Walls

The Walls (壁) are large structures located on the island of Paradis that surround the territory where King Fritz fled with many of his people, the Eldians, and protect them from the Titans that rule the rest of the island. They were built more than a century ago.

Description
The Walls reach about 50 meters in height from base to summit and are incredibly strong in substance. However, the Female Titan was able to damage them when she attempted to climb over it, and the Beast Titan was able to remove pieces of Wall Rose and throw them.

The Walls are too long to be guarded in their entirety. The tops of the Walls are lined with cannons, which can fire on approaching Titans, even though they are not particularly effective due to the Titan's regeneration abilities. To account for this, each one has four towns on their periphery known as "districts". As Titans are drawn towards large concentrations of people, humanity can focus its defenses at these districts and not the rest of the Wall. The districts are considered the worst and least desirable places to live, as they are at greater risk of a Titan invasion.

Few people know about the Titans within the Walls, or that they were created from Titans. The Survey Corps learned of their existence when the Female Titan damaged the surface of Wall Sheena, exposing the face of a huge Titan. Minister Nick, a foremost member of a cult which considers the Walls to be holy, knew of the Titans within them, but would reveal no more under the interrogation of Hange Zoë. It is unknown how commonplace this knowledge is within the Church of the Walls.

Technology
The firearms used by the Military are based on the flintlock mechanism, where a piece of flint ignites the gunpowder and fires the gun, which must be reloaded after every shot. These come in the form of muskets, pistols, buckshot rifles, hand cannons, and flintlock sniper rifles. The Survey Corps and the Garrison also use flare-guns to communicate over long distances. As mentioned, cannons line the top of the Walls. While each one originally had its own track so it could be pushed to the outer edge or the inner edge, tracks were later laid along the entire Wall to connect them all and enabled them to be pushed to different positions.

One of the most sophisticated pieces of technology the Walls use is the vertical maneuvering equipment. The advances needed for the system to work include steel wire, compressing gas under pressure, and ultrahard steel (which can only be manufactured in the blast furnaces of factory cities) used to make blades.

Only horses are used for transportation. Photography is not something that the people inside the Walls know about, as Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman, Hange Zoë and Levi Ackerman are not able to identify the photo of Grisha, Dina, and Zeke Yeager without Grisha's note written on the backside.

History
One hundred and seven years ago, it is said that humans were brought to the brink of extinction at the hands of the Titans "almost overnight". In response to this, the survivors made huge Walls to protect their last stronghold.

The current status of the Walls is chaotic. Shiganshina District was the first city to fall when Wall Maria was breached, leading to a massive slaughter and prompting humanity to abandon the entire perimeter and the remaining cities along the Wall as they attempted to consolidate their losses. After the fall of Wall Maria, humanity was pushed into Wall Rose. Soon after a massive campaign to retake Wall Maria was launched as nearly 250,000 conscripted soldiers were sent out to wipe out the Titans; this campaign ended in disaster and saw the near-total annihilation of the army tasked with this mission. Within five years after that, Trost District was breached, though it ultimately survived due to the intervention of Eren Yeager, while also ensuring the local population's survival. Some time later, Wall Sheena and Stohess District were heavily damaged when Eren did battle with the Female Titan. On the same day, the population of a small village named Ragako was overtaken by Titans. Afterwards the military took the royal capital, then a Titan twice the size of the Colossus Titan appeared and caused major damages to Orvud District.

After five years of abandonment, the Survey Corps returned to Shiganshina District and successfully sealed the hole in Wall Maria. Thus far a prolonged battle with the Colossus Titan, Armored Titan, and the Beast Titan has ensured the Wall's survival, but at the cost of nearly the entire expedition and massive damage to the ruined city. The battle resulted in huge losses among the Titans residing within and outside Wall Maria, as well as the death of Titan shifter Bertolt Hoover at the hands of Armin Arlert, ending the Colossal Titan's reign of terror. With the battle over, the nine surviving members of the Survey Corps returned to Trost District.

Anime and Manga Differences
In the anime, a story elaborating on the nature of the Walls is given in Episode 25. It was discovered by a miner with twenty years of experience who attempted to dig under Wall Rose to reach Wall Sheena and after digging to the bottom, that the ground below them was made of the same material as the Wall and that they also seem to extend surrounding human territory underground. In the manga, Roy tells a similar story to Hange Zoë, giving some validity to the anime-only event.

In the first episode of the anime, the distance from Wall Maria to Wall Rose is said to be about 100 km, the distance from Wall Rose to Wall Sheena is about 130 km, and the radius of Wall Sheena is about 250 km. Assuming the Walls to be perfect circles, this would make the total perimeter of Wall Maria to be around 3.016 km and the total area inside the Walls 723,822 km². In the manga, no exact measurements for humanity's territory are given.

Attack on Titan: The Harsh Mistress of the City, Part 1
Quinta District is a located on the western side of Wall Maria. It somehow survived the initial Titan attack from year 845, but was abandoned six months afterward.

Trivia

 * Titans primarily targeted the southern region, even before the loss of Wall Maria. As such, they are considered the most dangerous and least desirable places to live in.
 * The northern districts are considered the most desirable region, due to minimal Titan activity. However, the weather is brutally cold and makes life for residents very difficult. Hajime Isayama suggested they may have hot springs to make up for the harsh weather.
 * Isayama has described the northern region as relatively cold, rarely exceeding even on the hottest summer days.
 * "Rose" was the East Germany's secret codename plan to build the Berlin Wall.
 * In the early draft of chapter 1 presented by Isayama to the editors of the, Wall Maria and Wall Rose were switched, so Wall Rose was the outermost Wall breached by the Colossus Titan, and Wall Maria was the second outermost Wall to where the survivors retreated.
 * If the estimates given by the anime are to be trusted, and assuming each Phantom-like Titan is about 50 m high and about 20 m wide, there would need to be at least 150,797 of them inside Wall Maria (rough estimate, not counting doors, district Walls, etc.) to make a perfect circle.

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