What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
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Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#2Does it exist? I could not find a wikipedia article about it. This Gobi Wall can not be a part of what is known as the Great Wall of China as it was built 5 centuries later, no? Can someone explain?
Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#3That article ends so abruptly and lacking anything you want to know (how was it used for non-defensive purposes?) that I almost wonder if it was written by AI. Hard to tell bad writers from computers anymore.
Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#4So, what was it for? The article sparked my interest then just ended.
Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#5I’m guessing this is the source paper?
> https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/5/1087
>> This study challenges the perception of such structures as being purely defensive, revealing the Gobi Wall’s multifunctional role as an imperial tool for demarcating boundaries, managing populations and resources, and consolidating territorial control
Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#6So, what was it for? The article sparked my interest then just ended.
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Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#7I seem to remember reading somewhere that low walls like this weren't really about defense, they were about funneling travelers (with carts) to the tax collectors.
Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#8Does it exist? I could not find a wikipedia article about it. This Gobi Wall can not be a part of what is known as the Great Wall of China as it was built 5 centuries later, no? Can someone explain?
Ontology in the 21st century: no wikipedia page means non-existence :-)
Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#9I seem to remember reading somewhere that low walls like this weren't really about defense, they were about funneling travelers (with carts) to the tax collectors.
[deleted]
Re: What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?
#10Does it exist? I could not find a wikipedia article about it. This Gobi Wall can not be a part of what is known as the Great Wall of China as it was built 5 centuries later, no? Can someone explain?
The Great Wall is just part of a larger series of fortifications in eastern Central Asia. One of the others is the less studied Medieval Wall System (MWS). The gobi wall here is a few hundred kilometers of one of the individual walls within the MWS, which as the name suggests is within the gobi desert in the modern country of Mongolia.
And just to preclude the usual follow-up, these walls probably weren't major defensive fortifications intended to keep out armies of nomadic raiders. Their primary function was closer to airport customs, visible outposts that reinforce the boundaries and laws of the state.