Ants have built their own equivalent of the Great Wall of China.

Though it probably isn’t true that all the ants on earth weigh more than all the humans, there are still a lot of them — about 20 quadrillion, as far as scientists can figure. With that in mind, it’s not exactly surprising that they’ve built underground megacities that put some of our metropolises to shame. One of them is so impressive that it’s been deemed the ant version of the Great Wall of China.

That discovery came after scientists in Brazil poured 10 tons of cement into an anthill and observed the ants’ goings-on for the next three days. Rather than simply move on and chide the researchers for their rude experiment, the ants got to work and used the cement to their advantage by building on and around it. Their creation was, relatively speaking, massive: 50 square meters in total, including 8 meters down into the earth, all of it interconnected via a series of tunnels and individual rooms with different purposes. 

It even included a side road for fast-moving ants who don’t like having to pass slow walkers en route to their next task. The creation didn’t last long, however, as ants tend to move from one colony to another so as to avoid predators and disasters (whether natural or manmade) that would destroy their carefully built structures.