Beyond Boundaries: The World’s Largest Wall

Walls are more than mere physical barriers. They’re often seen as the physical embodiment of strength, power, and defiance. They’ve played a vital role in shaping civilisations, providing security from invaders, and marking territories that separate the known from the unknown. From the grand city walls of ancient Mesopotamia to the fortifications of medieval Europe, the contenders for the world’s largest wall served both practical and symbolic purposes, and some are still visible in all their grandeur to this day as enduring symbols of the might of human ingenuity.

But where is the biggest wall in the world and what was the biggest wall ever built? And if that wasn’t enough, we’re also going to scale the heights of the world’s biggest rock climbing wall.

The history of boundary walls is as old as human civilisation itself, spanning from ancient city defences to the massive border structures of the modern world. One of the earliest examples is the nine-kilometre, 12 – 15 metre high Sumerian Wall of Uruk, dating back almost 5,000 years, which defined the city-state’s limits and protected it from external aggressors.

Later, walls like the Great Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall in northern England became iconic, showcasing not just advanced engineering but also the desire of empires to create definitive frontiers.

These historical marvels represent how walls were crafted as tools for both defence and control, establishing boundaries that influenced culture, trade, and geopolitics for centuries.

But what is the world’s biggest wall, and is the answer to that question the same as the answer to the question ‘what is the biggest wall ever built?’ Read on to find out.

Marking the boundary between the northernmost reaches of the Roman Empire and Caledonia (the Latin name for Scotland) to the north, building of the wall started in 122 AD during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. It ran the full width of the country, from Bowness-in-Solway in Cumbria on the west coast, to Wallsend in North Tyneside on the east coast.

Complete with milecastles, towers, turrets, and barracks, Hadrian’s Wall was believed to have been garrisoned by around 9,000 infantry and cavalry soldiers, and over 1,900 years after it was built, it remains one of Britain’s most fascinating tourist attractions.

One of the world’s most powerful symbols of division, the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 by East Germany for a number of political reasons, including to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin. It symbolised the divide between communist East Germany and democratic West Germany during the Cold War.

The Berlin Wall stretched for approximately 156 kilometres around three western sections of Berlin, and the concrete construction was up to four metres high with guard towers at intervals along its length. It stood for twenty-eight years until it famously came down on 9th November 1989. East and West Germany were unified less than a year later. While it wasn’t the biggest wall in the world, it was certainly one of the most infamous.

A Sasanian-era wall built between 420 AD and 530 AD, the Great Wall of Gorgan was located in northeastern Iran’s Golestan Province, and stretched from the Caspian Sea coast to the Pishkamar Mountains. It’s often referred to as the ‘Red Snake’ due to the colour of the bricks, and when it was completed in the early sixth century, it may have been the world’s largest wall. There were more than thirty fortifications on the wall, which was between six and ten metres wide, and was said to have been garrisoned by 30,000 men.

The Atlantic Wall wasn’t the biggest wall ever built, but it was the longest coastal defence system in modern history. It was built between 1942 and 1944 – at the height of World War II – and stretched from France’s border with Spain in the south, along the Atlantic coasts of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, through Denmark, to the northern tip of Norway, a distance of some 3,200 kilometres.

Constructed under the supervision of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Atlantic Wall included bunkers, gun emplacements, concrete fortresses, minefields, anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire, and other defensive structures. Its purpose was to defend against an anticipated Allied invasion from the United Kingdom. It wasn’t entirely continuous, and indeed never fully completed.

Today, remnants of the wall can still be seen along various coastal sites in Europe, serving as historical reminders of the conflict.

One of the greatest feats of engineering and architecture in human history, the Great Wall of China is the biggest wall in the world. At its height, it stretched all across northern China, roughly along the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. It ran from Liaodong in the east to Lintao in the west and was built in stages over 2,300 years, from the late seventh century BC during the Spring and Autumn Period, to the end of the Ming Dynasty in the middle of the seventeenth century AD.

Built to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from attack by external forces from the Eurasian Steppe, the Great Wall was also used to regulate trade, as border control, as a means of military signalling. Despite claims to the contrary that have persisted for decades, the Great Wall of China – while it is the biggest wall ever built – is not visible to the naked eye from the Moon.

Climbing walls, as we’d recognise them today, are a relatively new phenomenon. It’s thought the modern incarnation of climbing walls began in 1964 at the University of Leeds, with PE lecturer Don Robinson fixing rock pieces to the wall of a corridor.

The first indoor climbing centre opened in Seattle, USA in 1987, and the UK followed suit in 1991 with the opening of the Foundry Climbing Centre in Sheffield. But where is the planet’s biggest rock climbing wall?

Diga di Luzzone – Ticino, Switzerland

Measuring 165 metres tall, the biggest climbing wall in the world is on the face of the Luzzone Dam in Switzerland. The wall, open from May to October, was established in the 1990s when over 650 resin climbing holds were bolted onto the dam’s vertical surface. It offers a unique and challenging experience, typically recommended for experienced climbers due to its height and the technical difficulty of the ascent.

Shanghai New World – Shanghai, China

Opened in 2019, the world’s biggest fully indoor climbing wall according to Guinness World Records, is the 51.28 metre wall on the third floor of the Shanghai New World Shopping Mall.