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A list of history’s most famous historic walls:
Built over 2,000 years by multiple Chinese dynasties, the Great Wall of China stretches 13,171 miles across China’s northern borders. It’s like driving from New York to Los Angeles more than four times!
The Berlin Wall’s infamous “Death Strip” turned Berlin into a lethal maze of concrete and steel from 1961 to 1989. East German guards stationed in 302 watchtowers used trained attack dogs and 55,000 landmines to enforce a brutal divide that claimed at least 140 lives.
Hadrian’s wall was built in 122 CE under Emperor Hadrian’s command. The 73-mile stone barrier stretched across northern Britain to defend Roman territory from Celtic tribes. It was also an unexpected canvas for soldiers who carved explicit anatomical graffiti that archaeologists still study today.
The Western Wall, a limestone remnant of the Second Jewish Temple built in 19 BCE, draws millions who tuck paper prayers into its ancient stones. Some Orthodox Jews believe that pigeons, drawn to nest in the wall’s crevices, carry unread prayers directly to heaven when they fly away.
The ancient walls of Babylon, built by King Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BCE, were 40 feet high and wide enough for chariots to race along the top. However, despite detailed historical accounts and their status as one of the Seven Wonders, no archaeological evidence has proven they ever existed.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall is a V-shaped gash of reflective black granite inscribed with 58,318 names. When it was first built it caused fierce opposition over its minimalist design. Officials then had to install Frederick Hart’s bronze sculpture “The Three Soldiers” nearby in 1984 to calm critics who demanded more traditional patriotic imagery.
The Walls of Ston, stretching 5.5 kilometers across Croatia’s Pelješac peninsula, stand as medieval Europe’s longest fortification system outside Greece’s ancient walls. They were constructed by the wealthy Republic of Ragusa to protect their lucrative salt pans.
The massive limestone walls of Troy were thought to have been breached by the Greeks’ wooden horse deception. However, most archeologists now believe that they fell apart due to natural seismic forces. Evidence reveals distinctive patterns of structural collapse consistent with a catastrophic earthquake around 1200 BCE.
According to the Bible, the Walls of Jericho fell after Israelites marched around them blowing trumpets. Archaeologists found evidence of collapsed walls… but no trumpets.
The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople stood as humanity’s most formidable defensive barrier from 413 CE until 1453 CE. The walls were made of triple-layered fortifications enhanced by Greek fire—a mysterious incendiary weapon that could burn even on water. The formula is lost to history after successfully repelling countless sieges.
The Israeli West Bank Barrier, a 440-mile network of concrete walls and fences built between 2002-2006, became notorious for its snake-like path through Palestinian territory. It sparked international debate when Israeli soldiers discovered 13 unauthorized tunnels beneath it in a single month in 2004.
The U.S.-Mexico border wall, initiated in 1990 as Operation Hold-the-Line in El Paso, expanded into a 700-mile barrier system. Some sections of the wall were built with Vietnam War-era helicopter landing pads, welded together to form sections of the fence near San Diego.
The medieval Walls of Dubrovnik in Croatia built in the 7th Century, doubled as filming locations for ‘Game of Thrones’… including a scene where a character is thrown to her death.
Built-in the 15th Century under Rana Kumbha’s reign, Kumbhalgarh Fort’s mammoth wall was the second longest in the world after China’s Great Wall. It required sacrificial human blood mixed into its foundation stones, according to local lore.
The Ming Dynasty’s massive Xi’an city walls stretched 8.7 miles in length and were fortified with 98 watchtowers. They were built with a unique mortar mixture of sticky rice, lime, and egg whites—a recipe that proved so durable that some sections have withstood earthquakes and warfare for over 600 years. However, laborers were reportedly entombed alive within the fortifications as ritual sacrifices.
The colossal stone walls of Sacsayhuamán, built by Inca engineers in the 15th Century, showcase extraordinary architectural precision with massive limestone blocks fitted so tightly that not even a knife blade can penetrate their joints.The Spaniards thought the devil himself built the walls.
The 11th-century Walls of Ávila rise like a stone crown around Spain’s highest provincial capital. It’s a place where religious fervor mingles with dark history in the form of Saint Teresa’s mummified hand, which is enshrined within the fortification that once repelled Moors and now draws pilgrims seeking mystical encounters.
Great Zimbabwe’s stone walls were built by skilled African craftsmen in the 11th Century, but racist European colonizers refused to accept this truth and instead made up stories claiming aliens or biblical figures must have built them.
The massive coral stone walls of Cartagena were built by enslaved Indian laborers over 200 years under Spanish rule.They endured countless pirate sieges and now stand as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Built in 1528 under Saadian rule, Taroudant’s 7.5-kilometer defensive walls concealed a network of subterranean passages that enabled both legitimate trade and the trafficking of slaves during Morocco’s turbulent age of expansion.
The Walls of Benin City was built as a vast network of earthen ramparts and moats that once stretched across 16,000 kilometers of West African terrain. It was Africa’s largest construction until British forces destroyed this engineering marvel during their 1897 colonial conquest.
The Pingyao City Walls were constructed during the Ming Dynasty in 1370. Pingyao’s 6-kilometer defensive walls form a precise turtle shape with six gates strategically positioned as the creature’s head, tail, and legs—it’s a deliberate design that locals believed harnessed the turtle’s symbolic power of longevity to protect their city from evil forces.
Contructed in 142 CE under Emperor Antoninus Pius, the Antonine Wall stretched 39 miles across Scotland’s narrowest point, where Roman legions carved brutal victory messages into stone markers that doubled as gravestones for their fallen comrades.
The medieval fortress city of Carcassonne was a masterpiece of military architecture. It’s iconic fairy-tale appearance stems largely from controversial 19th-century restorations by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who fabricated many of its distinctive pointed towers and slate-tiled roofs based on romantic style.
Built in 349 BCE and still standing today, Diyarbakir’s imposing black basalt walls stretch 5.5 kilometers around the ancient city. It’s known for its intricate carvings of mythological beasts and a chilling “death chamber” where prisoners were forced to choose between jumping to their death or facing execution.
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