Derbent and the Gates of Alexander: The Wall That Stopped Empires
In a forgotten corner of southern Russia, a massive stone wall cuts through a modern city, stretching from the mountains all the way to the Caspian Sea. Beneath it lies a secret older than empires—a gate long believed to hold back the end of the world.
Legends claim that Alexander the Great built it to seal away monstrous tribes foretold in prophecy. Others suggest it marks the line between civilization and chaos. Yet here, in Derbent, the so-called Gates of Alexander are not myth. They are real, colossal, and remarkably preserved.
Derbent—known in Persian as Darband, meaning “the closed gate”—sits in the narrowest corridor between the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea. Only three kilometers wide, this natural bottleneck was the only route through which Eurasian steppe nomads could descend into the fertile lands of the Middle East.
For centuries, empires saw this strip of land as either a dagger pointed south or a shield to defend their territories. To secure it, the Sasanian Empire built one of the largest defensive systems outside of China in the 6th century: the Fortifications of Derbent. These walls, towers, and gates not only controlled passage but symbolized the strategic and cultural importance of this narrow corridor.
Today, Derbent stands as a testament to human ingenuity, military strategy, and the enduring power of geography—a city where legends and history converge in stone.
🎥 Watch the video below to explore the Gates of Alexander and the incredible Fortifications of Derbent:
