A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
Numbers in italics with the letter m refer to pages with maps.
Abraham, 21
Adrianople, Turkey
Battle of (378), Turkey, 117–18
foundry in, 167
Aeschylus, 72
Afghan, 6, 147, 154, 240, 268n
Africa, walls in, 238
Agade, Akkadian Empire, 24
Agis IV, king of Sparta, 41
Agri Decumates region, Roman Empire, 111, 261n
Aix-en-Provence, France, 111, 260n
Akkadian Empire, 24–25
Alans (nomadic warriors), 116–17, 129, 153
Alaric, 119–20
Alexander Romance legend, 78
Alexander’s Gates myth, 78–79, 93
Alexander the Great
Central Asian campaign of, 90
as legendary hero, 78–79, 153, 163, 205, 270n
myth about wall built by, 78–79, 93
Persian Empire and, 147–48
walls attributed to, 4, 78, 153
Amenemhat I, pharaoh of Egypt, 28
Ammianus, 117
Amorites, 26–27
Anasazi people, Southwest United States, 190
Anastasian Long Wall, 125–26, 125m, 129
Anastasius, Eastern Roman Emperor, 125–26
ancient Near East, 15–31. See also Egypt, ancient; Mesopotamia
Andes Mountains, fortified cities in, 189
Antonine Plague, 106
Antonine Wall, Scotland, 122
Archimedes, 167
Aristides, Aelius, 103–4, 105, 106, 109, 115, 116, 119
Aristophanes, 43–44
Aristotle, 45
Asia. See Central Asia; Western Asia
Asia Minor. See also specific countries
Mongol invasion of, 164
Assyrian Empire, 24, 77–78, 95
Athens, 41–46
city wall fortifications in, 42–43, 45
golden age of, 43–44
Goth raids in, 108
military service in, 41–42, 256n
Sparta compared with, 44–45
Aurelian, Roman Emperor, 109, 119
Corbie, France, attack of, 208
Hungary’s barriers with, 216, 226–27
immigration barriers in, 241, 242
Aztec civilization, 189
Bactria region, Central Asia, 89
Bakhtiari people, Iran, 196
Balkh oasis walled city, 89–90, 150, 156, 268n
Bangladesh, 237–38
barbarians. See also outsiders and specific warrior groups
Byzantine Empire invasions by, 125, 127–28, 129, 266n
China and, 63, 90, 132, 133, 138, 143–44
Cossacks and, 183–84
dynasties of northern China drawn from, 144, 147
Irish poems on, 67–68
Irish seen as, 178
last in West, in Celtic Europe, 177, 178
literary romanticizing of, 186
mercenaries hired from, 63, 131, 132
North African attacks of, 122–23
prehistory peoples’ need for walls against, 71
Roman images of, in art, 107
Roman provinces raids of, 100, 108–9, 111–12, 264n
Rome’s attitudes toward, 63–64
Rome’s measures against, 66
Rome’s need for walls against, 93–94, 96–97, 100–101, 108, 113–14
Rome’s use of, as soldiers and guards, 64, 98–100, 117, 118–19, 120, 121
Trajan’s Walls against, 101
Zhang’s proposed alliance with, 87–88
Barrière de Fer, 208
Battle of Adrianople, Turkey (378), 117–18
Battle of Verdun, France (1916), 208–9
Bayhaq oasis walled city, 89, 150
Bedouins, 15, 30, 69, 146, 159, 196
Beijing, Mongol invasion of, 139
Belgorod Line, Russia, 182, 185
Bella, Arpad, 226–27
Beowulf (Old English poem), 68
Berlin Wall, 213–16, 218–30, 221m
Berliners’ reactions to, 219–20
Cold War walls preceding, 216–18
construction of, 218–19
demonstrations against, 227–28
fall of, xii, 7, 214, 228–29, 239
Gorbachev on, 225–26, 227, 240
journalists on, 222–23
Kennedy on, 217–18, 220–22, 240
movies and songs featuring, 7, 223–24, 225, 226, 227, 229, 230
postwar division of Berlin and, 215–16
symbolism of, 214–15, 229–30, 243–44
West’s reactions to, 213–14, 220–22
Birley, Eric, 98
Birley, Robin, 98
Blakely, Edward, 245
border security industry, 236
border walls
attitudes toward barbarians outside, 63–64
Chinese predilection for, 206–7
mass migration and, 235, 240–42
new concept of fortified bunkers and gun placements on, 209
Plato on, 45
protection of frontiers using, 206–7
recent resurgence in use of, 234
Brandt, Willy, 219
Brazda lui Novac earthwork, 112
Britain. See England
Bronze Age, 19–20, 35, 37, 51, 64, 89
Bukhara oasis walled city, Uzbekistan, 89, 90, 150, 154, 156, 158, 268n–269n, 271n
Bulgaria, 3, 6, 112, 126, 225, 241, 259n
Bush, George H. W., 226
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 184, 186
Byzantine Empire
barbarian invasions of, 127, 129
Constantinople’s wall in, 124–26, 125m
fall of Constantinople as end of, 175
Hun raids in, 129
Justinian’s defenses in, 128–30
Turkish conquests in, 164, 169–75
walls in defensive strategy of, 124, 206
Cahokia, Illinois, Mississippi Culture palisades at, 190–91
Calais, France, migration wall in, 242
cannons
Orban’s casting of, 166–68
Turkish conquest of Constantinople using, 169–75, 205
as turning point in use of defensive city walls, 174
Carpathian Mountains, Roman defenses in, 100–101, 112
Carthage, North Africa, 123
Catlin, George, 273n
Caucasian Gates, 4
Central America. See also specific countries
Central Asia. See also oasis walled cities and specific countries
Alexander the Great in, 90, 147–48, 153
border walls of, 147, 155, 159
Bronze Age cities in, 146
descendants of Persian Empire in nations of, 147
Europe’s rise and failure of walls in, 158
Genghis Khan and Mongol conquest of, 155–56, 158
last walls in, 158–59
long walls against steppe invaders in, 3, 81–82, 88, 90, 271n
nomadism in, 158–59
oasis cities and rivers in, 88–89
Persian walls against, 146, 147, 154
remaining nineteenth-century walls in, 159
Silk Road in, 83–84, 91–92, 91m
Stein’s exploration of, 82–86
steppe charioteers’ invasion of, 51
timeline for, xi–xii
Wu’s wall in, 90, 91–92, 91m, 93
Zhang’s exploration of, 87–88, 90
ceramic-brick walls, in Persian Empire, 152–53
Cheyenne Indians, 193
Alexander’s Gates myth in, 79
border walls in, 49–50, 53–54, 61, 63, 131–32, 133, 134, 135–36, 137, 144, 234
citizens’ military role in, 119, 131
city walls in, 49
cycles of history in, 144
early walls in, 6
farm village fortifications in, 49
forced labor in wall building in, 46, 47–48, 131–32, 134, 135–36
Great Age of Walls and development of, 80
Great Wall of. See Great Wall of China
gunpowder’s invention by, 167
Hun chieftain as emperor in, 133
Hun warrior raids against, 53–54, 59–60, 70–71, 86, 88, 133, 257n
isolationism and wall building by, 206
Japanese army’s attack on, 201–4
Long Wall of. See Long Wall of China
Ming defenses in, 140–43
Mongol invasions of, 50, 137–39, 140–42
need for border walls to keep out barbarians, 27, 63
peasants’ rebellion in, 132
Persian Empire delegates to, 152
plague in, 106
preferences for literary rather than martial virtues by, 71–72
Roman Empire’s contact with, 112
slow disappearance of earthen walls in, 48–49
Taklamakan reed wall of, 84–86
timeline for, xi–xii
walled cities in, 10, 140, 175
walled frontier supply issues in, 135–36
walls and civilization in, 49
Western rediscovery of, 206
Churchill, Winston, 215
citizen-soldiers, and life in walled cities, 72, 115–16, 122–23
city walls. See walled cities
civilization
desire to see other side of wall in, 196–97
early walls dividing wasteland from, 3, 4, 6, 8
Mesopotamia’s walled cities and, 22–23, 30–31
role of walls in shaping, 11
Sparta’s approach to, 37–39, 41
walled cities and growth of, 7–8, 23
Cleomenes III, king of Sparta, 41
Clermont-Ferrand, France, 111, 263n, 265n
Cold War, 214
fading from memory of, 214, 230
fall of Berlin Wall and, 229, 230
postwar division of Berlin and, 215–16
walls built during, 216–18
Commodus, Roman Emperor, 102
Constantine XI Palaeologus, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, 163–64, 165, 166, 168–69, 174
Constantinople, 162–75
advance of Islam and, 130, 175
Anastasian Long Wall and, 125–26, 125m, 129
Arab sieges of, 130
citizens’ defense of, 124–25, 126
Islamic attacks on, 164–65
Justinian’s buildings in, 127, 164
Justinian’s defenses in, 128–30
Roman walls for, 112, 124–26, 130, 174
Turkish conquest of, 164, 169–75, 205
walls of, 124, 163–64, 165, 168–70, 172–74
Constantius II, Roman Emperor, 113
Cooper, Merian C., 196–97
Copán, Mayan civilization, 189
Corbie, France, Austrian attack on, 208
Corinth, ancient Greece, 128, 163
Cossacks (warrior group), 183–84, 185
Cúchulainn (Irish hero), 68
Dacia region, Roman Empire, 94, 103, 112
Decius, Roman Emperor, 107
Defoe, Daniel, 205
Denmark, medieval earthworks in, 124
Derbent wall, Dagestan, 3, 153, 270n
Devil’s Dykes, 3, 112, 124, 265n
Digby, Jane, 196
Diocletian, Roman Emperor, 109, 112
Divar-i-kanpirak (Kempirak) wall, Uzbekistan, 154, 271n
Dragon Walls, Ukraine, 179–80
Dublin, Ireland, 178
earthworks
Babylonian, 30
French, 208
medieval European, 124
Roman Empire, 112
Ukrainian, 180
Eastern Europe. See also specific countries
Berlin Wall fall and dismantling of, 229
Iron Curtain as physical barrier in, 216–17, 225, 226, 229, 236
Mongol raids in, 164
Russian claims to, 216
East Germany. See also Berlin Wall
demonstrations in, 227–28
Iron Curtain fences in, 217
life in, 225–26
postwar creation of, 215–16
residents’ escapes from, 216, 217, 218, 219–20, 225–26, 226–27
Egypt, ancient, 24
border fortifications of, 28–29
hieroglyph for city in, 36
importance of walls in, 36–37
isolation of walled cities in, 24
mercenaries as soldiers in, 119
Wall of the Ruler in, 28
Egypt, modern, walls in, 237
El Mirador, Guatemala, 190
El Mutabbaq (Nimrod’s Dyke), Mesopotamia, 4, 30
England. See also United Kingdom
demise of Roman Empire in, 121–22
Goth raids in, 108
Hadrian’s Wall in. See Hadrian’s Wall
Irish policy of, 178
medieval earthworks in, 124
Roman defenses in, 104
Scotland’s submission to, 177
Eurasia. See also Central Asia
Arab armies and reshaping of, 130
barbarian inhabitants of, 6
border walls in transformation of, 131
Eurasian Steppe as dominant feature of, 2
Eurasian Steppe, 50–54
Cossacks warrior group on, 183–84
Hun warrior raids from, 53
leaders of large armies from, 52–53
Mesopotamia’s invasion from, 25
pastoral nomadism on, 50–51
Russia’s conquest of, 186
walled borders in, 74m–75m
Eurasian Steppe horsemen, 50–54
border walls for protection from, 206
cavalry warfare by, 51–52
Chinese defenses against, 49, 50
fortress towns settlements of, 188
literary romanticizing of, 186
walled city residents’ fear of, 79–80
walls to defend against, 80, 124
wheel development by, 51
Europe
earthen walls in, after fall of Rome, 124
ends of long walls in, 177
immigration barriers in, 240–42
last Western barbarians in, 177
Roman defenses in southeastern part of, 100–101, 112, 124
timeline for, xi–xii
Ezekiel, 77–78
farming village defenses, 7–8, 18–19, 49
First Emperor, China, 46, 54–59
character of, 56–57
Hun campaigns of, 59
later tradition on, 57–58
Long Wall memorial of, 58
Long Wall of, 49, 54–58, 55m, 80
Alexander the Great in, 153
Kievan prince Vladimir in, 180
Long Wall construction in, 143
marriage of Chinese princess to a Hun warrior in, 60
wall names in, 3
workers on great wall construction in, 48
folk names for walls, 3–4
folk songs, on Chinese walls, 53–54, 87
Fort Brokenheart (Fort Crèvecoeur), Illinois, massacre, 187–88
France
American exploration by, 187–88
Austria’s attack on Corbie in, 208
border walls in, 208
Constantinople and, 125
German assault on, 207, 210–11
Maginot Line background in, 207–10
Maginot Line defended by, 211–12
mass migration and, 241
postwar division of Berlin and, 215
Roman walled cities in, 110–11, 262n
World War I and, 207–8
Franks (warrior group), 125, 165, 265n
Freud, Sigmund, 197
Frost, Robert, 239
Frye, Richard, 211
Gainas, 119
Gallipoli peninsula, Greece, 127, 128
gated communities, 245
Gates of Alexander myth, 78–79, 93
Gauguin, Paul, 197
Gaul (province), 108, 111, 265n
Gaza Strip, 237
Genesis, Book of (Bible), 20–21, 77
Genghis Khan, 181
military leadership of, 137–38, 139
Persian conquest of, 155–56, 158
Gerald of Wales, 177–78
German tribes, 63, 66, 69–70, 111, 113
Germany
Maginot Line and attack on France by, 207, 210–11
mass migration and, 241
military uses of bridges in, 244
postwar division of. See Berlin Wall; East Germany; West Germany
Roman defenses in, 94, 96, 100
Gilgamesh (Sumerian myth), 16, 19, 22–23
Giustiniani, Giovanni, 168, 170, 174
Gog and Magog legends, 77–79, 116, 205
Gonur Depe North walls, Central Asia, 89
Goths (warrior group)
Battle of Adrianople and, 117–18
civilians’ burying of money before raids of, 108–9
Hun and Alan attacks on, 116–17
as refugees in Roman Empire, 116–17
Roman Empire raids of, 107–8, 117
Grand Canal, China, 135–36, 140
Grass (movie), 196
Great Abatis Line, Russia, 182
Great Beyiji (Mongol chief’s wife), 142
Great Wall of Calais, 242
Great Wall of China, 141m
ancestors of, 49
construction of, 141–43
Japanese army’s attack on, 201–4
Maginot Line compared with, 209, 211
Manchu attack on China and, 143–44, 210
public awareness of, 54, 96–97, 240
Great Wall of Gorgan (Red Snake), Iran, 151, 152–53
Great Wall of Peru, 189
Alexander the Great’s cities in, 147–48
Athenian border walls in, 45–46
Athenian life in, 41–44
barbarian invasions of, 106
border walls in, 108
citizen-soldiers in walled cities in, 72
classical era in, 34–35
excavation of Troy and Mycenae and, 33–34
Goth raids in, 108
importance of walls in, 36
Plato on perfect state in, 45–46
Sparta-Athens comparison in, 44–45
Sparta’s approach to life in, 35–41
Thucydides on societies in, 41
Greece, modern, and migration, 241
Grim’s Dykes, Denmark, 124
Guatemala, 190
gunpowder, invention of, 167
guns
early fortifications with, 169, 182
Maginot Line use of, 209
Peter the Great’s revolutionary use of, 185
Habl as-Sahr (String of Stones), Babylon, 4, 29–30
Hadrian, Roman Emperor
defenses constructed by, 100–101, 102, 113, 114, 115, 259n–260n
reputation and legacy of, 102
Hadrian’s Wall, England, 96–97, 97m
excavations at, 5–6
original length and size of, 97
Vindolanda fort along, 98–100
writing tablets discovered at, 5, 98, 99
Hasselhoff, David, 7, 227, 229
Herodotus, 147
Hisarlik, Turkey, 33–34
Honecker, Erich, 218, 219, 220, 227, 228
Hungary
Austria’s barriers with, 216, 226–27
immigration fence in, 241
Mongol invasion of, 180–81
Roman walls in, 265n
Huns (nomadic warriors), 59–61
Alexander the Great myths about, 78–79
Byzantine Empire invasion of, 129
Chinese border walls against, 61
Chinese descriptions of, 70, 71
Chinese emperors’ campaigns against, 59–60
Chinese folk song on, 53–54
Chinese raids by, 53–54, 59–60, 70–71, 86, 88, 133
Chinese wall and Silk Road and, 90, 91–92
Goths attacked by, 116–17
“peace and friendship” policy toward, 60–61
Persian raids of, 148–50
Western Asian raids of, 148–49
immigrants, walls against, 235, 240–42
Incan civilization, 188–89
Indians. See Native Americans and specific tribes
Inuit people, North America, 193
Iran
Alexander the Great in, 153, 270n
descendants of Persian Empire in, 147
Mongol destruction in, 158
Sasanid defenses in, 148, 150, 211
Turkoman towers against Turkish slave raiders in, 159
Iraq, 234
descendants of Persian Empire in, 147
Mongol destruction of Baghdad and, 156–58
Saudi walls against, 235–36
Ireland
Gerald of Wales on life in, 177–78
last Western barbarians in, 177
walls against barbarians in, 178
Irish Pale, around Dublin, 178
Irish tribes, ancient, 67–68, 70, 177–78
creation of, 216–17
East German life behind, 225–26
Iron Gates, Uzbekistan, 90, 259n
Iroquoi tribe, 188
Isin, Ur, 19
Islam
Byzantine Empire and, 164, 165
Constantinople walls and advance of, 130
European presence of, 175
Great Age of Walls and development of, 80
Persian Empire and, 154
Islamic terrorism, 235, 237, 238
Italy
Constantinople and, 125
Roman provincial walls in, 112, 113
Vandals’ raids on, 123
Japan, China attacked by, 201–4
Jeremiah, 30
Jericho (ancient Near Eastern city), 7, 35
Jerome, Saint, 120
Joffre, Joseph, 209
Justinian, Eastern Roman Emperor, 126–30, 163, 164, 168–69
Juvenal, 93
Kam Pirak (Central Asia ruins), 3
Kanpirak wall, Uzbekistan, 154, 271n
Kavadh I, Shah, Persian Empire, 151, 152, 154, 270n
Kempirak wall, Persian Empire, 154, 271n
Kennedy, John F., 213–14, 217–18, 220–22, 223, 240
Khatt Shebib, Jordan, 4
Khosrow I, Shah, Persian Empire, 150–52, 154, 270n
Khrushchev, Nikita, 216, 217–19
Kievan state, Russia, 179–80
King Kong (movie), 196–97
King Philip’s War, 194–95
Kuwait, 236
La Salle, Robert de, 187–88
Lattimore, Owen, 206
LeBlanc, Steven, 67
legends. See also folklore; myths
in Akkadian literature, 25
Alexander’s Gates in, 78–79, 93
Alexander the Great in, 78–79, 153, 163, 205, 270n
building of Grand Canal, China, in, 136
Constantine XI, Byzantine Emperor, in, 165, 174
early walls portrayed in, 3–4
First Emperor in China in, 48, 58–59
Genghis Khan in, 139
Gog and Magog in, 77–79, 116, 205
Mongol conquests in, 155
sacking of Nineveh in, 77–78
Shulgi’s wall in, 26–27
Lines of Brabant, Europe, 208
Lines of Ne Plus Ultra, Europe, 208
Long Wall, Anastasian, in Byzantium, 126, 128, 129
ancestors of, 49
First Emperor’s construction of, 49, 54–56, 55m, 57–58, 80
First Emperor’s memorial to, 58
folk tales about, 143
Hun raids and, 59
justification for, 56
length of, 57–58
workers on construction of, 47–48
long walls, 206. See also specific walls
of Dark Ages, 124
end of use of, in western Europe, 177
survival of ancient, 80
Long Walls of Athens, 43
Lovell, Julia, 206
Lugalbanda (Mesopotamian myth), 24, 26
Lycurgan reforms, in Sparta, 38–40, 41
Lycurgus, 38
Maginot Line, France, 207–12
background to, 207–8
fortified bunkers and gun placements on, 209–10
German advance and, 207, 210–11
German attempt to destroy, 211–12
Magog legends, 77–79, 116, 205
Malibu, California, private community, 231–32, 244–45
Manchu (warrior group), 143–44, 210
Mandan Indians, 193
Manuel II Palaeologus, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, 163
Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 105, 106, 107, 112
Maslow, Abraham, 247
Maya civilization, 188, 189–90, 194
Mehmed II, Ottoman sultan, 165, 166–67, 168, 170, 173, 175
mercenaries
barbarians as, in China, 63, 131, 132
Germans as, 69
Roman border guards as, 114
as soldiers, rather than citizens, 119, 131
Merv oasis walled city, 148, 150, 155, 156, 158, 268n
Mesoamerica
Mayan civilization in, 188, 189–90
walled cities in, 189–90
Zapotec civilization in, 190
Mesopotamia, 15–28, 18m, 30–31
barbarian invasions of, 24–26, 27–28
building as sacred duty in, 19
city dwellers’ life in, 22–23
decline of urban settlements and defensive strategy in, 30–31
first border walls in, 29–30
first city walls in, 26–28
Hun raids into, 78
importance of walls in, 36
isolation of walled cities in, 23–24
mercenaries as soldiers in, 119
mud-brick building materials in, 16, 27, 30, 214, 270n
shepherds’ life outside walls in, 19–22
Shulgi’s wall in, 15, 17–18, 26–27
tells marking ruins from, 15
Turkish neglect of waterworks in, 155
walled cities in, 18–19
Mexico
walled neighborhoods in, 245
Zapotec civilization in, 190
Miao (warrior group), 143
Middle Ages, 68, 79, 124, 165–66, 178, 179
Middle East, 7. See also specific countries
mass migration and, 241
migration, walls against, 235, 240–42
Mississippi Culture, 191
Moat of Shapur, Persia, 4, 148
Mohave Indians, 193
Mongols, 196
Baghdad’s destruction by, 156–58
Central Asian conquest by, 155–56, 158
China’s invasions by, 50, 137–39, 140–42
final dissolution of armies of, 181
Genghis Khan’s leadership of, 137–38, 139, 181
Holy Lands and, 164
later romanticizing of, 186, 196
Russia and Central Europe invaded by, 180–81
ruthlessness of, 138–39
word for “soldier” in, 70
Monte Albán, Zapotec civilization, Mexico, 190
Moscow, Tatar sacking of, 182
movies
Berlin Wall in, 223–24, 225, 226, 230
Native Americans portrayed in, 196
mud-brick walls
in Mesopotamia, 16, 27, 30, 214
Mycenae, ancient Greece, 34, 35
Mycenaean civilization, 35, 37, 128, 163
myths. See also legends
Alexander’s Gates in, 78–79, 93
Alexander the Great in, 78–79, 153, 163, 205, 270n
ancient Greek, 43
First Emperor in China in, 58–59
Great Wall of China in, 204–5, 244
Mesopotamian, 16, 19, 21, 24, 26–27
Nan-Chung, 53–54
Naram-Sin, king of Akkadian Empire, 25
Natchez Indians, 193
Native Americans, 191–96. See also specific tribes
diversity of, 191
Fort Brokenheart massacre and, 187–88
literary romanticizing of, 195–96
“noble savage” stereotype of, 191–92
pueblos in Southwest United States and, 190, 194
warlike values of, 191–94
wars with Europeans and, 194–95
Washington’s proposed wall for protection of, 195
Near East, ancient, 15–31. See also Egypt, ancient; Mesopotamia
equation of kings with shepherds in, 252n–253n
timeline for, xi–xii
Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, 29–30, 57, 251n
neighborhoods, walled, 159, 235, 245
neighbors, and fences, 239–40, 244
Ne Plus Ultra Lines, Europe, 208
Nimrod’s Dyke, Mesopotamia, 4, 30
Nineveh, Assyria, 77
Ninurta (Mesopotamian mythology), 26
North Africa
barbarian attacks in, 122–23
barbarians outside walls in, 6, 64, 100
Constantinople and, 125
contemporary walls in, 238, 240
effect of centuries of walling in, 240
Islamic armies in, 164
Roman defenses in, 100, 122, 123
oasis walled cities, 89–90. See also specific cities
Central Asian rivers with, 88–89
invasions and destruction of, 89–90
multiple layers of fortifications in, 90
Persian Empire construction of, 150
Obama, Barack, 237, 238, 239, 243
Orban (cannon maker), 166–68, 205
Orenburg Line, Russia, 185, 272n
outsiders (those outside walls). See also barbarians
admiration for courage and longing for life of, 247–48
ancient Egyptian writers on, 24, 28
ancient Near East languages on, 64
anonymous nature of, 11
Bronze Age symbols for, 64
Chinese need for walls against, 27, 63
desire to see other side of wall and, 196–97
first walled city against, 7
gulf between wall builders and, 61, 64, 72
hiring of, as soldiers, 117, 247
Irish phrase beyond the pale to describe, 178
Irish poems on, 67–68
Native Americans as symbols of, 195–96
prehistory peoples’ need for walls against, 71
primitivism philosophy on, 248
Roman attitudes toward, 63–64, 71
Roman border walls against, 109
Rome’s measures against, 66
Russia’s conquest of steppe and, 186
similar descriptions and terms for, from around world, 64, 71
unfortified settlements’ need for warrior skills of, 71
walled cities’ fear of, 23, 24, 89, 245
warrior culture of. See warrior culture
Zhang’s discovery of civilization among, 88
“Ozymandias” (Shelley), 145
Pale, around Dublin, 178
palisades
around Constantinople, 173–74
Dragon Walls in Ukraine with, 180
around Dublin, 178
Great Abatis Line in Russia with, 182
Mississippi Culture with, 190–91
in Roman Empire, 100, 104, 113, 123
Paris, 107, 110, 208, 262n, 265n
Parthian dynasty, 148
Peloponnesus peninsula, Greece, 35, 108, 127, 128, 163, 164, 260n
Persian Empire
Alexander’s Gates myth in, 79
Alexander the Great’s walls in, 153
ancient Greek battles with, 108, 128, 129
citizens’ military role in, 131
Hun raids against, 148–50
invasion of Greece by, 42, 172
Islam’s arrival in, 153
Mongol destruction in, 158
Muslim rulers’ defenses in, 154
oasis walled cities constructed by, 150
Sasanid fortifications in, 148, 149m, 150, 153, 211, 269n
Turkish attacks on, 154
Turkish rule over, 154–55
walls built by, 79, 146–47, 153–54, 206, 234
Pétain, Philippe, 208, 209, 212
Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, 184–85
Plutarch, 36
Polybius, 65
Powhatan Indians, 193
primitivism, 248
Procopius, 128–29
Ptolemais, North Africa, 122–23
pueblos, in Southwest United States, 190, 194
Quran, 79
Reagan, Ronald, 223, 224–25, 240
Rindge, May and Frederick, 231–33
Ripley, Robert, 54
Roger of Varad, 180–81
Anastasian Long Wall in, 125–26, 125m, 129
barbarian raids in provincial towns of, 111–12
barbarians and outsiders as soldiers in, 64, 116, 117, 118–19, 120, 121, 247
barbarians outside walls viewed in, 63–64
Battle of Adrianople defeat by, 117–18
border guards in, 98–100, 114, 121
border walls in, 63–64, 93–94, 104, 112, 115, 121, 123, 125, 131
China’s contact with, 112
citizens’ military role in, 131
destruction of second-century cities and decline of, 106–7
emperors and barbarians in, during century after sack of Rome, 120–21
fourth-century decline of, 113–14, 116
Goth raids in, 107–9, 117, 119–20
Goths as refugees in, 116–17
Hadrian’s defenses in, 100–101, 102
Hadrian’s Wall in. See Hadrian’s Wall
Hun raids against, 78
later reuse of defenses from, 124
New Troy in, 33
overall impact of Great Age of Walls on, 114
Persian Empire walls and, 149–50, 153
plague in, 106
property fences in, 240
provincial defenses abandoned in, 112–13, 123
provincial towns rebuilt as walled fortresses in, 109–11
provincial villas abandoned in, 123
Roman Britain’s demise and, 121–22
Trajan’s construction and bridge building in, 94–96, 102, 244
wall construction for protection of provincial cities in, 109–11, 262n
walls against barbarians in, 66, 80
walls as defense strategy abandoned in, 121
walls as source of peace and security in, 103–4
Wu’s wall in Central Asia and, 93, 106
Rome (city)
Alaric’s attacks on, 119–20
citizen-soldiers in, 115
Gauls’ sack of, 65–66
walls around, 66, 104, 109, 119, 121
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 215
Rosen, Harold, 211
Russia, 178–86. See also Soviet Union
border walls in, 179, 182, 185, 206
Dragon Walls in, 179–80
fortified defensive lines in, 185, 272n
Great Abatis Line in, 182
medievalism in, 178–79
peasants as wall builders in, 182–83
Peter the Great in, 184–85
serfdom in, 183–84
steppe horsemen’s raids on, 179, 185–86
Tartar attacks on, 181–82
Sadd-e Anushirvan (Red Snake), Iran, 151, 152–53
Samarkand oasis walled city, Uzbekistan, 89, 90, 150, 154, 156, 269
Samson, 23
Sasanid dynasty, 148, 149m, 150, 153, 211, 269n
Saturday Evening Post, 203, 222
Saudi Arabia, 235–36, 237, 239, 240, 244, 245
Schliemann, Heinrich, 33–34
Schoedsack, Ernest, 196–97
Schoolcraft, Henry, 192, 194, 274n
Scotland
Hadrian’s Wall and, 121
Johnson on Highlanders in, 177, 195
last Western barbarians in, 177
Secure Fence Act (2006), 239
Sengge (Mongol chief), 142
serfs, in Russia, 183–84
Shapur II, Shah, Sasanid dynasty, 148
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 145
shepherds, in Mesopotamia, 19–22
Shulgi, king of Ur, 15, 17–18, 19, 21, 26–27
Shulgi’s wall, Ur, 15, 17–18, 26–27
Shu-Sin, king of Ur, 27
Siberian Line, Russia, 185, 272n
Sibot-3 Roman settlement, Romania, 104–5, 107, 112
Silk Road
Stein’s exploration of, 83–84
Wu’s wall and, 90, 91–92, 91m, 93
Sima Yan (Wu of Jin), Emperor of China, 132–33
Slavs (warrior group), 111, 126, 178, 179, 206
Snyder, Mary, 245
Socrates, 72
soldiers. See also mercenaries
citizen-soldiers in walled cities as, 72, 115–16, 122–23
hiring of barbarians and outsiders as, 64, 116, 117, 118–19, 120, 121, 136, 247
life in walled cities and loss of abilities as, 71–72, 108, 115–16, 118–19, 122, 123, 157
warrior culture of. See warrior culture
Soviet Union
Gorbachev’s position on Berlin Wall and, 225–26, 227
postwar division of Berlin and, 215, 216, 218–19
Sparta, ancient Greece, 35–41
Athens compared with, 44–45
Lycurgan reforms and simple life in, 38–40
rejection of city walls by, 35–37, 41, 44, 64, 67, 115
Stanegate Frontier, 94
Stein, Aurel, 82–86, 87, 88, 90
Stephens, John Lloyd, 189
steppe horsemen. See Eurasian Steppe horsemen
steppes. See Eurasian Steppe
String of Stones, Babylon, 4, 29–30
Sun Tzu, 72
Syria
ancient Iraq’s wall against, 4
descendants of Persian Empire in, 147
Hun raids into, 78
Israel’s wall against, 236–37
Jordan’s wall against, 237
nomad tribes and desertion of villages in, 159
Shulgi’s wall against, 26–27
Très Long Mur (TLM) wall in, 1, 2m, 4, 6, 26
Turkey’s wall against, 241
Syrian migrants, walls against, 234, 240
Syrian wall (Très Long Mur, TLM), Syria, 1, 2m, 4, 6, 26
Taklamakan desert
Stein’s discovery of reed wall in, 84–86
Wu’s construction of reed wall in, 90, 91–92, 91m, 93
Zhang’s exploration of, 86, 87–88, 90
Tammishe, Wall of, Iran, 153
Tartars (warrior group), 137, 181–82, 183–84, 185, 186
Tashkent oasis walled city, Uzbekistan, 89, 150, 155, 269n
tells, 15
Theodosian Walls, 124, 164, 165, 169
Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor, 124, 174
Thermopylae pass, Greece, 35, 127, 128, 129
Thrace, Roman Empire, 126
Three Kingdoms (Chinese epic), 144
timeline, xi–xii
Tirza, Dany, 236
TLM (Très Long Mur), Syria, 1, 2m, 4, 6, 26
Tomis, Roman Empire, 9–10, 101, 126
Trajan, Roman Emperor, 94–96, 102, 105, 244, 259n
Trajan’s Walls, southeastern Europe, 3, 101, 126, 259n
Trans-Kama Line, Russia, 182, 185
Transoxiana region, Central Asia, 155
Très Long Mur (TLM), Syria, 1, 2m, 4, 26
Troy, ancient Greece, 33–34, 36
Trump, Donald, 243–44
Turkey
Anastasian Long Wall in, 125–26, 125m, 129
walls against migrants in, 240, 241
Turkistan, 83–84
Turkoman towers, 159
Turks (warrior group)
conquest of Constantinople by, 164, 169–75, 205
Persian Empire raids of, 154
as Persian rulers, 154–55
Turkoman towers in Iran against, 159
word for “soldier” in, 70
Tuscarora Indians, 195
Ulbricht, Walter, 218–19
Umm Rus wall, Mesopotamia, 30
United Kingdom. See also England
mass migration and, 241
movies about Berlin Wall in, 224
postwar division of Berlin and, 215, 220
United States
border walls built by, 239, 240, 243
Native Americans in. See Native Americans
presidential campaign debate about open borders and, 240, 242–43
Trump’s wall proposals and, 243–44
barbarian invasions of, 26–28
Shulgi’s wall in, 15, 17–18, 26–27
Uzbekistan, 3, 6, 90, 147, 154, 155, 234
Valens, Eastern Roman Emperor, 117–18
Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, 123
Vauban, Sébastien Le Prestre de, 208
Verbiest, Ferdinand, 205
Verdun, France, Battle of (1916), 208–9
Vindolanda fort, Hadrian’s Wall, England, 5–6, 10, 98, 99–100
writing tablets from, 5, 98, 99
Vladimir the Great, 80, 179–80
Waldron, Arthur, 211
walled cities
in ancient China, 49
in ancient Greece, 34–35
“birds in a cage” life in, 23, 108, 252n
border fortresses as alternative to, 208
Bronze Age symbol for, 64
cannons and effectiveness of, 175
in Central and South America, 188–90
at Central Asian oases. See oasis walled cities
citizens’ defense of, 72, 115–16, 122–23
city walls as last-ditch defense of, 121, 123
decline of, from lack of new defensive strategy, 30–31
gulf between outsiders and builders of, 61, 64, 72
Jericho as first, 7
life outside. See outsiders
loss of military instincts from life in, 71–72, 108, 115–16, 118–19, 122, 123, 157
men’s fitness for war and life in, 23
men’s warrior roles changed by life in, 71–72
military role of citizens in, 124–25, 126, 131
in Peru, 189
Roman provincial cities as, 109–11
in Southwest United States, 190
Sparta’s rejection of, 35–36, 37, 41, 44, 64, 67
terms for those outside of, 64–65
universal use of, 207
walled neighborhoods replacing, 234–35
warfare related to, 67
walled neighborhoods, 159, 235, 245
Wall of Iron (Barrière de Fer), 208
Wall of Tammishe, Iran, 153
Wall of the Land (Shulgi’s wall), Ur, 15, 17–18, 26–27
Wall of the Ruler, ancient Egypt, 28
walls. See also specific walls
barbarians as reason for erecting, 6
cannons in fall of Constantinople and effectiveness of, 175, 205
Chinese predilection for, 206–7
Chinese writing symbol for, 49
around cities. See walled cities
civilization divided from wasteland using, 3, 4, 6, 8
collapse of, and course of history, 11
around countries. See border walls
desire to see the other side of, 196–97
earliest built, 4
Egyptian hieroglyph for city with, 36
folk names and legends on origins of, 3–4
forced labor in building of, 46, 47–48
“good neighbors” approach to, 239–40, 244
gulf between outsiders and builders of, 61, 64, 72
importance of, in ancient civilizations, 36–37
methods for attacking, 165–66
model of empire defended by, 124
need for security and, 71
peace and security provided by, 103–4, 129
shaping of civilization by, 11
Wampanoag Indians, 194–95
Wang Zhaojun, 60
warfare
cavalry development and revolution in, 51–52
culture of. See warrior culture
methods for attacking walls in, 165–66
walled cities and beginning of, 67
warrior culture, 67–71
English distinction between waller and warrior, 177
German tribes’ training of young men for, 69–70
Indians’ warlike values and, 191–94
Irish celebration of, 67–68
life in walled cities and changes in, 71–72, 108, 115–16, 118–19, 122, 123, 157
limitation of men’s roles in, 71
Old English poetry on, 68–69
weapons prized in, 70–71
Washington, George, 195
Wen of Sui, Emperor of China, 134–35
Wenxuan, Emperor of China, 134
West Bank Wall, Israel, 236, 239
Western Asia. See also specific countries
Alexander the Great in, 147–48
Bronze Age cities in, 146
descendants of Persian Empire in nations of, 147
Europe’s rise and failure of walls in, 158
Genghis Khan and Mongol conquest of, 155–56
Hun invasion of, 148–49
last walls in, 158–59
nomadism and fall of walls in, after Mongol invasions, 158–59
Persian border walls against, 146, 147
Stein’s exploration of, 82–86
West Germany. See also Berlin Wall
East German refugees in, 217, 219, 220, 225–26, 226–27
Iron Curtain fences in, 217
postwar creation of, 215–16
Reagan’s visit to, 224–25
Wilder, Billy, 223
World War I, Maginot Line origins in, 207–12
World War II
division of Berlin after, 215
Japanese attack on China before, 201
preconditions for Berlin Wall in, 215
Wu, Emperor of China
Long Wall repair by, 87
reed wall constructed by, 90, 91–92, 91m, 93
Roman Empire connection to, 93, 106
Zhang’s exploration of Central Asia and, 87–88, 90
Wu of Jin (Sima Yan), Emperor of China, 132–33
Xerxes I, king of Persia, 172
Yang of Sui, Emperor of China, 134, 135–36
Yingzong of Ming, Emperor of China, 140
Zapotec civilization, 190
Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor of China, 140