Who Built the Wall and Why?

The Wall was built by order of the Emperor Hadrian, who ordered its construction in in AD 122. Over the next six years, the army built a wall 80 Roman miles long (117km or 73 modern miles), some 5 metres (15 feet) high, east to west from Wallsend to Bowness.

Hadrian’s Roman biographer says that the Wall was built ‘to separate the Romans from the Barbarians’. By the early 400’s, the empire had declined and Britain was abandoned.

The Wall became derelict and stones were re-used in local building and field walls. What we see today is all the more precious for being the last remains of such and incredible Roman structure.

A project is currently being carried out by the Aerial Survey of English Heritage, mapping the entire length of the Wall and all archaeological features in its vicinity from aerial photographs. The results of the project will help inform the management plan for the World Heritage Site covering the Wall.