I think some ancient buildings in Iran like rectangle fortress of Iraj or the very precise circular citadel of Gur are still the world's largest enclosed buildings, these are larger than the size of almost 1,000 football fields, it means several times larger than the Pentagon, Dubai International Airport, the Forbidden City in Beijing, ...

Some pics from Google Map:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/IrajMap2.JPG

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/GurMap.jpg

thats pretty much like a city wall (of which the biggest are in China)

You can hardly find any city wall with these exact shapes and thess thickness of walls, for example the great wall of china measures just about 4 to 5 meters thick:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/Chinawall2.jpg

If you search for "great wall of china" in Google map then you will find it:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/ChinaWall.jpg

And if you search for Varamin (35° 19' 31 N, 51° 38' 44 E) where Iraj fortress is located then you will find this one at the same map scale:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/IrajMap1.JPG

At the map scale that I posted those two pics in this first post, you can't even see any sign of the great wall of china.

Those walls are like 20 mts thick?

The SriRanganathaswamy Temple/City is quite big, but still looks small in comparison to those Iranian structures.

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/456/81317712.jpg

Then you have Angkor Wat in Cambodia:

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/893/58066054x.jpg

Those walls are like 20 mts thick?

Yes about 22 meters.

Iran is the crossroad of all big civilizations, human migrations and so on, so there is nothing strange to see such achievements, especially about walled cities when you know the number of enemies that passed around... :)

It is good mention that at the very centre of the Gur citadel, there was a huge ancient tower as tall as a modern 30-storey tower but it has been already destroyed and just part of it has remained, however this remnant is still more than 30m high, you can see it at the centre of this pic :

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/GurCity4.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/GurCity5.jpg

More info: http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2009/M...05-03-plan.htm

The plan of the city was a perfect circle of 1,950 m diameter, divided into twenty sectors by a precise geometric system of twenty radial and several concentric streets. It was surrounded by a main wall of stamped clay, a ditch 35 m wide, and a fore-wall. Inside the town an inner wall set off the circular city centre, which was probably the site for official buildings.

It should be also mentioned that there are some other round and rectangle buildings in Iran too, like the ancient city of Darabgerd:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/Darab/dara5.jpg

I've found what appears to be the largest surviving fort/city in India. Chittorgarh. The walls aren't in a circle or square because they hug the edges of the plateau on which it is built.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2827/84148338.jpg

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9479/63564694.jpg

Iran is the crossroad of all big civilizations, human migrations and so on, so there is nothing strange to see such achievements, especially about walled cities when you know the number of enemies that passed around... :)

Maybe you don't believe it but it is really possible that these round and rectangle buildings were not built by human being, you probably know that some kms south of Iraj fortress, there is one of the largest deserts in the world, this is about half of Iran, I looked at the Google Map and found that in a region in this desert where absolutely no one lives, there are a large number of round and rectangle shapes, some of them are even larger than some modern countries.

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round1.jpg

There is something like an arrow above it:

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round2.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round3.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round4.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round5.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round6.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round7.jpg

This rectangle one is several times larger than Iraj fortress:

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round8.jpg

Some of them might be meteor craters :)

I can believe it, i am one of people that believe atlantis civilization existed, and looking all those large circles and description of atlantis capital city, it looks close. I was first interested by the look of middle-east cities when i saw arbil.

I know about the famous round citadel of Arbil in Iraq and we know about the people who built it but was it really round like those ones?

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/Arbil.jpg

^Its built on a plateau, so it doesn't make sense to have a perfectly round structure.

Look at this one (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=%2B34%C2%B0%2051'%2032.89%22%2C%20%2B51%C2%B0%204'%2056.15%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl):

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round9.jpg

They seem to be exactly symmetrical, not only circles but above lines, there are several kilometres distance between these two and I don't think that they could have formed naturally, so who built them? and how?

This rectangle one is several times larger than Iraj fortress:

http://www.allempires.com/uploads/Round8.jpg
Hi. Could you please post a link to Google Maps of this image? Thanks.

Of course, Click Here (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=%2B34%C2%B0%2057'%206.62%22%2C%20%2B51%C2%B0%205'%2026.12%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl)

You can compare Iraj fortress:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/IrajMap2.JPG

With a corner of this rectangle at the same map scale:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/Rect1.jpg

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/Rect2.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goseck_circle

Maybe that can explain the huge circles, could be very old traditions and when indo-europeans arrived in iran, they needed to do them to know where they were or to venerate the sun... (also considered it's desert, maybe they were lost who knows ? :lol: )

However the size of those circles in iran are absolutely enormous, and could be simply ancient settlements , assurely with enormous amount of people to built them, and could be related to linear ceramic culture's circles : (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_ditches), of course it would linked again to indo-european migration, and it's easy to imagine lot of people building them, when you know that some circular settlements in ukraine and romania were between 10,000 and 20,000 people in 5500 BC, which is enormous for this time !

of course it would linked again to indo-european migration, and it's easy to imagine lot of people building them, when you know that some circular settlements in ukraine and romania were between 10,000 and 20,000 people in 5500 BC, which is enormous for this time !
The Trypillians weren't Indo-Europeans.

You can hardly find any city wall with these exact shapes and thess thickness of walls, for example the great wall of china measures just about 4 to 5 meters thick:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/Chinawall2.jpg

If you search for "great wall of china" in Google map then you will find it:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/ChinaWall.jpg

And if you search for Varamin (35° 19' 31 N, 51° 38' 44 E) where Iraj fortress is located then you will find this one at the same map scale:

http://www.allempires.com/Uploads/IrajMap1.JPG

At the map scale that I posted those two pics in this first post, you can't even see any sign of the great wall of china.


I wasnt talking about the Great Wall, but the City Walls of China:

1. The greatest ever city wall in the world is still mostly intact - Nanjing's 34km long defense is 600 years old and took 200,000 labourers 21 years to complete. Its 14.5 m thick at the base and 9.5 at the top:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Nanjing_WuchaoGate3.jpg/450px-Nanjing_WuchaoGate3.jpg http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/journal_media_file_get.asp?mrfileid=38

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/City-wall-of-Nanjing.JPG/800px-City-wall-of-Nanjing.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Zhonghua-gate-of-Nanjing.JPG/800px-Zhonghua-gate-of-Nanjing.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Nanjing_Wumen.jpg/800px-Nanjing_Wumen.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Nanjing_Ming_wall.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Nj02.jpg http://photos.travellerspoint.com/96992/city_wall.jpg

http://image57.webshots.com/157/2/17/49/497721749IYiocu_ph.jpg

2.Xian City Wall is 14 km long built 640 years ago (the former city had one 25km long :(). Its 15-18m (up to 60ft) thick at the bottom, and 12-14m at the top.

It's now very popular with cycle tours:

http://www.easytourchina.com/china-photos/Xian/Old-City-Wall/images/South%20Gate%20of%20Xian%20City%20Wall3.jpg http://www.chinavtour.com/ImageGallery/Citywall/citywall-1.jpg

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/22/03/0c/xian-city-wall.jpg http://images.travelpod.com/users/karinandshayne/2.1220986740.xian-city-wall.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Xi%27an_-_City_wall_-_013.jpg/400px-Xi%27an_-_City_wall_-_013.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/XiAn_CityWall_DiLou.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Xi%27an_-_City_wall_-_014.jpg/800px-Xi%27an_-_City_wall_-_014.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Xi%27an_-_City_wall_-_011.jpg/800px-Xi%27an_-_City_wall_-_011.jpg

http://www.singlestravelservice.com/images/CityWall.JPG http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2260/2143168869_0ec9e29e0f_o.jpg

http://www.edive.ch/Portals/0/citywall.jpg

3. the greatest city walls, not in terms of length but in sheer mass were Beijing's 60ft high fortifications, complete with castle sized gates and watchtowers. Once described as an eighth wonder of the world, it was 23.5 km long but was mostly demolished in the 1965 for a ring road and subway :bash::bash: The walls were 24m thick:

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/images/pek-wall.jpg http://www.blueskymongolia.info/china/Boerschmann/images/beijing_wall.jpg

http://www.virtual-china.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/city-gate-beijing.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Beijing_Chongwenmen_1902.jpg http://sacu.org/BeijingCityWall.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Beijing_Neichengjiaolou_Dongbei.jpg

Dongzhimen, Andingmen ('men' means gate)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Beijing_Dongzhimen_1908.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Andingmen.jpg

Zhenyangmen
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Beijing_Huchenghe.jpg/800px-Beijing_Huchenghe.jpg

Some gates survive:

Dongbianmen

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Dongbianmen.png

Zhenyangmen gate and watchtower

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Zhengyangmen_menlou.JPG http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Zhengyangmen_jianlou.JPG

Deshengmen

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Deshengmen.JPG http://www.dandelionadventures.com/wordpic/image001.jpg

http://www.drben.net/files/China/City/Beijing/XiCheng_District/DeshengMen/Panorama-DeshengMen-SouthF1T.jpg

and some areas of the wall

southeast corner
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E5%9F%8E%E4%B8%9C%E5%8D%97%E8%A7%92%E6%A5%BC.jpg/800px-%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E5%9F%8E%E4%B8%9C%E5%8D%97%E8%A7%92%E6%A5%BC.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Beijing_citywall_2006_04.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Beijing_citywall_2006_01.jpg



Tiananmen, gate to the Forbidden City

http://z.about.com/d/gochina/1/0/h/2/-/-/FC_TiananmenGate.JPG

Qianmen, gate to the Tatar or Imperial City

http://english.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2008/08/08/4597080808qianmen1.jpg http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080807/001aa0ba6dbd0a04d88f23.jpg

Forbidden City's Wall and moat:

http://rolfgross.dreamhosters.com/China-Web/1983BeijingForbiddenCityMoat.jpg


and some lengths are being reconstructed again:

Yongdingmen

http://ic2.pbase.com/u44/mreichel/upload/34403722.IMG_5993copy.jpg


http://api.ning.com/files/qB*eEYpVu7PcWplj6IANcUc9BHi7lsUuOB3RM8l2PwN90D*PznGD9Oan3khhLgBfcusOAk8TAMZ44YNEUHhMiYjIlaCtajaC/wall.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2009/2379788589_3df54fda53.jpg?v=0

The world's longest 'city wall' is supposed to be Ranikot (Pakistan), according to teh internetz. Although there's no sign of the city now. Or maybe it never existed. Hard to tell. The wikipedia page says 26 kms.

Edit: In India, the fort of Kumbhalgarh apparently has walls extending 36 kms in length, supposedly the second longest in the world after Great Wall of China (According to wikipedia)

Dunno who's right.

Chittorgarh ( the picture that I posted earlier) has walls of 13 kms in length.

Here's Kumbhalgarh:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Walls_of_Kumbhalgarh.jpg/800px-Walls_of_Kumbhalgarh.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Kumbhalgarh_Walls.jpg/800px-Kumbhalgarh_Walls.jpg

The Trypillians weren't Indo-Europeans.

"In 1989 the Irish-American Indo-Europeanist J. P. Mallory published his monumental work In search of the Indo-Europeans, which presented a very solid counter-argument to the Kurgan hypothesis. In his work, Mallory provides evidence to support the claim that the Kurgan culture was existing side-by-side along with the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture for about two-thousand years. He demonstrates how there were Kurgan settlements as far west into the Cucuteni-Trypillian region as Transylvania, and postulates that the two cultures would have intermingled."

:D But it's still debated.

I wonder if they could have kept the walls and built light rail on it. hehe...

Even without a city within it's borders, it's still amazing.

"In 1989 the Irish-American Indo-Europeanist J. P. Mallory published his monumental work In search of the Indo-Europeans, which presented a very solid counter-argument to the Kurgan hypothesis. In his work, Mallory provides evidence to support the claim that the Kurgan culture was existing side-by-side along with the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture for about two-thousand years. He demonstrates how there were Kurgan settlements as far west into the Cucuteni-Trypillian region as Transylvania, and postulates that the two cultures would have intermingled."

:D But it's still debated.
Yeah, but you assume it to be true.

When I saw the title, i was actually thinking of something like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coops_(Melbourne_Central)_Shot_Tower).:)

those are some mighty big squares, and some interesting round structures.

The SriRanganathaswamy Temple/City is quite big, but still looks small in comparison to those Iranian structures.

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/456/81317712.jpg

Then you have Angkor Wat in Cambodia:

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/893/58066054x.jpg

Angkor Thom in Cambodia is also very huge, it's next to Angkor Wat. The site is 9 km² that include the wall around it(12km in length) also it has moat around it about 100m wide.

http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28/Thekh/angkorthom.jpg

The wall
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3312/3428805984_a1a75f859f.jpg

The moat
http://mmoss.ca/Vacations/Angkor%20Wat/Images/064%20Siem%20Reap%20-%20Moat%20Around%20Angkor%20Thom.JPG

It has five gates
http://mmoss.ca/Vacations/Angkor%20Wat/Images/061%20Siem%20Reap%20-%20Entrance%20to%20Angkor%20Thom.JPG

those walls in china are amazing! puts the ones in the uk to shame