Slabs of concrete have sprung up in recent days, snaking for just over one kilometer over the rolling hills of Hatay province, a finger of land which was part of Syria until the late 1930s, dotted with villages that have thrived on an illicit cross-border trade in everything from fuel to cigarettes.
Turkey has kept an open-border policy throughout Syria's three-year civil war and has vowed to maintain it, providing a lifeline to rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad by allowing supplies in and refugees out.
But the policy has had its costs. Smuggling has thrived, and a growing number of Syrians forced by the war to eke out a living where they can, swell the ranks of those trying to cross back and forth outside the official border posts.
That has compounded the challenge of securing the 900-km (560-mile) border for Turkey's authorities, already accused of doing too little to stop foreign jihadists from entering Syria and posing an even bigger risk to the wider region.
Car bombs in the Turkish town of Reyhanli killed dozens almost a year ago and there has been more violence since then. The International Crisis Group estimates that more than 75 Turkish citizens have been killed in fighting that has spilled over the frontier.
Turkey's handling of the Syrian war was said to be the main reason that led to the ruling AK Party's loss of Hatay province in March's local elections. The costs the crisis has imposed on the economy in border areas and fears about Islamist fighters have also alarmed local people.
In the face of such a challenge, the wall seems a symbolic gesture, starting in a village called Kusakli, which an official from the district governorate called an active spot for border trespassing, and following the contours for just a over a kilometer.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week Turkey had spent $3.5 billion providing food, shelter and education but had received just $150 million in assistance from other countries.
"There are lots of people who are internally displaced, millions, and there's almost 200,000 who have died. To do nothing and watch is unacceptable," he said in an interview with PBS talk show host Charlie Rose.
"Where is the United Nations, where is the United States? Where are all these countries?" he said.
REUTERS