History Main / TheGreatWall

* In ''VideoGame/Grandia1'', there's a gargantuan mile-high wall that bifurcates an entire continent.

This will be a vast undertaking. You need to build a wall between you and them. The bigger, the better. You need vast quarries for the stone and [[TheEngineer a huge engineering corps]]. You need it thick enough to stop the barbarian hordes' seige engines. You probably need to make it wide enough for a road on top for guard patrols, and guard towers every so often, for the guards to sleep in. And you need to have maintenance crews fixing and breaks in the wall.

The Great Wall is what happens when you try to get your enemies not only out of your city but of your county, state or country, resorting to the simple mechanism of building a wall that will (one hopes) keep them out. There's usually only one of these : in most cases, no one bothers to make ''several'' walls to fall back in case the first one is breached, or, for that matter, any contingency plan or line of defense more complicated than this.

** In "Civilization 6", it was changed from a Wonder to the unique improvement of the Chinese civilization, where it provides defensive boosts like a fort in addition to boosting culture income later in the game. However, It can only be built on the frontiers of Chinese cities, and is only built one section at a time.

* The US-Mexico fence. Said "fence" can be anything from wooden posts a few feet apart on the coasts, metal walls (popular in areas with towns right on the border), to the occasional motion sensor and border guard.
** UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump made the building of a wall along the Mexico-US border a huge part of his 2016 campaign, though in his four years in office hardly any of it was completed.
* In Australia, the Dingo fence protects southeast Australia from dingoes. Likewise, the Rabbit-proof fences in Western Australia and Queensland were built to keep rabbits, an invasive species, out of valuable agricultural land.

* The Great Wall of Gorgan protected the various Persian empires from invaders from the north by closing the gap between the mountains and the Caspian Sea, and was the second-longest defensive wall in recorded history after the Great Wall of China. Made doubly impressive by being built entirely of brick.
* Saudi Arabia is currently [[http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-constructing-600-mile-long-wall-keep-isis-out-299664 building a wall along its border with Iraq to keep out ISIS militants]].

* UsefulNotes/{{India}} has had a “wall” of sorts to protect it from invasions for millennia -- the Himalaya mountains, which are the highest in the world. It is due to this mountain range, that there isn’t much more of a Chinese or Mongol influence on India’s demographics and culture. The few times the country has been invaded, the invaders came from the western desert (Alexander, Afghans) or the sea (Portuguese, British, French).

* Israel built the West Bank Barrier between itself and the West Bank (and a separate one around the Gaza Strip). The wall has been very controversial, but it has demonstrably reduced terrorist attacks within Israel since its construction.[[note]]It's not a concrete wall at all parts, in some it's just a fence.[[/note]] They also have a fence along the border with Egypt, but relations between Israel and Egypt are much less violent these days, so its main purpose is blocking smugglers and illegal immigration.

* The Berlin Wall, which both literally subdivided the city of Berlin, and became a symbol of the proverbial UsefulNotes/IronCurtain dividing the communist and capitalist worlds.

Suppose the BigBad has a very definite territory he calls his own, from where his hordes of darkness spawn. It's good because you always know where the baddies come from, but what do you do if you don't have the necessary manpower to end them once and for all?

Simply: just put a wall between you and them. The bigger, the better.

* In ''Literatue/Overlord2012'', the Holy Kingdom has a 100-kilometer-long wall, manned with armed forces, running along its eastern border to protect its territory from the hostile demi-human tribes living beyond it. [[spoiler:In Volume 12, Demiurge [[AntiHumanAlliance unites those tribes]] by force and uses them to destroy part of the wall and invade the Holy Kingdom.]]

* In ''LightNovel/{{Overlord}}'', the Holy Kingdom has a 100 kilometer long wall, manned with armed forces, running along its eastern border to protect its territory from the hostile demi-human tribes living beyond it. [[spoiler: In Volume 12, Demiurge [[AntiHumanAlliance unites those tribes]] by force, and uses them to destroy part of the wall and invade the Holy Kingdom.]]

It's similar to TheWallAroundTheWorld, except that this is more about separating two realms from each other, whereas TheWallAroundTheWorld is about separating one realm from everything else. The most famous RealLife example and TropeNamer is, of course, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China the Great Wall of China]], which may have been the inspiration for many fictional Great Walls, although the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall Berlin Wall]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall Hadrian's Wall]] have also been influential.

* Hadrian's Wall and the other ''limes'' walls of AncientRome, built for keeping Celtic and Germanic tribes at bay. In a subversion, Creator/GeorgeMacdonaldFraser believes that their real purpose was not to keep raiders from getting out but from getting ''back''. It may not be much trouble for a reasonably strong war party to get through but they have to take all their stolen cattle, and of course if they abandon them there is not much point in going on a raid in the first place.

* UsefulNotes/{{India}} has had a “wall” of sorts to protect it from invasions for millennia -- the Himalaya mountains, which are the highest in the world. It is due to this mountain range, that there isn’t much more of a Chinese or Mongol influence on India’s demographics and culture. The few times the country has been invaded, the invaders came from the western desert (Alexander, Afghans) or the sea (British, French, Portuguese).

* Danavirki, built by the Danes in the 8th century and expanded and reinforced multiple times to keep armies from the south from entering Danmark. You heard me right. The vikings built a wall to keep the other people out!

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' has the last known humans hiding behind three nested circular walls. Both the fact that it works as a prison and that it won't keep out the [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Titans]] forever are acknowledged by the story, although various characters are in denial of both. The outermost wall is breached in the first chapter.

** Speaking of the sequal, ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' also features the "Tengu wall", an enormous wall surrounding the as-of-yet inaccessible Domain of Winds, home to the bird-like Tengu. The wall can be seen in various zones and surrounds a significant area of land.

* Speaking of ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'', this game also features the "Tengu wall", an enormous wall surrounding the as-of-yet inaccessible Domain of Winds, home to the bird-like Tengu. The wall can be seen in various zones and surrounds a significant area of land.

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* In ''LightNovel/{{Overlord}}'', the Holy Kingdom has a 100 kilometer long wall, manned with armed forces, running along its eastern border to protect its territory from the hostile demi-human tribes living beyond it. [[spoiler: In Volume 12, Demiurge [[AntiHumanAlliance unites those tribes]] by force, and uses them to destroy part of the wall and invade the Holy Kingdom.]]

* One issue of ''{{ComicBook/Exiles}}'' had the group land in a world where Curt Conners/The Lizard injected his regeneration formula into several people (starting with his wife), thus creating a whole race of lizard people... who reproduced like lizards, as in groups of eggs. The U.S. government decided to simply let the Lizards have the entire state of California, building a giant wall all along the coast, that was watched over by heavily-armed guards.

* ''FanFic/TheRiseOfDarthVulcan'': In chapter 39, we see that a fifteen foot high steel chain-link fence has been built around the Everfree, with runes protecting it against rust, wear and tear, and chewing, as well as being magically electrified, with lookout towers and armored guards patrolling the perimeter, and an alarm system that will set off if anything flies over, digs under or tries to squeeze through the fence. Twilight admits that it is more to give Equestria a last minute warning than to keep Vulcan and his horde in.

* One of the main features of Skull Island in ''Film/KingKong1933'' and ''Film/KingKong2005'' is a wall built by the human inhabitants to keep Kong and the dinosaurs out of their village. Pity they included such a huge gate...

* In ''Film/PacificRim'', mankind begins building walls as a last-ditch effort to keep the Kaiju out. It's clear from the outset that it won't work, but what makes it even more infuriating is that after it's easily broken through by a Kaiju, the world's governments are still adamant that the wall will work. Unsurprisingly their single-minded determination to keep the Wall as the main plan causes riots in many cities.
* In ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'', the Star League created The Frontier, a force field barrier generated by a pattern of fixed devices. It was designed to keep out the Ko-Dan Armada, the starfleet of the Ko-Dan Empire.

* ''Dragonheart3'', a prequel-sequel to ''{{Film/Dragonheart}}'', has a wall separating the two cultures/countries of the two main characters.

* Fortress City in ''Literature/SuperMinion'' is surrounded by a gigantic wall around the outside. It also has walls that can be raised at the push of a button to block off any single section of the city in case of a gigantic monster or something else that needs to be contained appearing.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Westeros has a massive (as in 800 foot-high) [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Wall]] built of ice blocks in the far north, stretching from the continent's east coast to the west. The Wall was built to keep out the [[MonstrousHumanoid Others]], "demons made of ice", and is manned by the Night's Watch. The books [[DeconstructedTrope explore the logistics]] of the idea:
** While it's (supposedly) pretty efficient at its first purpose (since the hordes of zombies it's supposed to repel can't climb), the Seven Kingdoms end up relying too much on it, which is why the Night's Watch has slowly degraded into an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores, rather than well-trained army that was seen as an honorable path in life for anyone like it used to be.
** Due to the sheer size of the thing, the Watch is thinned out and unable to stop the wildlings, who try to climb it or dig through it. Well, they can, but only when they catch them.
** The Wall is punctuated with "forts" (more like barracks) sheltering the Watch and defending the Wall's gates. However, most of them were closed and their gates plugged, because of the Watch's depleting ranks.
** They are also unable to prevent the forest from spreading and reaching the Wall, concealing the ground in front of it, except in front of their forts, by regularly sending axemen to cut the trees.
** Since the top is pretty high, in a land of never-ending winter, they have to cover it with gravel on a daily basis to prevent it from becoming an ice rink.

* The one located in the town of Wall in Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Stardust}}''.
* There's one of these in Creator/GarthNix's ''Literature/OldKingdom'' books, separating the nonmagical land of Ancelstierre from the Old Kingdom, where there's necromancy and other magic. It's actually an artefact containing one of the five {{Cosmic Keystone}}s that keeps [[FunctionalMagic the Charter]] together and is designed to keep anything nasty inside the Old Kingdom where people know how to deal with it. It's only moderately successful, hence the massive trench and bunker network on the Ancelstierran side.

* Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall loom large in Creator/RosemarySutcliff's stories of Roman Britain, notably ''Literature/{{The Eagle of the Ninth}}'', ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'', ''Frontier Wolf'', and ''The Capricorn Bracelet'', whose protagonists either have to build them, garrison them, cross them, or get ChasedByAngryNatives back to them.
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', the Agatean Empire has a Great Wall, supposedly to keep out the invisible vampire ghosts but actually to keep the Agateans in. When an actual barbarian horde comes calling it doesn't even slow them down. The Wall stretches to the Rim Ocean, and then ''continues'' on the Empire's islands, even though that doesn't really block anything, since it's the ''idea'' of the Wall that's important.
* The Union at ''Literature/ExpeditionZ'' has a Westerly Wall at its Western border made of scrap metal and wood stretching for 1,300 miles that blocks off intruders and (formerly) zombies.

* On ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'', in the "Immigration" episode, Adam [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] the idea of building a mega-wall along the Rio Grande. It would cut through mountains, farmland, and even people's homes, making it wildly impractical in terms of cost. Also, it wouldn't really do a good job of keeping [[TheIllegal illegal immigrants]] from UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} out of the US, because many of them arrive on planes ''completely legally'' (and just overstay their visa).
* Parodied in ''{{Series/Blackadder}}'' where a Roman ancestor of Blackadder's comments that the only thing Hadrian could think up to keep the Scottish hordes at bay was a three-foot-high wall.

* ''Videogame/{{Fire Emblem Three Houses}}'' is somewhat more realistic - Fódlan's Locket is a long fortification, built into the mountains, and separates Fódlan from Almyra. It was built jointly by the three countries of Fódlan after the last Almyran invasion and Claude, as part of his policy of opening borders and bringing people together, wants to tear it down.

** The Serpent's Spine, a very exact copy of The Great Wall of China cutting a large western sector off the rest of Pandaria - erected by the Mogu emperors to keep out the periodic Mantid swarms.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}} 2'', the United States began construction of the Liberty Defense Perimeter in 1951 after the Chimera attack New York City. A year later, it's [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/resistancefallofman/images/9/9e/Layout.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081215025943 encompassed most of the central states.]]
* ''VideoGame/WanderersOfSorceria'': A huge wall is built in a few days with magic along the border of Jin, thank to one of the Sorcerians being a huge fangirl of Chinese history and essentially living out her ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' fantasies during her stay in Jin (having been made a general there).
* In ''VideoGame/WitchsWish'', Vicky's town is divided into a north, sunny rich side and a south, dreary poor side via a giant wall.

* UsefulNotes/{{India}} has had a “wall” of sorts to protect it from invasions for millennia - the Himalaya mountains, which are the highest in the world. It is due to this mountain range, that there isn’t much more of a Chinese or Mongol influence on India’s demographics and culture. The few times the country has been invaded, the invaders came from the western desert (Alexander, Afghans) or the sea (British, French, Portuguese).

* In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV'', the Great Wall improvement prevents barbarians from landing on the entire continent it is built on. In ''Civilization V'', it doesn't stop enemies from entering your territory, but it does slow them down.

* In many [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Chinese Empires]], and some of the smaller nation-states and kingdoms, series of observation posts in militarized zones (such as the 'Great Walls') helped keep marauding tribes from the steppes from raiding too deeply or extensively into one's lands when used to inform a fast response by cavalry to intercept them. This was only enough to keep them at bay in peacetime, however, and the steppe tribes knew this -- they usually waited until the Chinese nations bordering them were at war with one another before they tried anything too raid-y. The big exception to this rule would be the Song Empire in the 12th century, which lost its capital Bianjing (Kaifeng) to a lightning campaign by a semi-nomadic steppe nation (the Jurchen Jin), which had subjugated most of the tribes in modern Mongolia and Manchuria while they'd been the Song's ally against the Liao (which the Jin eventually conquered). The Song Dynasty had been denied the protection of the traditional Great Wall, as a predecessor state, the Later Jin, had gave away the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Prefectures Sixteen Prefectures]] to the Liao. The ultimate result was that the entire north of the Empire, with a third of its people (and thus a similar share of its wealth) was lost to the Jurchens. After this, the ('Southern') Song Empire [[ForeverWar waged a hundred-year war]] (with intervals of peace, like the Hundred War Year between France and England later on) to defend its remaining subjects. The Wall was not used again until the Ming Empire managed to conquer all the former Song Empire's lands from south-to-north ''and'' take back all of the Sixteen Prefectures three centuries later. [[note]]Two prefectures out of the 16, i.e. Yingzhou (瀛州) and Mozhou (莫州), were reclaimed by the Later Zhou, Northern Song's most immediate predecessor state.[[/note]]

* In many [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Chinese Empires]], and some of the smaller nation-states and kingdoms, series of observation posts in militarized zones (such as the 'Great Walls') helped keep marauding tribes from the steppes from raiding too deeply or extensively into one's lands when used to inform a fast response by cavalry to intercept them. This was only enough to keep them at bay in peacetime, however, and the steppe tribes knew this -- they usually waited until the Chinese nations bordering them were at war with one another before they tried anything too raid-y. The big exception to this rule would be the Song Empire in the 12th century, which lost its capital Bianjing (Kaifeng) to a lightning campaign by a semi-nomadic steppe nation (the Jurchen Jin), which had subjugated most of the tribes in modern Mongolia and Manchuria while they'd been the Song's ally against the Liao (which the Jin eventually conquered). The Song Dynasty had been denied the protection of the traditional Great Wall, as a predecessor state, the Later Jin, had gave away the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Prefectures Sixteen Prefectures]] to the Liao. The ultimate result was that the entire north of the Empire, with a third of its people (and thus a similar share of its wealth) was lost to the Jurchens. After this, the ('Southern') Song Empire [[ForeverWar waged a hundred-year war]] (with intervals of peace, like the Hundred War Year between France and England later on) to defend its remaining subjects. The Wall was not used again until the Ming Empire managed to conquer all the former Song Empire's lands from south-to-north ''and'' take back the Sixteen Prefectures three centuries later.

* UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump made the building of a wall along the Mexico-US border a huge part of his campaign, though in his four years in office hardly any was completed (there's already a fence along most of it).

* In Australia, the Dingo fence protects southeast Australia from dingoes.

* ''Film/{{Monsters|2010}}'' has a huge wall being built at the Mexican border to prevent giant aliens from entering the US, though it's proving not to be very successful. Those living in the Infected Zone joke that the giant wall erected around them by the US government will eventually be [[TheWallAroundTheWorld built around the world]].

* ''VideoGame/WanderersOfSorceria'': A huge wall is built in a few days with magic along the border of Jin, thank to one of the Sorcerians being a huge fangirl of Chinese history and essentially living out her ''Literature/RomancefTheThreeKingdoms'' fantasies during her stay in Jin (having been made a general there).

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