Hadrian's Wall, a Symbol of Defiance

Not all structures are meant to host people and keep them entertained indoors. Some structures have the equally crucial purpose of  keeping "others" out. However, although defensive structures still do exist to a degree, their golden days have come and gone, and most such works - castles, fortresses, city walls and gun batteries - are nothing more than archeological articafts today. Still, some of them continue to fascinate us not just through their size or architectural genius, but also their significance and their stand against the test of time. Hadrian's Wall is one such structure.

Hadrian's Wall is a defensive wall in what is today northern England, built between 122 AD - 128 AD under orders from no other than the Roman emperor Hadrian himself. Hadrian, one of the Five Good Emperors along with Nerva, Trajan, Antoninus Pius and marcus Aurelius according to Macchiavelli, ruled the empire from 117 to 138; he not only built the wall that carried his name, but also rebuilt the Pantheon and commissioned the Temple of Venus and Roma, both in Rome.

The wall - doubling as a fortification against invaders from the north and a point of customs control - was instructed to be built as a means of separating their territory, Provincia Britannia, from the lands of indigenous people of northern England and Scotland. Hadrian, whose Roman Empire ruled this province that spanned almost three quarters of Great Britain for almost 366 years, had likely planned the building of a wall to keep his empire intact before his visit to Britain in 122 AD. His exact intention for building the wall is not known as a certainty, but it is widely assumed that the wall was built to keep barbarians out of the empire - although there is disagreement regarding the extent of a barbarian threat in this part of the empire. Other explanations include a means of controlling migration and trade, as well as a show of power of the empire.

The wall in its entirety is 75 Roman miles long; a Roman mile (from mille passuum - a thousand paces or two thousand steps) was a widely used distance measure marked by carved sticks dug into the ground every 1000 paces estimated to be around 1479 meters in length. The other dimensions - width and height - of the wall varied according to the availability of materials in the vicinity of the site. Parts of the wall were built of square-cut stone blocks to a size of 3 meters wide and 5 meters high, whereas other sections were of turf and wider and shorter. The wall starts in Segedunum near Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the east, and ends in Solway Firth - boundary of England and Scotland - in the west. Although the western end of the wall is largely parallel and close to the border between the two nations, in reality Hadrian's Wall does not follow present day border all the way to the east; in fact the distance between the actaul border and the eastern end of the wall is nearly 110 kilometers.

Constructed in nearly six years, the wall was built from east towards west by soldiers from nearby Roman legions. After completion, the wall was manned by auxiliary units of the Roman army, whose numbers were varying around an average figure of 9000 men at the peak of its usage. However, after Hadrian's death, the wall was rather ignored and fell into disuse, especially after the new emperor, Antoninus Pius, started building his own wall further north (The Antonine Wall, as it is now called, was built through the center of Scotland, almost exactly on the path from Edinburgh (near Firth of Forth) to Glasgow (near Firth of Clyde) between 142 AD - 154 AD and extended for nearly 63 kilometers). However, as Antoninus was not able to bring the northern tribes under Roman influence, he had to abandon his wall and return to Hadrian's Wall in 164 AD, where Roman troops stayed until withdrawal from Britain.

Apart from several attacks at the end of 2nd century, the wall was largely untouched until late 4th century, during which general economic and military decline of the empire resulted in the abandoning of the wall by Roman legions. In time, the wall was entirely vacated and fell into ruin.

Hadrian's Wall was added to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1987, and later in 2005 it was incorporated into the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site. Several sections of the wall still exist in some form, and a foot path that follows the wall - the Hadrian's Wall Path - is open to visitors from all over the world. What was once probably built to keep the people of an empire safe is now attracting people to marvel at its durability and its adaptation to its beautiful surroundings.

El Castillo of Chichen Itza - A Mayan Marvel

A name usually means a lot. In some cases though, it is not enough to express the true grandeur of the entity it stands for. And in some rare cases, it is a case of outright blasphemy. The same expression fits certain buildings as good as it fits certain people.

El Castillo is one such building. Literally meaning "the castle" in Spanish, El Castillo is anything but another ordinary castle that can be lumped together with dozens of hundreds of others. In fact, it is the single most significant work of architecture that Chichen Itza - and by this token, the Mayan civilization - has presented to the world.

Located in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, the construction of Chichen Itza's El Castillo is dated by historians to be between the 9th and 12th centuries. A structure that soars 30 meters above the surrounding Mexican jungle, the pyramid has a square shaped base measuring 55 meters on all sides.

Designated a world heritage site in 1988 by the UNESCO, El Castillo - or more accurately, the Temple of Kukulkan - is the centerpiece of the Chichen Itza pre-Columbian archeological site. This more descriptive name of the structure is derived from the name of the god Kukulkan, which is a serpentine deity of the Mayans; the word kukulkan itself means "plumed serpent". This deity is said to be closely related to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.

 El Castillo is built in the form of a step pyramid. Remarkable is the fact that the peak of the pyramid is reached via climbing a total of 91 steps, which means that there are a total of 364 steps on the four sides of the pyramid. These 364 steps, together with the top platform, sum up to 365, resulting in one step for each day of the year. To further demonstrate the astronomical knowledge possessed by the Mayans, it should suffice to say that 91 is the number of days between successive equinoxes and solstices. The Mayans could have easily used the positioning of the temple with regard to the sun's cycle as a calendar that possibly helped them guess the best time to plant and harvest. Clearly, the Mayans were aware of the modern calendar we use even today, and they didn't shy away from using this knowledge in architecture.

But El Castillo was not a scientific building by any means; it was a temple to a powerful deity. As a result, it did not only incorporate scientific know-how, but symbology relating to worshipping of the gods. To illustrate this combination of religion and science in the Mayan civilization, one has to be transported to the site of the temple during the spring and fall equinoxes, when the shadow of a serpent - Kukulkan no doubt - falls on the slope of the pyramid. The shadow slowly climbs down the pyramid as the sun sets, eventually meeting a stone serpent head at the bottom.

On a date befitting the Mayans, July 7th, 2007, the ancient site of Chichen Itza along with its grand El Castillo, was voted one of the new 7 Wonders of the World. This means that, in a worldwide vote of confidence, the Temple of Kukulkan managed to slip by other competitors to join the likes of the Great Wall of China and Colosseum in Rome to be remembered as a monument that will withstand the test of time. Recently INAH (National Institute of Anhtroplogy and History) of Mexico has been gradually closing visitation of Mayan monuments to slow down their demise, so that all we are left with of El Castillo will not be its photos but the monument itself. Hopefully, El Castillo will live to see many more equinoxes.