Hadrian's Wall

What comes to mind when you think of Hadrian's Wall?  Personally, having only read of it in history books and only seen glimpses of it in movies, I have this vision of a massive, impenetrable structure - much like I have seen of the Great Wall in China. But that is not necessarily the case with Hadrian's Wall.


Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans around 120 AD, during the rule of emperor Hadrian. It was a time when the Roman Empire had ceased to expand and there was a general concern of maintaining existing lands. Some say that the wall was built to protect Rome from the barbarians, but other sources suggest that the northern peoples that remained, in what is now Scotland, presented little threat to the empire. The wall instead may have been built as a political display of might. It's possible that the wall was even covered in plaster and white washed so that it gleamed in the sun and could be seen for miles around (Anthony Everitt (2009) Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, Random House).

The most heavily fortified border in the whole of the empire, the wall was 80 Roman miles long (about 73 statute miles) and extended west from Segedunum at Wallsend on the River Tyne to the shore of the Solway Firth - clear across, what is now England. In places, the wall measured roughly 10 feet wide and 10-20 feet tall - depending on construction materials available - and was buffeted on either side by berms and ditches. Definitely not as formidable as the Great Wall in China. Construction also called for 80 small gated milecastle fortlets, one placed every Roman mile, holding a few dozen troops each, and pairs of evenly spaced intermediate turrets used for observation and signaling.

A significant portion of the wall still exists, particularly the mid-section, and for much of its length the wall can be followed on foot by Hadrian's Wall Path.

More information can be found on Wikipedia.