Famous Border Walls
1. The Sumerians’ Amorite Wall
- during the 21st century B.C., the ancient Sumerian rulers Shulgi and Shu-Sin constructed a massive fortified barrier to keep out the Amorites, a group of nomadic tribesmen who had been making incursions into Mesopotamia.
- believed to have stretched for over a hundred miles between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq
- only succeeded in fending off the Sumerians’ enemies for a few years.
- hostile invaders either penetrated the wall or simply walked around
- after the destruction of the city of Ur around 2000 B.C., Sumerian culture began to vanish from history.
2. The Long Walls of Athens
- around 461 B.C., the Athenians sought to correct its vulnerability by constructing a series of barriers to connect the city center to the vital harbors of Piraeus and Phalerum
- the city was later forced to surrender after its navy was defeated at sea
- the victorious Spartans are then said to have dismantled the hated Long Walls to the sound of celebratory music from flute girls
- the barriers were later rebuilt, however, and continued to stand until 86 B.C., when they were destroyed by the Roman general Sulla.
3. The Great Wall of Gorgan
- also known as the “Red Snake” for its distinctive red-colored bricks, the “Great Wall of Gorgon” was a 121-mile rampart that extended from the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to the Elburz Mountains in what is now Iran
- built by the Sasanian Persians sometime around the 5th century A.D.and was one of the longest walls of antiquity and boasted more than 30 forts, a garrison of 30,000 troops and a network of canals that acted as both a water supply system and a defensive moat
- little is known about the wall’s history except that it ultimately failed to protect the Persians from further conquest
4. Hadrian’s Wall
- around 122 A.D., the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a stone barrier to protect Roman Britain from the Picts and the other “barbarian” tribes that inhabited northern England and Scotland
- Hadrian’s Wall” was a 73-mile rampart that stretched from the Solway Firth on the western coast to the mouth of the River Tyne in the east
- with the decline of the Roman Empire the wall failed to serve as a deterrent
5. The Great Wall of China
- China’s legendary Great Wall is actually a collection of stone, wood and earthen barricades that meander for thousands of miles from the Gobi Desert to the North Korean border.
- construction began in the 3rd century B.C. but the most famous sections were erected between the 14th and 17th centuries A.D. to defend the Ming Dynasty against the steppe nomads to the north
- the completed wall was once the largest manmade object in the world, but despite its grandeur, it often proved ineffective as a defensive barrier
- Mongol leader Altan Khan famously bypassed the wall and raided Beijing in 1550, and the Manchus later broke through in 1644 and brought about the fall of the Ming Dynasty
6. The Walls of Constantinople
- Byzantine metropolis of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) flourished for over a millennium with more than 14 miles of barricades that surrounded the city
- most famous were the Theodosian Wall that included a moat, a 27-foot outer wall and a massive inner wall that was 40 feet tall and 15 feet thick
- in 1453, the Ottoman Empire besieged the city, their artillery to blasted holes in the walls, the Turks poured through the breach and captured Constantinople, toppling the Byzantine Empire
7. The Berlin Wall
- modern history’s most infamous wall was erected in 1961, when the Soviet-aligned East German government built a series of concrete partitions separating East and West Berlin
- 1000's of East Germans succeeded in scaling the wall, tunneling underneath it and even flying over it in ultra-light aircraft and homemade hot air balloons
— Westerners dubbed it the “Wall of Shame” and it stood for only 28 years before East German authorities finally opened it on November 9, 1989
- a wave of celebrations, and elated Berliners soon went to work demolishing the wall with jackhammers and chisels
https://www.history.com/news/7-famous-border-walls
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History has demonstrated repeatedly that putting one's faith in "THE WALL" only contributes to a false sense of security and makes even less sense when confronted with the technological advances of the modern era!
