# What was (or is) the most effective Wall in history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335 "2007-02-15T13:55:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/21 "2007-02-15T19:35:26Z")
Eh? The next sentence in the OP is “That’s in terms of walls meant as a barrier for human population migration”. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/22 "2007-02-15T19:44:58Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Eh? The next sentence in the OP is “That’s in terms of walls meant as a barrier for human population migration”. [/QUOTE] :smack: ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/23 "2007-02-15T20:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Eh? The next sentence in the OP is “That’s in terms of walls meant as a barrier for human population migration”. [/QUOTE] For the record, I did intend military invasion to count as “population migration”, I guess I meant that as a fancy way of saying “wall to stop people from going where they’d rather go, but the builders of the wall would rather they not”. Whether that’s for shopping, settling and displacing or raiding for loot and pulling back out again was not important in my mind. The walls of Constantinople did occur to me after making the post. If I recall, the only “breach” during the Crusades happened largely because the Crusaders were initially welcomed in to use the city as a stopover, as fellow Christians en route to fight the Islamic enemy. D’oh! In the spirit of my original inquiry I’m not sure “city walls” count, but really I don’t see why not now. So I’ll go with “Walls of Constantinople” as the current leader. Hadrian’s Wall is a good example of how it’s not the wall but the people manning it that really make the difference. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/24 "2007-02-15T20:18:16Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] In the spirit of my original inquiry I’m not sure “city walls” count, but really I don’t see why not now. [/QUOTE] Oh yeah, now I remember why not: because in the case of a city’s fortifications, the enemy has considerable defenses to overcome just to reach the wall in the first place; the wall is the final defensive point, so to speak, rather than one of the first. What I really had in mind was a “boundary wall” like Hadrian’s Wall or the Great Wall, beyond which the builders themselves did not go in addition to forestalling the advancement of The Others. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/25 "2007-02-16T01:22:16Z")
Wall of Stone and Wall of Souls are both very effective walls. Personally though, I’m not a big fan of walls, much preferring an offensive playstyle. Sorry, geek moment. /hides. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/26 "2007-02-16T01:51:08Z")
Wal-Mart’s always at or near the top of the Fortune 500. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/27 "2007-02-16T03:09:07Z")
Some of the medieval Italian city-states (like Siena) apparently had pretty effective walls (until the black death). Was the Forbidden City ever successfully invaded? ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/28 "2007-02-16T03:29:00Z")
The first thing I thought of was the Israel-Syria “wall”. Most of it isn’t a wall, but a fence with electronic motion sensors attached. Whenever one trips, a squad of Israeli soldiers is scouring the area within half an hour. (Lots of funny stories about invading Ibex from border patrol, by the way.) It’s an actual 3-meter concrete wall in populated areas though, and bombings in these areas have dropped almost to nothing since the barrier was erected. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/29 "2007-02-16T08:55:35Z")
Thinking about it, the Walls of Derry in Northern Ireland held during the Siege of Derry and have had a lasting influence in NI. The Protestants within the city were able to hold off the Catholics attacking it, giving William of Orange a victory over James II during the [Glorious Revolution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution) and helped keep the north of Ireland Protestant and British to the present day. So, to some, their effectiveness went beyond the early siege. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/30 "2007-02-16T09:13:41Z")
One could say that the Mexican border wall has already been breached… I read recently that one of the contractors for the fence has been fined for hiring illegal aliens… 😃 One candidate is a berm that the Moroccans have constructed running through the desert in Western Sahara. From what I’ve read, it seems to be fairly effective at suppressing the insugency/freedom fighters/whatever you call them. But I know little about that region, so perhaps could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/31 "2007-02-16T11:15:39Z")
[QUOTE=dtilque] One candidate is a berm that the Moroccans have constructed running through the desert in Western Sahara. From what I’ve read, it seems to be fairly effective at suppressing the insugency/freedom fighters/whatever you call them. But I know little about that region, so perhaps could be wrong. [/QUOTE] [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Wall_%28Western_Sahara%29) beastie. I first googled for it when I saw a map of the world in the office with a curious entity known as Western Sahara in NW Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/32 "2007-02-16T11:46:03Z")
Hadrian’s Wall was a dismal failure. In no way did it keep Hadrian out of the Roman Empire. He had had the good foresight to become emperor before the wall was even constructed. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/33 "2007-02-16T12:01:35Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy] Hadrian’s Wall was a dismal failure. In no way did it keep Hadrian out of the Roman Empire. He had had the good foresight to become emperor before the wall was even constructed. [/QUOTE] A recent BBC documentary suggested that the main purpose of the wall was to keep the troops occupied and out of mischief . ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335/34 "2007-02-16T12:32:28Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] Probably the most effective wall, though, was not a wall at all, but a giant berm: [/QUOTE] [Inspector Clouseau]A berm? :dubious: [/IC] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-or-is-the-most-effective-wall-in-history/392335.md?page=1)