York, England: City Walls

A city wall more or less speaks of the Olden Days better than anything, and nothing in England does that sort of talk better than York. It has the most complete City Walls in the country, more or less establishing a ring around the central city.

The barriers have origins going all the way back to 71 A.D., but this version was built in the 1200s on banks of earth.  A ditch was carved out in front of the walls back in the day, which helped with the city's defenses. Most of that land eventually was filled in, leaving the ground higher than it used to be. 

Now the Walls are about 13 feet high and six feet across, and they go for about two miles. Some of them were opened up a bit for traffic.