Hadrian’s little fence

You know when you were younger and you wanted to make a statement about what was your property, you built a wall around it.  Mine were usually made out of sofa cushions and Jonathan usually got through them in about 10 minutes, which led to me getting mad and pouting.  I’m a really good pouter.

Hadrian had a different tact to sofa cushions.  Stones.  And lots of them.

Hadrian's Wall stretches 73 miles across a narrow bit of England near the border with Scotland. It was once a towering 20-foot-tall fortification, but because of decay (and likely some stone thievery) is now only about three feet wide and three to six feet high.

Hadrian's Wall was built for the Roman Emperor Hadrian around 122AD.  He apparently wanted to keep the barbaric Gaelic people away from his civilized Roman people.  Several of the books we read in preparation for this visit talked about the wall being primarily an expression of Roman power and Hadrian having a strict policy of defense before expansion. Scholars also seem to disagree over how much of a threat Scotland actually presented, and whether there was any more economic advantage in defending and garrisoning a fixed line of defenses like the Wall over simply conquering and annexing the Scottish Lowlands and manning the territory with forts strung out at will.

Another possible explanation for the erection of the great wall is the degree of control it would have provided over immigration, smuggling, and customs. As there were turrets every mile or so through the entire structure, it acted as an organized check-point border crossing and offered Hadrian an opportunity for taxation.

It, much like Stonehenge, will probably never be fully understood, but it is really neat to think that so much of it is still standing 1900 years later.

We were impressed by how exactly the stones were laid, from the front all the mortar lines are in a straight pattern (or at least a lot straighter than the tiles in my bathroom at home).  It was also quite sturdy still (or at least the part that I leaned against was before the nice security guard with a stick came over and told me to stop).  Touching is a warning, climbing on the wall gets you kicked out of the park.  Just in case you’re curious.