jjares reviewed The Great Wall of Gorgan: The History of the Ancient Near East?s Longest Defensive Wall on + 3270 more book reviews
This wall was about 121 miles of heavily-defensive wall, with at least 30 forts, scattered every 4 miles along the wall in modern Iran. From research, we find that between a few dozen to 30,000 troops were stationed along the border, to keep barbarians out. Since the Sasanian army was about 50,000 to 80,000 soldiers, it is obvious how important the Gorgan Wall was to the Sasanians.
There were even an aqueduct and water canals that ran along the wall, to provide water for cooking, washing, and horses. It is estimated that hundreds of millions of bricks had to be fired in kilns and lumber had to be imported (a dearth of trees in the area).
I thought there was more conjecture than facts, based on the scant information available. The authors should have indicated that this was really a discussion of Sasanian Empire military history, with precious little about the wall.
There were even an aqueduct and water canals that ran along the wall, to provide water for cooking, washing, and horses. It is estimated that hundreds of millions of bricks had to be fired in kilns and lumber had to be imported (a dearth of trees in the area).
I thought there was more conjecture than facts, based on the scant information available. The authors should have indicated that this was really a discussion of Sasanian Empire military history, with precious little about the wall.
