The findings are comparable to Hadrian’s Wall, which separated Roman England from the ‘wild’ Scotland. However, unlike Hadrian’s wall, we don’t really know who built this one.
The “Big Wall” club
Walls seem to come and go out of fashion but their purpose hasn’t really changed much across the centuries: keep people out. People built walls around their huts, their churches, their towns, and even their countries; some would even like to build walls now to keep immigrants up. Hundreds of years ago, it wasn’t so much about stopping people who wanted to move country but rather about defending against pillaging invaders.
The Romans famously built a massive wall in northern England. Hadrian’s Wall has inspired countless myths and legends, including the Great Wall from Game of Thrones. But for the Romans, the wall was a very practical investment that served to protect the edge of their empire from Scottish pillaging raids and invasions.
Even Hadrian’s Wall pales in comparison to the Great Wall of China. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC in China, for defense and to serve as border control. Those bits and pieces were maintained, enhanced, and ultimately connected. The Great Wall reached its greatest form during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).
Well, the select club of epic walls might get another addition: the Siberia Wall in the Altai Mountains.
Ramparts and walls
Today, the wall system is barely visible, but it must have been truly humbling in its time. Professor Andrey Borodovsky, an archaeologist working in the Altai Mountains in eastern Russia, says that it may have measured eight meters high, and had a width of ten meters. This was a giant rampart that took a lot of time and effort to construct, and was largely part of a greater defense system.
‘To the east of these walls is a fairly wide passage, which is limited at the mountainside by another series of walls, oriented west-east across the Katun valley,’ Borodovsky said.
Just on a single hillside, he found nine adjacent walls, connected in a rampart system. At the moment, it’s unclear who built them. However, the wall may have not been used only for defense. Borodovsky believes that based on their structure, the walls were more a Trump-style border control than a Roman defense system.
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‘These walls were clearly made to cut off crowds of people, and make them go through a narrow passage in the direction chosen by the creators of the (construction).’
Modern physics meets ancient history
The existence of archaeological remnants in the area was known for quite a while. However, much of the wall system was destroyed by the construction of the Chuya highway in tsarist times. Later on, Stalin continued work on the highways using prison labor — and destroyed even more swaths of archaeological walls. The Soviets didn’t care much about archaeology and history. Then, the expansion of the modern-day village Souzga village also took its toll, leaving only stumps of the walls’ former glory.
But even so, what’s left is impressive.
The problem is that the entire system is covered by turf, to the point where it’s barely visible to the naked eye. Sattelite imagery also doesn’t help that much, so Borodovsky used geophysical techniques — especially a method called electrical resistivity.
In Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) current is pumped into the ground through electrodes, and measured on other electrodes. Based on this measurement, the characteristics of the underground can be assessed, and man-made material can be separated from natural soil and rocks (to some extent). He also used seismic methods, where an earthquake-like wave is created, and information can be derived based on its reflection captured at a sensor.
With these methods, researchers can ‘see’ what’s underground and confirmed that the walls exist and are impressive in size.
‘Geophysics has clearly confirmed that the Souzga walls were artificially created,’ he told The Siberian Times.
Still, the age of the walls is still open for discussion. Borodovsky says he doesn’t know the exact age of the walls yet, but he estimates it around the first millennium BC.
‘It is not very easy to determine the age of such constructions, when exactly were they created, but I believe it was around the first millennium BC – the beginning of new era. That is Iron Age or even Bronze Age, but more likely – Iron Age.’
‘I’m basing this on the fact that it was the time when such constructions are created all over the world, for example the famous Hadrian’s Wall also fits into this trend.’
The problem is that what little has been found on the surface has been dated to medieval times. But Borodovsky believes the medieval people only built on top of the ancient walls and didn’t create them from scratch. He says that medieval people wouldn’t have had the interest or the money for such a massive project.
‘I still believe that in Middle Ages there was not a big enough community here which could afford to build such a formidable construction. Besides, there also was no need for such a construction because in Middle Ages there were a lot of small, scattered communities here.’
There’s also a matter of historical coherence that supports his assumption. Many important Eurasian defense lines date from the beginning of the first millennium BC up to a few hundred years in the Current Era. Borodovsky explains:
‘Such a fortification process was due to a number of factors. First, the appearance of significant human resources in this era, thanks to the potential of an integrated manufacturing economy. Secondly, the aggravation of military conflicts and a significant increase in their scale. Thirdly, the formation of large state and proto-state entities, which had economic, cultural and political boundaries and these boundaries … to separate their world from aliens.’
An ancient cultural hub
It is unclear what culture created this magnificent defense line. Among the suspects are ancient people such as the Pazyryk culture, a Scythian Iron Age culture, who buried mummies in long barrows (or kurgans) and seemed to have a flourishing civilization from the 6th to 3rd centuries BC.
What is clear is that the Altai Mountains, an ancient hub of civilization in Siberia, have yielded fascinating archaeological discoveries, including the burial of the “Ice Princess,” a 2,500-year-old mummified woman from the Pazyryk culture. Preserved in permafrost, she is believed to be one of the earliest recorded breast cancer victims. Her elaborate burial included six saddled and bridled horses as spiritual escorts, a meal of sheep and horse meat, and remarkable possessions like a cosmetics bag and a horsehair wig adorned with a carved wooden deer. Intricate tattoos of mythical creatures decorated her skin, reflecting her culture’s artistry and spiritual beliefs.
Additional artifacts found in her burial include ornaments made of felt, wood, bronze, and gold, as well as a container of cannabis and a stone plate used for burning coriander seeds. These items, along with her clothing and possessions, have allowed scientists to reconstruct aspects of her life, fashion, and beauty practices. The discovery underscores the cultural sophistication of the Pazyryk people and the significance of the Altai Mountains as a center of ancient civilization.
There’s a lot of archaeology in the Altai mountains, just waiting to be uncovered.
This article was originally published in 2017 and was reedited to include additional information.
