The ROMAN WAY
A powerful metaphor for military might, Hadrian’s Wall, named after the Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD117-138), once stretched some 73 miles across northern Britain, from Wallsend on the River Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria.
Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and this year, to mark 1900 years since the Romans started building it, many exhibitions, performances, and activities will be anchored in the Northumberland landscape.
Even in its semi-ruinous state, Hadrian’s Wall remains an impressive monument. Designed to be 7m (30ft) tall and built over seven years, it comprised a series of gates or milecastles every Roman mile (0.92 miles), plus towers and forts between to maintain continuous lines of communication along the Empire’s most troublesome frontier.
It used some 800,000 cubic metres of hand-carved stone,
