Hadrian's Wall is a defence fortification in the form of an earthen rampart built by the Romans on the territory of Britain. It is the first of two such fortifications. The second rampart, Antoninus' rampart, was located to the north and is not so well known, because it's much less well preserved.
Hadrian's rampart was 80 Roman miles or 120 kilometres long. Its height varied depending on location and building material. East of the river. Irthing the rampart was built of rectangular stones, its width was up to 3 metres, and 5 or 6 metres high. To the west of the river, the rampart was earthen, 6 metres wide and 3.5 metres high.
There is a popular belief that Hadrian's Wall runs along the border of England and Scotland. This is not true, Hadrian's Wall is entirely within England and is less than a kilometre less than a kilometre to the west and 110 kilometres to the east.
The wall was built at the behest of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who is famously visited almost every province of the Roman Empire during his reign. Construction of the wall began shortly before his arrival in Britain in 122 AD. Historians disagree on why the wall was built. Perhaps it was to symbolise the power of the Roman Empire. Its functionality as a defensive structure is questionable, both from a military and economic point of view: whether the Pictish tribes scattered across the northern plains really posed such a threat to the Roman Empire, and whether the rampart could successfully repel their raids. And wouldn't it have been cheaper to simply annex these lands to the Empire than to build and maintain such a rampart? After all, it wasn't just a wall piled up or made of stones. At a distance of one Roman mile apart, small fortifications were built. There were up to 17 fully-fledged forts along the rampart, and the garrison of the wall sometimes exceeded 10,000 men.
After the Romans left Britain, the rampart was being destroyed. Large sections of the wall were demolished by road building in the 18th century. But in the middle of the 19th century, John Clayton became interested in the wall. He began buying up areas of land where the remains of the rampart survived the remains of the ramparts to stop local people using the stones for their buildings. The land was then bought by the National Trust for Historic and Natural Heritage.
In 2003, a hiking trail was opened along the line where Adrian's rampart ran.
