January 24th Hadrian's Wall

The Roman Emperor Hadrian was born on this date in 76 AD. He is famous for building a wall (or at least commanding a few hundred Roman soldiers and labourers to do it for him). Here are 10 things you may not know about Hadrian's Wall.

1. Hadrian's Wall was 80 Roman miles long, that's 73 modern miles or 117.5 km if you are too modern for miles at all! Its width and height varied due to variations in construction materials along its route. East of the River Irthing, the wall was made from squared stone and measured 3 metres (9.8 feet) wide and 5 to 6 metres (16 to 20 feet) high. West of the river the wall was made from turf and measured 6 metres (20 feet) wide and 3.5 metres (11 feet) high. The central section measured eight Roman feet wide (7.8 ft or 2.4 m) on a 10-foot (3.0 m) base.
2. The wall extended from Segedunum at Wallsend on the River Tyne to the shore of the Solway Firth, ending a short but unknown distance west of the village of Bowness-on-Solway. Although the wall ended near Bowness-on-Solway, a line of defensive structures called Milefortlets continued on to the village.
3. Hadrian's Wall does not mark the border between England and Scotland. It is entirely in England, and is 110km south of the border in places.
4. The purpose of the wall is commonly believed to be to prevent barbarians from Scotland raiding the edge of the Roman Empire - but scholars now believe that the risks posed by raids from the sparsely populated lands just north of it hardly justified the expense of building the thing. It is more likely, they say, to have been to control the movements of people, and, of course, charge customs duties on any goods passing through the check points.
5. It took six years to build.
6. Today, much of the wall is gone, its stone used for building roads in the eighteenth century, or taken by farmers. A lawyer called John Clayton began buying the land around the site of the wall in order to preserve it, and also carried out excavations. He financed this through managing the working farms on his land. Although his descendants didn't share his enthusiasm, and lost much of the land through gambling after Clayton died, the National Trust eventually began buying the land back and preserving the wall.
7. Hadrian's Wall was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and in 2005 it became part of the transnational "Frontiers of the Roman Empire" World Heritage Site which also includes sites in Germany.
8. One for Game of Thrones fans. George R.R. Martin, who wrote the novels, has said that Hadrian's Wall was the inspiration for "The Wall". Martin visited Hadrian's Wall, and wondered what it might have been like for the Roman centurion defending it, not knowing what might come from the north, and this inspired him to write "a story about the people guarding the end of the world". Martin's Wall is considerably bigger. In the novels it is described as being approximately 300 miles (480 km) long and 700 ft (210 m) high. It is wide enough on top for a dozen mounted knights to ride abreast.
9. In 2003, the Hadrian's Wall Path, which follows the remains of the wall for much of its route, became the 15th National Trail administered by Natural England. The path is 84 miles long, and although much of it is in remote countryside, the terrain is quite flat and so it is a relatively easy walk if a little muddy in places.
10. After Hadrian died, his wall was largely abandoned, but his successor, Emperor Antoninus Pius ordered another wall 99 miles (160km) north of it, in Scotland, to be built. Less well known than Hadrian's, The Antonine Wall has nevertheless also found its way into works of fiction - as a defence line against zombies in Max Brook's novel World War Z.

(Photo by Mlm42)