The Chinese are pretty hot on walls and hold the all-time record – 5,500 miles.

Whether the Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall are the most famous walls is a toss-up but, in length, the Berlin Wall was a pipsqueak stretching a mere 96 miles and lasting 30 years, whereas the GWC has lasted 2,300 years.

Today the most actively guarded walls are the 200 mile wall in Cyprus between the Turks and Greeks and the 400 mile wall between Israel and Palestine.

The world has other walls – mostly decrepit – like Diyarbakır Walls, Sacsayhuaman, Great Zimbabwe Walls, Walls of Babylon, Walls of Ston and Walls of Troy.

So the Americans’ proposed wall is nothing new though its curious that, for all their fabulous technology, they’re implementing a 2,000 year old methodology to secure their border.

Fortunately for us we don’t need a wall on our southern and eastern boundaries because we’ve got the Channel and the North Sea.