Archaeologists in Russia have unearthed the so-called Gret Wall of Siberia, an ancient fortification dating back to the 1st millennium BC which guarded the Altai mountains against attacks from the North.

The view around Souzga village where the wall once stood.

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The massive fortification kept the Altain mountains save against attacks from the north according to lead archaeologist Professor Andrey Borodovsky.

It is believed that this huge wall complex—which now is hidden from plain sight— dates back to a long era when other massive structures, like the Great Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall, were built. The wall is covered with thick layers of grass, which now cover the supermassive stones put in place by ancient man, explain scientists.

Archaeologists have identified up to SIX rows of a parallel defensive system which prevented access to the Altai mountain complex for the North.

Experts still do not know who the builders of the walls were.

What experts do know are the approximate dimensions of the defensive structure. According to initial reports, the “Great Wall of Siberia” had a width of around 10 meters, boasting an impressive height of around eight meters.

‘To the east of these walls is a relatively wide passage, which is limited at the mountainside by another set of walls, oriented west-east across the Katun Valley, said Professor Andrey Borodovsky in an interview with the Siberian Times.

Image credit: Andrey Borodovsky

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These walls were 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), added professor Borodovsky.

The construction of the wall allowed ancient cultures to control access from the steppes to the mountains say, experts.

Not only are the walls now hidden from sight, a substantial amount of the structure has been destroyed by the construction of the Chuya highway in tsarist times, modernized by Stalin using prisoner labor suggests the report.

Furthermore, the western parts of the ancient structure were substantially lost when the village of Souzga was expanded.

‘It is not easy to photograph the walls so that they are visible,’ Andrey Borodovsky said. Nor do satellite images help much.

It is noteworthy to mention how Professor Borodovsky argues that geophysical analysis and scans of the structures have shown they are manmade walls and not natural formations.

In the near future, Borodovsky and his team will conduct further research which will allow scientists to identify new possible structures.

“Geophysics has clearly authenticated that the Souzga walls were artificially created,” he told The Siberian Times.

Location of the Altai walls, and data from geophysical analysis. Pictures: Andrey Borodovsky

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“It is not very easy to determine the age of such constructions, when exactly where they created, but I think it was around the first millennium BC – the start of new era. That is Iron Age or even Bronze Age, but more likely the Iron Age.”

“This is based on the fact that it was the time when such structures were created all over the planet, for example, the famous Hadrian’s Wall also fits into this trend. The dilemma is that the only archeological finds around these walls, as of now, are dated as medieval.”

“But I still maintain that in the Middle Ages there wasn’t a big enough community here which could afford to build such a formidable structure. Besides, there also was no need for such a construction because in Middle Ages there were a lot of small, scattered communities here. All the powerful defensive lines in Eurasia were built in the period from the beginning of the first millennium BC up to the opening half of the first millennium AD.” concluded Professor Borodovsky.

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(H/T Siberian Times)