But like the Berlin Wall or Israel's West Bank barrier, the planned 485-kilometer trench is giving physical form to a border that locals have long seen as artificial, dividing families and crippling trade.
And it is adding to simmering tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistain, US allies which have long accused each other of turning a blind eye to murderous Moslems.
The trench runs along part of the 2,640-kilometer Durand Line, named for British diplomat Mortimer Durand, who drew the now internationally recognised border in an agreement with Afghan ruler Abdur Raham Khan in 1893.
But the modern Afghan government has never accepted the border, and neither have the mainly tribal communities that straddle it.
They are accustomed to moving back and forth freely and in some cases own land on both sides.
The trench is being built in Pakistain's Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
province, where Baloch rebels have been battling Islamabad demanding greater autonomy and a larger share of the region's oil, gas, copper and gold.
It's an eye-sore of construction, a massive furrow 10 feet wide and 8 feet deep that already snakes 180 kilometers across the desert landscape.
Pakistain's Frontier Corps said in a recent statement that the trench would "not only help in effectively controlling the movement of drug and arms and ammunition smugglers, but also will help in stopping the intrusion of Death Eaters and undocumented Democrats."
Pakistain fears that arms could make their way to any number of murderous Moslem groups, including the Taliban.
But Kabul sees the trench as the latest move in a new incarnation of the colonial-era Great Game, in which Pakistain hopes to destabilise its neighbor to extend its regional influence.
It already considers Pakistain as the source of the Taliban insurgency it has been battling with US and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
support for the past 13 years.