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The Wall of Jericho -

The Wall of Jericho, made famous by its inclusion in the Bible, is the oldest known protective wall in the world. It is thought to have been first built around 8000 BCE, and has been torn down and rebuilt many times throughout history since then.

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The Berlin Wall -

In the wake of World War II, Berlin was split in two by what came to be known as the Berlin Wall. It was a physical manifestation of the ideological Iron Curtain that divided Europe at the end of the war, and would stand throughout the Cold War until it was torn down in 1989.

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Hadrian’s Wall -

Stretching more than 70 miles (113 km) from the River Tyne in the East to the Irish Sea in the West, Hadrian’s Wall was built in the 2nd century CE by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to protect Roman Britannia from the rival northern tribes.

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The Vatican Walls -

Walls were built around Saint Peter’s Square, the famed basilica, and the surrounding area on the orders of Pope Leo IV in the mid-800s CE, after the holy city was attacked by pirates in 846.

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The Walls of Babylon -

The ancient city of Babylon raised its first walls in 1792 BCE, and another two layers of walls were built a millennium later by King Nebuchadnezzar II. The breathtakingly beautiful Gate of Ishtar (not pictured) was one of Nebuchadnezzar II’s additions, and was once one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, until it was tragically destroyed during the Iraq War.

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The Walls of Ston -

The longest protective wall in Europe is the sprawling fortress complex known as the Walls of Ston, in Croatia. The walls were built to protect the city and surrounding area from Ottoman invasion in the 14th century, and successfully did just that for 500 years.

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Zimbabwe’s Great Enclosure -

One of the oldest known protective structures of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa is the Great Enclosure in Zimbabwe, located at  the site of the ancient Shona city of Great Zimbabwe. It is thought to have been built around 900 years ago.

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The Wall Street wall -

Long before Wall Street became the financial center of the Western world, it was an actual wooden wall, built in the 1600s by Dutch colonists to protect their colony of New Amsterdam. It was demolished in 1699.

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The Great Wall of China -

The Great Wall of China is arguably the most famous border wall in history, and it is certainly the longest. After nearly a millennium of construction, starting in 680 BCE and not being complete until about 1680 CE,  the finished Great Wall of China stretched a staggering 13,171 miles (21,196 km) from east to west.

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The Maginot Line -

Relations between Germany and France were tense after the German invasion of World War I, so the French government built the Maginot Line, a 450-mile (724-km) long series of barracks, guard towers, and armaments along the French-German border. The project was ultimately a failure, as it did very little to slow down the Nazi invasion of World War II.

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The berms of Western Sahara -

This massive 1,700-mile (2,736-km) long sand wall and minefield splits the Western Sahara territory that has been occupied by Morocco since 1975. It is made up of massive berms, or land shelves, and what is thought to be the largest minefield in the world. It was built by Morocco to deny citizens of occupied Western Sahara access to the coast and its resources.

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The West Bank Wall -

In 2002, the State of Israel began construction on the West Bank barrier wall in the wake of the second Intifada uprising. The barrier wall has been declared illegal by multiple international organizations, including the United Nations and International Court of Justice.

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The Walls of Constantinople -

The walls surrounding the great city of Constantinople were built primarily by King Theodosius II in the 5th century CE and would prove to be some of the most effective and resilient walls in history, successfully protecting the city from invasion for 800 years.

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The Warsaw Ghetto Wall -

Like many cities that fell under Nazi occupation, Warsaw was segregated into different areas and the Jewish population were relegated to life in walled-off ghettos formed by the new Nazi government. Most of the Warsaw Ghetto Wall was torn down in 1943, but some sections still remain.

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The Korean Demilitarized Zone -

One of the most famous and tense borders in the world is the Korean Demilitarized Zone that sits between North and South Korea. While not an actual wall, the DMZ acts as a no man's land between the two countries and is heavily guarded on both sides. The DMZ was established in 1953 after an armistice was signed to put an effective (but not official) end to the Korean War.

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The US-Mexico Border Wall -

The wall built along portions of the US-Mexico border, sometimes referred to as the Trump Wall, began construction under the order of President Donald Trump in 2016 and was the source of extended controversy throughout his administration. About 455 miles (732 km) of the wall were built before President Joe Biden halted the project after taking office in 2021.

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The Long Walls of Athens -

Walls were built from Athens down to the Port of Piraeus to make sure the Greek city always had access to its port even in the event of a siege. The 3.7 miles (six km) of walls were destroyed by the Spartans in 403 BCE.

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The Cyprus Green Line -

Commonly known as the last divided city in Europe, the Cypriot capital of Nicosia has been split down the middle by the wall known as the Cyprus Green Line since 1964. The wall was built by the United Nations after tensions between the Greek and Turkish populations began to escalate into violence.

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Saksaywaman -

The walls of the Saksaywaman fortress in Peru, just outside of Cusco, were built by the ancient Killke culture around 1100 CE, and later fortified by the Incas in the 14th century. The construction of the walls continue to boggle the minds of modern archaeologists, who have failed to understand how these ancient cultures built a wall so solid and airtight with such massive stones and no mortar or binding agent.

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The India-Bangladesh Fence -

The Indian government built an 8-ft- (2.4-m-) tall barbed wire fence that covers nearly 90% of their border with Bangladesh in 1993 in an attempt to deter migration from Bangladesh into the Assam region of India.

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The Kremlin Walls -

The expansive walls surrounding the Kremlin in Moscow were originally built from wood in the 12th century by Prince Yuri Dolgorukiy, the founder of Moscow, to protect the city from nomadic invaders. The walls have since been renovated and upgraded a number of times, and the wood has been replaced with limestone.

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The Walls of Lugo -

Julius Caesar and the Roman army conquered many parts of Galicia, including the old Celtic city of Lugo, in 61 BCE. Centuries later, during the 3rd century CE, the Roman authorities built the Walls of Lugo around the center of the city to protect the Roman nobility that lived there in case of invasion.

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The Ireland Peace Walls -

When the conflict between the Catholic Republicans and Protestant Loyalists in Ireland broke out in Belfast in 1969, in what is now known as The Troubles, the government in Northern Ireland started to build separation walls known as Peace Walls between Protestant Northern Ireland and Catholic Ireland. The conflict ended in 1994, but the Peace Walls still stand as landmarks and tourist attractions.

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The Melilla Border Fence -

The Melilla Border Fence surrounds the Spanish exclave city of Melilla, one of two autonomous Spanish cities in North Africa in an attempt to deter immigration from the surrounding area. The 6.8-mile (11-km) fence is covered in barbed wire, and countless security cameras surveil the border at all times.

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The Hungary-Serbia border fence -

In an attempt to deter the entrance of migrants and refugees seeking asylum during the crisis of 2015, Hungary built a fence along its border with Serbia that completed construction in 2016.

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The Wall of Troy -

The ancient city of Troy, long thought to be fictional, was one of the world’s earliest cities, built in 3000 BCE. Despite a long history of destruction and rebuilding, remnants of the cities walls still exist today, and were discovered by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1870.

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The Antonine Wall -

Construction of the Antonine Wall began shortly after the death of Emperor Hadrian in 138 CE. It was built to extend the northern reach of the Roman Empire by 100 miles (160 km), on the order of Emperor Antoninus Pius. Due to its wooden construction, very little is left of the Antonine Wall today.

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The Wall of Philip II Augustus -

The city of Paris has had many walls in its long history. Some were destroyed by invaders, others were torn down to facilitate expansion. Many of the early walls have been lost, but remnants and sections of the Wall of Philip II Augustus, built in the early late-12th and early-13th centuries, remain.

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The Wall of Dubrovnik -

The border walls of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik have been immaculately maintained over the centuries, ever since their original construction in the 8th century CE. The walls were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.

Sources: (Stacker) (Wired) (Britannica)

See also: How to be an effective activist

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