Edge of an empire

Welcome to Winshields Crag in England’s most northerly county, Northumberland. This frosty scene shows the highest point on Hadrian’s Wall, a physical reminder of a long-gone superpower. Running 73 miles (117km) across northern Britain from the north-east coast to the Irish Sea, this impressive feat of engineering is named after the Roman emperor who commissioned it on a visit to Britain in AD 122, and is said to have been intended to separate the Romans from the “barbarians” (anyone outside their empire).
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