The Hadrian’s Wall of the East

Derbent, the Causasus, and the edge of the world.

Source: Дербентская_цитадель._Дербент.jpg (5184×3456) (wikimedia.org)

George R R Martin says that he came up with the idea for his sprawling epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, when he was on holiday in Scotland. He stood on Hadrian’s Wall and imagined what it must have been like to be a Roman legionary, standing there at the edge of the known world, facing north into a wild oblivion. It…