WA border barrier is a separation barrier that runs along or near an international border. Such barriers are typically constructed for border control purposes such as curbing illegal immigration, human trafficking, and smuggling. Some such barriers are constructed for defence or security reasons. In cases of a disputed or unclear border, erecting a barrier can serve as a de facto unilateral consolidation of a territorial claim that can supersede formal delimitation. A border barrier does not usually indicate the location of the actual border, and is usually constructed unilaterally by a country, without the agreement or cooperation of the other country.
WThe Afghanistan–Pakistan barrier refers to the border barrier being built by Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan, otherwise known as the Durand Line. The purpose of barrier is to prevent terrorism, smuggling, illegal immigration and infiltration across the approximately 2,640-kilometre-long (1,640 mi) international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Major-General Shaukat Sultan, a former Pakistani military spokesman, said the move was necessary to block the infiltration of militants across the border into Pakistan. The initially proposed fortifications and fence, about 2,400 km (1,500 mi) in length, was backed by the United States in 2005. Construction on the border barrier unilaterally began in March 2017 following a series of deadly and costly clashes between Pakistani security forces and Afghan-aligned militants in Pakistan's tribal areas that greatly intensified hostilities in the War in North-West Pakistan.
WThe Bangladesh–India border, known locally as the International Border (IB), is an international border running between Bangladesh and India that demarcates the eight divisions of Bangladesh and the Indian states.
WThe Bangladesh–Myanmar border is the international border between the countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. The border stretches 270 kilometres, from the tripoint with India in the north, to the Bay of Bengal in the south. About 210 km (130 mi) of the border is fenced, with the government of Myanmar announcing in 2017 that it was planning to fence off the rest of the border.
WThe Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" from building a socialist state in East Germany.
WThe Boundaries of Hong Kong, officially the Boundary of the Administrative Division of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, is a regulated administrative border with border control in force under the One country, two systems constitutional principle, which separates the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from mainland China, by land border fence of 30 kilometers and maritime boundary of 733 kilometers, enforcing a separate immigration and customs-controlled jurisdiction from mainland China.
WThe Ceuta border fence forms part of the Morocco–Spain border at Ceuta, a city on the North African coast. Constructed by Spain, its purpose is to prevent smuggling and to stop migrants from entering Europe. Morocco objected to the construction of the barrier since it does not recognize Spanish sovereignty in Ceuta.
WThe Egypt–Gaza barrier is a steel border barrier constructed by Egypt along its 14 kilometres border with the Gaza Strip. The Rafah border crossing is the only border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
WThe Egypt–Israel barrier refers to a border barrier built by Israel along its border with Egypt. It was originally an attempt to curb the influx of illegal migrants from African countries. Construction began on 22 November 2010. However, following increased insurgent movement across the southern border in 2011 in wake of the crisis in Egypt, Israel upgraded the steel barrier project to include cameras, radar, and motion detectors. In January 2013, construction of the barrier was completed in its main section. The final section of the fence was completed in December 2013.
WThe Fortifications of Derbent are one of the fortified defense lines built by the Persian Sasanian Empire to protect the eastern passage of the Caucasus Mountains against the attacks of the nomadic peoples of the Pontic–Caspian steppe. Built in the 6th century during the reign of Persian emperor Khosrow I and maintained by various later Arab, Turkish and Persian regimes, the fortifications comprise three distinct elements: the citadel of Naryn-Kala at Derbent, the twin long walls connecting it with the Caspian Sea in the east, and the "mountain wall" of Dagh-Bary, running from Derbent to the Caucasus foothills in the west. The immense wall, with a height of up to twenty meters and a thickness of about 10 feet, stretched for forty kilometers between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, thirty north-looking towers stretched for forty kilometers between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, effectively blocking the passage across the Caucasus. The fortification complex was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
WThe Frontier Closed Area, established by the Frontier Closed Area Order, 1951, and 1984 is a regulated border zone in Hong Kong that extended inwards from the border with Mainland China.
WThe Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe. Several walls were built from as early as the 7th century BC, with selective stretches later joined together by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China. Little of the Qin wall remains. Later on, many successive dynasties built and maintained multiple stretches of border walls. The best-known sections of the wall were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
WHadrian's Wall, also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. Running "from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west", the Wall covered the whole width of the island. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.
WThe Iran–Pakistan border is the international border between Iran and Pakistan, demarcating Pakistan's Balochistan province from Iran's Sistan and Balochistan Province; it is 959 kilometres in length. Since circa 2007 Iran has started constructing a border barrier as a replacement for an intermittent tattered border fence.
WThe Iraq–Saudi Arabia border is 811 km in length and runs from the tripoint with Jordan in the west to the tripoint with Kuwait in the east.
WThe Gaza–Israel barrier is a border barrier constructed by Israel on the Israeli side of the Gaza–Israel border. There are two main crossing points on the Israel-Gaza border: the northern Erez Crossing and the eastern Karni Crossing used only for cargo. Other cargo crossing points are the Kerem Shalom border crossing on the border with Egypt and the Sufa Crossing further north.
WKazakhstan–Uzbekistan relations refers to the relations between the neighbouring Republic of Kazakhstan and Republic of Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan has an Embassy in Tashkent and a Consulate General in Samarkand. Uzbekistan has an Embassy in Nur-Sultan and have Consulates General in Almaty and Aktau.
WThe Kelasuri Wall or Great Abkhazian Wall is a stone wall located to the east of Sukhumi in Abkhazia, Georgia. The exact time of its construction is not known; several dates ranging from antiquity to the 17th century were suggested, although more recent works have provisionally favoured construction in the 6th century AD. The wall featured about 300 towers, most of them now entirely or largely ruined.
WThe Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the Korean Peninsula roughly in half. It was established to serve as a buffer zone between the countries of North and South Korea under the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, an agreement between North Korea, China and the United Nations Command.
WKruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,623 km2 (7,576 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 km (220 mi) from north to south and 65 km (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.
WThe Uzbekistan–Kyrgyzstan barrier is a border barrier built by Uzbekistan along its border with Kyrgyzstan to prevent terrorist infiltration. Construction began in 1999 after bomb attacks in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent were blamed on Islamic terrorists originating from Kyrgyzstan. The fence, unilaterally erected in disputed territory has caused economic hardships in the poor agricultural areas of the Ferghana Valley and has separated many families in this traditionally integrated border region.
WThe Línea P, officially the Pyrenees Defense Organisation, was a fortified line of defense built in the Pyrenees between 1944 and 1948 to prevent an invasion into Spanish territory.
WThe Melilla border fence forms part of the Morocco–Spain border in the city of Melilla, one of two Spanish cities in north Africa. Constructed by Spain, its stated purpose is to stop illegal immigration and smuggling. Melilla's border and its equivalent in Ceuta, also bordering Morocco, are the only two land borders between the European Union and an African country.
WThe Mexico–United States barrier, also known as the border wall, is a series of vertical barriers along the Mexico–United States border intended to reduce illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico. The barrier is not a continuous structure but a series of obstructions variously classified as "fences" or "walls".
WThe Line of Contact separated the Armenian forces and the Azerbaijan Armed Forces since the First Nagorno-Karabakh war. It was formed in the aftermath of the May 1994 ceasefire that ended the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–94). The mountain range of Murovdag (Mrav) is the northern part of the line of contact and is essentially a natural border between the two forces. The length of the line of contact was between 180 kilometres (110 mi) and 200 kilometres (120 mi) until 2020. It was slightly changed for the first time since the 1994 ceasefire during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 2016, and aspects of the current line of contact since the 2020 ceasefire following Second Nagorno-Karabakh War remain unclear.
WThe Oman–United Arab Emirates border consists of three non-contiguous sections totalling 609 km in length.
WPolish–Lithuanian Neutral Strip was a demilitarised zone between Lithuania and Republic of Central Lithuania, and later Poland, that was established on 17 December 1920, following the treaty of Kaunas and disestablished on 22 May 1923. It was established by the League of Nations, to stop countries from fighting, following the Central Lithuanian Offensive on Kaunas. The zone was located on the borders of the separated countries between towns of Pabradė and Valkininkai and was, on average, 6 km wide on each side of the border.
WThe Saudi–Yemen barrier is a physical barrier constructed by Saudi Arabia along part of its 1,800-kilometer (1,100 mi) border with Yemen. It is a structure made of pipeline three metres (10 ft) high filled with concrete, acting as a "security barrier along sections of the now fully demarcated border with Yemen" and fitted with electronic detection equipment.
WTegart's Wall was a barbed wire fence erected in May-June 1938 by British Mandatory authorities in the Upper Galilee near the northern border of the territory in order to keep militants from infiltrating from French-controlled Mandatory Lebanon and Syria to join the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. With time the security system further included police forts, smaller pillbox-type fortified positions, and mounted police squads patrolling along it. It was described as an "ingenious solution for handling terrorism in Mandatory Palestine."
WThe Trump wall, commonly referred to as "The Wall", is an expansion of the Mexico–United States barrier that started during the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump. Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump called for the construction of a border wall. He said that, if elected, he would "build the wall and make Mexico pay for it". Then-Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto said that Mexico would not pay for the wall, therefore the US paid for the wall to be constructed.
WThe Syria–Turkey barrier is a border wall and fence under construction along the Syria–Turkey border built in an attempt at preventing illegal crossings and smuggling from Syria into Turkey.
WThe Wire of Death was a lethal electric fence created by the German military to control the Dutch–Belgian frontier after the occupation of Belgium during the First World War.