At the edge of the Roman World

Ancient Rome marked its frontiers with a system of defended "limes". Today, we have reached the wall marking the southern border of the Empire.

At its greatest extent in the 2nd century AD the Roman border extended over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast. The remains of the limes today consist of vestiges of walls, ditches, forts, fortresses and civilian settlements.

We British are well familiar with the Limes Britannicus, or Hadrian's wall as we call it. This wall, at the opposite end of the empire, facing the Sahara desert, is part of the Limes Tripolitanus. Both walls had a similar purpose; they were not used to keep people out, but rather to control the movements of merchants and traders, channelling them into into crossing points where records could be kept and taxes collected.