Construction of Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall was a stone and turf fortification built across the north of Roman Britain after the emperor Hadrian visited the province in 122 CE. It ran for about eighty Roman miles, roughly 120 kilometres, from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to the Solway Firth in the west. Along it stood forts, such as Housesteads, small milecastles at regular intervals, and turrets, and legionary soldiers did most of the building. The wall served to control movement and to mark the frontier of the empire rather than as an impenetrable barrier. A few decades later the Romans built a second barrier, the Antonine Wall, further north in Scotland, but later returned to Hadrian's line. Substantial remains survive, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

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