The walls of Gorgan

Shakhar28

Human beings build walls as a measure of protection against external threats for their own safety. According to historians the very birth of civilization was based on the construction of these defenses. The construction of walls has almost always been a measure of defense against potential enemies although however barriers have also been raised to differentiate different value systems beliefs lifestyles etc. of those who live on the other side of the border. The rise and decline of dividing walls in Central Asia is the story of the gradual overcoming of differences between the nomadic and sedentary worlds of farmers and pastoralists . Much of the old wall lies in ruins having been eroded over time leaving little more than a scar on the landscape.

The Great Wall of China  began to be built in the th century. III a. C. marking the maximum extension of Chinese power in the north which saw the need to protect itself from the attacks of the “barbarians” and thus be able to consolidate the conquered CXB Directory kingdoms into a true empire. fCorona satellite photograph taken in c. showing the meandering course of a canal that carried water from the River Gorgan to the ditch north of Gorgan Wall at Fort The situation on the western border of Central Asia was different. There stood the Gorgan Wall which blocked the passage to the Caspian. It was intended to prevent the incursions of Central Asian nomads into the interior of Iran. Alexander the Great would cross this barrier in the opposite direction to penetrate Central Asia.



The walls of Gorgan are popularly known as “the Red Serpent” due to the color of its bricks. The Great Wall of Gorgan is one of the longest defensive constructions in the world and a sophisticated work of engineering that still holds many secrets from the Sassanian era. It is believed that it was built during the Parthian Empire between BC. C and AD. C. but it was restored during the Sassanian era between the nd and th centuries AD. The discovery of Parthian Sassanian pottery in several places along the wall suggests that it was first built during this era and later restored. It is an incredible and sophisticated defensive construction in northeastern Iran. It is believed to be a thousand years older than the Great Wall of China and longer than Hadrian's and Antonine's Walls combined.