Fans of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones will be more than familiar with the Wall; the ice structure that stretches from the Shadow Tower to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and forms the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. One of the 9 Wonders made by man, the Wall is the largest artificial structure in the fictional continent of Westeros, and the second tallest structure after the High Tower of Oldtown. Manned by the sworn brotherhood of the Night’s Watch, the Wall was built to defend humanity against the demonic Others and is home to nineteen castles, including Castle Black, the home of Jon Snow and the Night’s Watch.
With such a hugely interesting backstory, the Wall is one of the most iconic landmarks in all of literature and television and begs a number of pertinent questions; who built the Wall? How large is it? How does it stay up? How much water is held within the mammoth ice structure?
The logistics of the Wall are complex and interesting, and would have involved a huge amount of calculations and research to come up with any concrete answers to the above questions. Luckily, the team over at George Banco have done all that hard work for us, producing a beautifully put together piece on the logistics of the Westeros Wall:
Some of the numbers the team at George Banco have come up with are fascinating, and give a whole new perspective on the size and scope of the Wall. For example:
- At its highest point, the Wall is 800 feet (244 metres). That’s taller than the Pyramid of Giza and just short of The Shard in London.
- Reaching the top of the wall would take 40 minutes using the Night’s Watch pulley system
- The Wall is 300 miles (482km) across, and is 21.6 metres wide (wide enough for a dozen horsemen to ride abreast)
- If the Wall were to melt, it would produce 2.3 trillion litres of water – that’s five times the volume of water in Sydney Harbour
A big thank you to the team at George Banco for producing this piece, and drawing my attention to it. I can honestly say I’ve learnt something new about my favourite literary universe!