and invaders easily went over or around it. The wall’s failure was also one of the primary reasons for the Sumerian Kingdom’s eventual downfall. Today, the wall is completely destroyed and only traces of it exist.

Walls of Babylon
An ancient wall that belonged to a legendary, even mythical, society, the Walls of Babylon encircled the city and many considered it impenetrable. While Hammurabi was the one who started the wall and encircled the city, Nebuchadnezzar II was the one who greatly improved the walls in the 7th century BC. Aside from improvements and expanding it further, Nebuchadnezzar decorated the wall with blue and gold tiles.

Restored ruins of the South palace of Nebuchadnezzar in ancient Babylon

Although the wall is now destroyed, there are various records telling its astonishing height and size. According to Herodotus, the Walls of Babylon stretched for 90 kilometers, and were nearly 100 meters tall, with a width of 24 meters. The walls were so thick that chariots could run on them and have competitions. Today, only a reconstructed fragment of the walls exists in Berlin Museum.

The Great Wall of Gorgan
Built by the Sasanians between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, with a length of 200 kilometers, the Great Wall of Gorgan is one of the earliest and longest defense walls. The Sasanians built the wall as protection against the Huns and put 38 fortresses along the wall which housed nearly 30.000 soldiers. Some historians argue that the true length of the wall might be even longer since a considerable part of the wall is buried under the Caspian Sea.