Stretching over 320 kilometers through the harsh deserts of Mongolia, the wall was long thought to be a simple defensive structure. But research led by Israeli archaeologists has revealed it as a complex tool of imperial strategy used by the Xi Xia dynasty nearly a thousand years ago.

“This research challenges long-standing assumptions about imperial frontier systems in Inner Asia,” said Professor Gideon Shelach-Lavi of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “The Gobi Wall was not just a barrier—it was a dynamic mechanism for governing movement, trade, and territorial control in a challenging environment.”

The study was conducted by Shelach-Lavi and Dan Golan, both from Hebrew University’s Department of Asian Studies, in collaboration with Prof. Chunag Amartuvshin of the National University of Mongolia and Prof. William Honeychurch from Yale University. Their fieldwork, which combined satellite imaging, on-the-ground surveys, and targeted excavations, has redefined the role the Gobi Wall played in the geopolitics of medieval Inner Asia. The team’s findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal, Land.