With all the variety of choices, external problems here are trying to settle with a fence
For thousands of years, walls or fences on the borders of countries were erected in order to divide the warring peoples, to eradicate smuggling or prevent the influx of immigrants. Some of these structures have gone down in history, but many of them, which appeared relatively recently, still serve their intended purpose.
Two systems
DPRK —Republic of Korea
The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was created in 1953 as a buffer between North and South Korea. In the center of this strip, 250 km long and 4 km wide, runs the Military Demarcation Line, marked with signs. In the western part of the DMZ, in the town of Panmunjom, there is the so-called Joint Security Zone, bounded by barbed wire. There are meetings and negotiations. Tourists are also allowed in, taking selfies with enthusiasm.
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- • Enclosed space
Under the Berlin sky
Germany
The wall that cut Berlin in 1961 crippled the city and the fate of its inhabitants. In 1989, the Iron Curtain collapsed, and today its graffiti-covered remains have become memorials and an open-air art gallery in Europe's most democratic city.
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- • Adventurous Romance: On the German-German Border
Gringos Against
USA -Mexico
To combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling from Mexico, the US has set up a chain of barriers along the border. The US-Mexican barrier has been built since 1909, and today its total length is almost 1100 km, that is, about a third of the length of the border between the countries. The 5–10 m high barrier passes mainly where there are no natural barriers: through cities and deserts, dividing the lands of indigenous tribes and disturbing the ecological balance of nature reserves. The barrier includes different types of fences, sensors and security cameras that transmit information to patrols about crossing the border.
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The UN buffer zone with an area of 346 km² divides the island into the southern (Greek) and northern (Turkish) parts. The line passes through Nicosia, which remains the last divided capital in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. About 10,000 Cypriots live in villages inside the buffer zone and work on farms there. Turks and Greeks live side by side in the village of Pyla.
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- One city, two countries: 7 separate settlements
On No change in the West Bank
Israel -Palestine
The Israeli Separation Barrier, from Israel's point of view, is a guarantee of security against terrorism; from the Palestinian point of view, it is an “apartheid wall”, which squeezes 9.5% of the territory of the West Bank of the Jordan River in favor of Israel. The wall, which reaches 8 meters in height in the urban area, is covered in protest graffiti, mostly from the Palestinian side. There are portraits of Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, the “Palestinian Tiger”, drawings by Banksy and other artists. On the road to Bethlehem —the inscription Ich bin ein Berliner (“I am a Berliner”).
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The Hungarian border barrier made of helical barbed wire (Bruno's spiral) separated the country from Serbia in 2015. This happened against the backdrop of the European migration crisis, to prevent illegal “transit” of refugees who followed the Schengen area, mainly to Germany, and did not want to officially register in Hungary.
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- In slow style: 6 features of life in Serbia that surprise people who have moved from Russia img title=”A wall has grown: 7 most famous barriers between neighbors on the map” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/vyrosla-stena-7-samyh-izvestnyh-barerov-mezhdu-sosedjami-po-karte- 477ef09.jpg” alt=”A wall has grown: 7 most famous barriers between neighbors on the map” />
The fence that separates the Spanish enclave city of Melilla in Africa from the territory of Morocco began to be built in 1998. Now it is a powerful fortification system of two parallel barriers 6 m high, with barbed wire, video cameras, electronic sensors. Despite all precautions, thousands of African migrants storm the wall every year. Hundreds manage to get to Spain.
Photo: REUTERS, SIME, ALAMY (X2)/LEGION-MEDIA, GETTY IMAGES, REUTERS, ALAMY/LEGION-MEDIA
< p>Material published in Vokrug Sveta magazine No. 9, November 2020, partially updated in June 2023
Svyatoslav Zelensky