Dynasty Marketing Forms Layout 1: Fill & Download for Free

Yes, in all variety from the tallest and widest to the very small and compact, from structures inside the city to freestanding forts in the countryside, from state owned to privately owned.The most famous Chinese examples would be city walls with its gates and towers or the Chinese imperial palaces.Chinese city wall - WikipediaBeijing city wall towersReconstruction of a gate complex in BeijingForbidden City satellite viewForbidden City wallSome people said that Chinese cities did not have citadels and that’s why it is easier to take a Chinese walled city than a European walled city or castle. However, from city maps, we know that Chinese cities could had inner city or separate section large enough for protecting all the people of the city. Cities with multiple sections or separate citadels had been built since before the Shang Dynasty.2000 BC - Shimao city - 2 layers of wall and a separate walled palaceShang Dynasty - Yanshi city - the palace was a separate walled compoundShang Dynasty - Zhengzhou city - outer and inner city wallSpring and Autumn Period - Ju cityTang Dynasty - Guangling citySong Dynasty - 982 - Taiyuan citySong Dynasty - KaifengMing Dynasty - 1400s - NanjingAnother layer of wall outside the proper walled city of NanjingXian city - Ming and Qing DynastyLater, the settlements outside the gates were also walled at unknown time (1893 map)1776 Qing Dynasty picture of Han Dynasty Chang’an - 2 double walled complex inside a city wall-Probably even better for protecting the people were the wards, which was prevalent in Chinese cities from the Zhou Dynasty at the latest to before the Song Dynasty. A neighborhood was surrounded by walls, the houses inside the neighborhood itself were also walled. This means that each citizen of the city had their own separate walled citadels with gates.Wards had been described since the Zhou Dynasty and cities from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han Dynasty already had wards. The city of Linzi built in the Spring and Autumn Period already had wards. Han Dynasty Chang’an had 160 wards. Northern Wei Dynasty Luoyang had 220 wards.One of the well known city with mapped wards is Tang Dynasty Chang’an. The wall of the regular wards in Tang Dynasty Chang’an was 3 m thick and 3 m high (although there was nothing preventing higher walls from being made) and some wards nearer to the palace had 5–6 m thick walls (which if using the same proportion as regular ward wall had the height of 5–6 m). Tang Dynasty Chang’an had 108 or 109 walled citizen wards, not including the palaces and other public facilities. All important places inside the city like palaces, markets, temples, parks, barracks and government offices were walled and had gates. All the wards were surrounded by open sewers/ditch which was 3 m wide and 2 m deep located 2 m from the wall.According to Tonio Andrade, the walls of Chang’an marketplaces was thicker (4 m) than the walls of Medieval European capital cities (the walled markets were likely to be bigger than contemporary Paris as well). The wall surrounding the office of imperial administration in Tang Dynasty Yangzhou was 30–40 m thick, according to The Magic Square Cities in Ancient China by Alfred Schinz.The wards and separate walled complexes prevent the enemies from finding a hiding place inside the city and it also prevent fire in one ward of the city from spreading into other wards. The narrowest street in Chang’an was 25 m wide and the widest was 150 m wide.This was the usual modern conception of Chang’an.However Chang’an might even be bigger as a stone map of Chang’an made in 1080 show more walled sections north of the palace.Because of the fragmented map, some area in the reconstruction might not be fully verified by the map.The size of wards was not fixed and could vary at different times and places. Some smaller cities than Tang Dynasty Chang’an had more than 109 wards. Making the wards smaller and more numerous would make it easier to protect and regulate.Han Dynasty Chang’an - 160 wardsNorthern Wei Dynasty Luoyang - 220 wards - had walled inner city surrounded by moat and walled palace inside the inner cityEastern Wei/Northern Qi Dynasty Ye - 400 wardsChinese cities, other than the capital, also had wards.Tang Dynasty Luoyang city - 103 residential wardsWards would had city guards guarding each of the gates with additional guard posts located at the corners of the ward. Gates were closed at a certain time at night and opened again in the morning.The Siheyuan houses inside the wards could function as small walled fortifications of their own.The houses could had tall walls to prevent enemies from entering easily.The houses were further divided into walled sections inside.This is a 1 section Siheyuan house, the simplest courtyard house type found which would be found in Chinese cities.Even with the 1 section Siheyuan house, an attacker must pass through 2 doors before they could enter the courtyard. The people inside could still defend themselves inside the separate houses.The wards system was later abandoned in the Song Dynasty as commercial activity had increased massively, the ward walls reduce the space for the shops and hinder the movement of people (as it was closed at night and opened again in the morning). Some walls from old wards might not be destroyed and could be integrated into civilian houses.Wards from the Song Dynasty to the mid-19th century would be composed of Siheyuan houses arranged together. The row of Siheyuan houses side by side could probably act as wards on their own. The difference between this ward with the pre-Song wards is that the new ward did not had a thick wall with sewers and guarded gates separating the houses from the streets. Attackers could enter a house directly from the street by climbing the house wall. Streets between and inside the new wards were also narrower than previous wards which were regulated to had wide roads between them and a set of its own roads inside.Wards after the Tang Dynasty - the entrance were marked with ornamental gateways - no outer set of wall and no internal regulated streets-Chinese cities were preconceived and planned, so they may had empty lands inside the wards and city walls which could act as farming and grazing land.From The Chinese City by Weiping Wu, Piper Rae Gaubatz:“In such cases it was common for the actual settled area to cluster near the center of the grid and along the principal streets, with large, yet undeveloped areas within the walls used for agriculture and grazing.”State owned fortresses are usually less known compared to city walls and palaces.Jiayuguan fort - flat land fortHailongtun fort/castle - mountain fort/castle - it had an inner walled palaceDiaoyu fort - the entrance originally had wooden planks that could be withdrawn, this force the enemy to climb slippery cliffThe Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty had fortresses in some areas.The Chinese also made new styles of fortifications adopted for gunpowder warfare probably sometimes after the Ming and certainly before the Opium War.1835 - Weiyuan Fort - casemate design to protect the cannons19th century Taku FortNot all forts were large, some forts could be small like the forts for beacon towers. The guards would lit fire on top of the towers to quickly send a message to other towers. Having a fort surround a beacon tower would make it harder for the enemy to attack the beacons.Ming Dynasty beacon tower fortOther small forts could be fortified resting places for small units.Han Dynasty - Xiaofanpang fortMing Dynasty - Xidaping triangle fortRammed earth walls were maybe the most common Chinese wall construction method. These walls were not weaker than complete ashlar stone or rubble filled stone walls (both of which were used by the Chinese concurrently with rammed earth). Rammed earth had been compared to concrete in toughness.FromMarshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles: An Experiment in Primitive Livingby Marshal South, pg 171“"Rammed earth" is a very old building device. It dates back at least to the times of the ancient Romans, who used it a great deal in the construction of watch-towers and forts. It is suited to a wide range of climate, but especially to dry areas like the desert. When we first began the building of Yaquitepec we experimented with it, but gave it up in favor of adobe bricks and mud. These aren't so strong, but are less work. Also we lacked the solid planking of which to build the forms.But we did make several foundation sections by this method. In our recent building operations we ran against one of these fragments of wall which had been laid down in accord with an early plan of the house. One which long ago had been abandoned. The bit of time-seasoned "ramming" - over ten years ago - was in the way of present construction and had to be removed.And we learned from it. That little fragment of wall about eighteen inches high, a foot wide and about a foot long, provided one of the toughest problems we had tackled in a considerable time. It would not yield to tools. Crowbars and pickaxes struck sparks of fire from the mass, and bounced back at us. Dust and slivers came away. It was like battering at concrete.Yes, "rammed-earth" is tough. We did manage to get rid of our unwanted bit of it, finally. But only because it was such a small section. Had it been a considerable area the story would have been different. However, we now can give an "unsolicited testimonial" to rammed earth construction.”This combined with the thickness provide protection even against 20th century artilleries. The city wall of Nanjing had been shot with artillery by the Imperial Japanese Army for 1 week before collapsing to create an opening or a ramp for the Japanese soldiers to enter the city.“We fought our way to Nanking and joined in the attack on the enemy capital in December. It was our unit which stormed the Chunghua Gate. We attacked continuously for about a week, battering the brick and earth walls with artillery, but they never collapsed. The night of December 11, men in my unit breached the wall. The morning came with most of our unit still behind us, but we were beyond the wall. Behind the gate great heaps of sandbags were piled up. We cleared them away, removed the lock, and opened the gates, with a great creaking noise. We'd done it! We'd opened the fortress! All the enemy ran away, so we didn't take any fire. The residents too were gone. When we passed beyond the fortress wall we thought we had occupied this city.”by Nohara TeishinThe breach made on the city wall of Nanjing by the Japanese.-For mortar, the Chinese used sticky rice combined with slaked lime.Sticky rice mortar - WikipediaThis provide a more strength and water resistance for the gaps between bricks than lime mortar. It could be combined with rammed earth construction to increase the toughness.Chinese fortifications had some defensive features that would be visible as well in fortifications of other cultures.-Protruding towers allowed archers on top to cover the blindspot at the bottom of the adjacent towers.Han Dynasty fort reconstructionTang Dynasty mural - the towers provide lateral flanking fires-Concentric walls were also constructed since at least the Tang or Song Dynasty.This can be seen on the Song Dynasty map of Jingjiang city (modern day Guilin city).Concentric fort in Haicheng township in Haiyuan county-Chinese city walls were slanted which reduce blindspot at the bottom of the wall and also prevent siege tower from going to near the top of the wall. These factors combined with the thickness of Chinese city wall, the toughness of the rammed earth core and wide moats means that Chinese city and fortress walls were very hard to breach, so most of the efforts in besieging a city or fort would go to breaching the gates which was why Chinese cities and forts often had thick gatehouses reinforced with barbicans.Nanjing city gate-Some Chinese fortification had ramparts with arrow slits instead of solid ramparts.Song Dynasty 11th century curved rampart in Ganzhou city - the height between the road and the top of the rampart may had been shortened with modern road construction - the shooting positions also act as shelter for soldiersDrawbridge in Xi’an Southern GateNot all fortifications in China were state-owned, some probably most would be build by villages or individuals.Fortified houses (wū bì 塢壁) had been depicted as early as Eastern Han Dynasty.Eastern Han Dynasty fortified house - roofed wall with arrow slits were often used in civilian fortificationThree Kingdoms walled mansionSeveral types of the most visible civilian fortification in China today were built by the Hakka people.Fujian tulou - WikipediaSticky rice mortar - WikipediaThe Tulou walls were built of rammed earth mixed with sticky rice mortar and reinforced with bamboo inside. There is an account of it resisting multiple hits from modern artillery.Tulou clusterLarge Tulou - each Tulou would had water storage on the upper floors to prevent fire-Hakka stone and rammed earth forts-Hakka fortified housesSome Hakka fortified house had large donjon/keep like structure.Civilian fortifications were also built in China by other people.Diaolou are fortified towers built for civilian defense. Many of the examples standing today were built in the late 19th-early 20th century, however, the earliest Diaolou still standing today was first built in the 16th century. Because the Diaolou could double as living spaces, they could be said to be castles. Many Diaolou are concentrated in the Kaiping county of Guangdong.Diaolou - WikipediaLate 19th-early 20th century Diaolou16th century Yinglong Lou 迎龙楼, oldest standing DiaolouBuzi forts were forts made for for personal or village protection.Buzi (fortification) - WikipediaThere are 1400 Buzi forts of various sizes in Tianxui and Dingxi prefectures.Buzi forts were usually made of rammed earth, but some forts could be made of stone as well. Some of these were constructed by families and others by villages. They had various layouts, some could had up to 3 layers of walls with moat, most had towers/rampart at the corner for flanking fire. Their scope could vary from protecting a family to protecting a small village.This is an example of one of the most basic layout for a Buzi fort. This is Gongfengzhongshe Buzi 共丰中社堡子, this fort had a side of 40 m. The walls are 5 m high and had a bottom thickness of 3 m with the top being 2 m thick. Small buzi fort like this could be the house of just 1 family.Walled house - the house inside the wall had been abandoned, but the wall remained - this might be considered a Buzi fort as wellSome Buzi forts had very thick wall and gate tunnel. This one is Wanjia Buzi 万家堡子, which was built in 19th century Qing Dynasty and housed 9 families inside. This Buzi fort was built by people from 5 villages.Buzi forts were usually smaller than a village, so they probably cannot be said to be fortified villages.Fortified village located on mountain in southern Jingning countyMing Dynasty Yongtai walled city/villageFortified village in northern LanzhouFortified village in Hong KongHong Kong fortified village model - turrets at each cornerSome middle stage fortification between fortified villages/houses and forts/cities do exist. These are probably one of the closest equivalent to castles in Europe and Japan.In my opinion, the “castles” could probably be vaguely distinguished from fortified villages by having inner buildings purposefully designed or which could be used for defense and differentiated from fortified houses by being composed of separate buildings, instead of being conjoined buildings. This definition certainly had exceptions, for example, each houses inside a fortified village could be walled which make them suitable for defense and fortified houses could had separate sections to prevent fire and for defense in depth.The inner buildings in a “castle” were often high and located close to each other with narrow alleys between them, which were often arranged like a maze and could used for ambushing the enemy.House of Huangcheng ChancellorNear the house of Huangcheng Chancellor, there is a larger fortification called Guoyu Ancient Castle.Interestingly both the House of Huangcheng Chancellor and Guoyu Castle had “keeps”.House of Huangcheng Chancellor keepGuoyu castle keepThere were certainly more fortifications that had possibly been destroyed, recycled or simply did not survive time and weather. Some of this type of fortifications may be used only in one period.Three Kingdoms or Jin Dynasty 2 story fort with arrow holes and crenellations4th century - 2 story fort used during the 16 Kingdoms PeriodThe small tower forts above might be similar to the beacon towers in the Ming Dynasty Great Wall system - the towers had internal chambers and probably act as keeps for the fortHan Dynasty tower in a fortified manorHan Dynasty revolving shooter to widen the area the archer or crossbowman could shoot from, instead of firing from a fixed arrow slitThe Chinese not only had above ground fortification, they also had underground facilities as well like tunnel bunkers and caves, both natural and dug out.Han Dynasty-Three Kingdoms tunnel - built by Cao Cao - 10 km long and located 3–8 m underground - used for transporting troops and had side tunnels and dead ends for traps and for the defenders to ambush attackersSong Dynasty tunnel bunkers in the war against Liao Dynasty - 65 km north to south and 65 km west to east covering an area of 1300 km2A different Song Dynasty tunnel bunkers for city shelter - 1500 m long - the entrance was in a buildingZhangbi castle/fortified village tunnelsUnderground fortifications especially caves were probably the least known of Chinese fortifications because they were secret in nature. We might never know how much caves, both natural and man made that was used as fortification. Being state secrets, they were probably not mentioned in imperial documents and with dynasty change, they could be forgotten.The Chinese states were also very capable of altering the landscapes which in itself could easily be some of the greatest fortifications, however, such landscape alteration didn’t fit the definition of castles.One of this environmental alteration is the Song Dynasty Water Great Wall.The system was completed in 1 year and was 400 km long with the widest point being 30 km wide. This was built to protect Northern China from the Liao Dynasty.History, FortressesAs the Water Great Wall freeze during winter, the Song also built elm tree palisades along the Water Great Wall to hinder or block the movement of Liao cavalry.The Elm Tree Palisades: The Great Wall of the Northern SongThis kind of landscape engineering had been used to reinforce fortifications.The Song Dynasty decided to make Yangzhou as one of its strongest fortresses in 1254.The Song add multiple barbicans to the city (bottom red section), fortified the palace (top red section) and add another citadel (middle red sections) to connect the palace and the city.Yangzhou 3 cities - this map did not show the extent of the flooded sections and multiple gates and gate fortsThe Song then flooded the region, turning the 3 sections into islands and add multiple gates and gate forts to guard the remaining land paths.The 3 cities of Yangzhou probably had walls as long or longer than Constantinople and the fortifications were larger than Xiangyang and Fancheng combined which the Mongols took 6 years to capture. Yangzhou is also connected to the river Yangtze for easy supply, just like Xiangyang.The Mongols bypass Yangzhou and never besieged it. The defenders surrendered after the Song Dynasty fell.The Mongol Yuan Dynasty then reshaped Yangzhou back into a normal city (brown) by adding another city walls (brown) which divide the new Yangzhou into 2 sections.The old 3 cities of Yangzhou walls (red) were left without maintenance and were probably later torn down and recycled.Yangzhou Central Citadel - Only a few gate forts were left and the central citadel had no walls left today - the moat had been partially filled tooThis kind of reshaping and recycling is probably one of the reasons why cities and fortifications in China sometimes barely left any standing remnant.

Understanding what a book is and what a book really is.When we read a book we take it literally at face value, as what it is. What a book actually is composed of are a lot of random pieces that have amalgamated into two different experiences—-the text/narrative and the physical experience—-cover, colors, textual fonts, layout, typos, etc..Unbelievable, the novel, Purchased at Barnes & NobleA few years ago I was strolling up 5th Ave in Manhattan on my lunch break from some corporate gig and I come upon a huge crowd at my favorite Barnes & Noble. There was a celebrity book signing going on. But there was also a person at a table by the door with a pyramid of books—-we’ll call the book Unbelievable so that no one’s feelings get hurt. He was self publishing and had gotten into B&N and was doing a multi-city tour. He seemed nice, I wanted to be supportive so I bought his book.I’ve had that book for over 10 years. I’ve never read past page 4. It is literally unreadable. Every once in awhile I see it on my shelves, pack it, unpack, dwell on it. I dwell on it as an example of a badly published and written book. Now I look at the cover and see it was thrown together, And more importantly I can read a couple of pages and be confused. Not because it’s some form of meta or experimental fiction where you have to buckle down and just go with it as the writer deftly creates their world, their rules, their point.It’s bad because of past, present, present, perfect, perfect present, and birthday present tense confusion, verb and noun confusion, adjective funkiness, adverb assaults, pronoun insults and all around jacked sentence structure.He can’t write.Okay, he can technically write.The book is about 400+ pages. He just can’t write well. It’s not even good. Or passable. Or promising. It’s bad. Bad structural writing and therefore I stop at page 4.First Step In Book Writing-MimicryYou have to write well, good enough, promisingly, potentially well or bluntly—-not bad. Most people don’t know how to get to those levels because they get stuck at the first level of writing—mimicry.All writers start at mimicry. Quite a few though don’t work past it. (This is where all the questions that essentially circle around Harry Potter, knights, wizards, world building and sci-fi alien starships and space guns and blah blah blah oh, and vampires, don’t forget the vampires—-come up like a Midwestern tornado and consume bad writers. I’m going to toss in Girls on Bikes, The Girl Who Sneezed, The Girl Who Wanted to Sneeze, The Girl Who Saw Something, The Girl Who Felt Something, and the trilogy, The Girl Who Thought She Might’ve Felt Something books as further examples of bad, bad things happening on laptops.)But I would offer that mimicry is the necessary first 2000 hours of writing product. It’s like losing your virginity. You know how you can tell someone is a virgin and how you can tell someone really is definitely not a virgin. Real readers and writers can tell you’re a virgin. Especially those who teach writing.Me: The Writing TeacherI was TAing a creative writing class during my undergrad years and one of my TA tasks was to have office hours with all of the students about their projects. They would write their projects, I would read all of them, make notes and pass them on to the Professor (Carlene Hatcher Polite) and point out the really good ones for her to meet with further.One student. Let’s call him Raj—-he was East Indian but fully Americanized. Like so Americanized he pledged to an all White fraternity, came into the class—-with all of his White boy (not) fraternity gusto and banged out 10 pages of this neo-roman vampire tale. He freely admitted it was the characters from Anne Rice’s novels. So we’re discussing his work and surprisingly, it was well written. He’d actually crafted a well presented tale around…someone else’s characters. My suggestion to him was that he was past mimicry and could now develop characters himself, wholesale, whatever he wanted to do. He insisted that he couldn’t. I re-suggested he could. He doubly insisted he couldn’t. I re-re-suggested he had the ability to do so. He resisted.After a half an hour of this struggle I understood that he’d arrived into mimicry and was gleefully stuck there. Amazingly enough he could’ve been a very good writer because he had mastered so many techniques but was terrified of originality. He was doubly upset that technically I had to mark he had not done the assignment of writing an original work. Carlene knew who Anne Rice was but had no frame of reference for the characters so the story made no sense to her. Raj had a bit of a breakdown. I would also add as an aside that we had discussions about his trying to assimilate into an all White fraternity and therefore mindset, not being White. Raj was in many ways trying to create what he knew to be a popular style, put his swing on it, name stamp it, and expected success and acclaim. In his writing, too.(See how annoying repetitive mimicking is?)My MimicryOne of the great regrets of my life is that by the time I knew what literature was, by about 17, my grandmother who was an avid, intense reader was dead. We never got to share “good” works, true literature. My family, her children, gave her lots of books because she loved to read—-but not all of them, aside from my parents, were educated so they would spot a book and take it to grandma. This meant that her library was a hodge podge of books. Her and I spent about 6–10 years reading together. At 10 she let me read Entangled. A thriller about a ballerina who’s being stalked. I stayed up all night to read it and then excitedly discussed it with her in the morning. She wanted make sure it wasn’t too scary but assured she opened up her cabinet of about 200 books and I went at it.In her cabinet I discovered The Stud, The Bitch, Chances, Lucky, Hollywood Wives, Hollywood Husbands, Lady Boss by the late, reasonably great Jackie Collins. I devoured them. I would also get home from school in time for All My Children and One Life to Live, TV soap operas and then I would tape Dynasty, The Colbys, Dallas for my mother.Of course when I picked up pen to paper and started in a a stream of notebooks to write The Hemmingways, it was a tawdry, long, character filled soap opera. They used to pass it around middle and high school is was so long, detailed and tawdry. It though was total mimicry.In high school though I was challenged by two writing teachers Denise Donnelly and Debbie Freeman to write something original. I was further challenged by Dr,. William Hunter to read good literature. They taught me how to write and by that I mean leave those initial 2000 hours of writing behind and incorporate the skills learned/mimicked into original works.They challenged me to grow and at the same time infused me with good habits that taught me how to write better.Better writers have some form of mentorship. Bad writers think that they can learn in a vacuum just because they have read things that they like and mimic.Writing Structure & Different Versions & Different Editors, And Their NotesA book is:Some charactersConflictDenouementResolutionThe problem with bad writers, bad books, Unbelievable, is that writers try to incorporate their mimicry into their first book. And their first book is their first book. Your first book, published, should be your third book.My first published books? The 4 of them are in actuality the 7th thru 10th books I’ve written.Write 1000 pages, handwritten. Get that out of you. You have to get the bad writing, the 2000 hours of mimicry out. Then you are ready to write something original. You’re now ready to incorporate the learning of grammar, diction, syntax, maybe even you have a smidge of an emerging style. I’ve been through about 4 styles so far but wonderfully enough that means I have 4 styles I can whip out on a page.I wrote The Hemmingways (about 500 pages)and then a space story for a science class (about 200 pages)and then other odds and bits and bobsa 200-page screenplay that I directed/we filmed fr my high school—-wait for it—-Soap Opera Club with Ann Campbell, a teacher/actressuntil with Denise Donnelly I wrote a 75-page short story, The World Today (later became Hush, 500+ page novel in 2019)I wrote three or four 300 page manuscripts of Court of Conscience, a legal thriller series. (Being edited now for release as multiple (4) trilogies.) initially with Debbie Freeman, in high school. Character sketches and about 600 pages of typed drafts which years later I would go back to and rewrite to upwards of 1000 pages and realize it was a trilogy and separate.That’s well over 1000 pages of writing before my first book was published—-non-fiction, based upon teaching sex and sexuality workshops—Pleasuring Tops, Bottoms and Versatiles—-the extra from there Multiple Orgasm Training for Men, a month later—-then from all of the relationship workshops—-Good Men for Men then to round it off a collection of fiction in Escapades. Four books in about 3 months but pulled from extensive notes, years of teachings and published short stories.Another Publisher’s View as an EditorA few years later I’d expanded it, Hush, the 75-page story, to 125 pages and included it into Escapades a collection of short stories, and it was rejected by the publisher. They published the short stories but Ronald Sukenick, friends with my mentor the late great experimental writer, Raymond Federman who’d recommended me to him. Sukenick, the late great writer, publisher of Black Ice magazine and professor, suggested that it was a novel. (A lot of my writing mentors are late but great!)The Marketing Editor’s ViewA few years later I’d expanded it about 400 pages and then it went through one of several editorial processes. There’s a Copy Editor, an overall Editor, but there can also be a Production Editor and a Marketing Editor. The manuscript TWT-Hush was at the publisher and going through the Marketing Editorial phase.That phase is sort of like who can relate to this book?—-it’s like a reality matching to the page phase, where an editor familiar with marketing & simpatico essentially tells you if your work is connectable to people, why and why not.The Marketing Editor sent me 8 pages of notes suggesting that the confusion in it now as a novel was that, with several main characters, it was unclear whom the central protagonist was.I then had to go back and rework the entire novel. It got re-titled because TWT was immature, and the name of a screenplay also, that used for the film. The novel became Hush. And 600+ pages. And Steven, the bi-racial, omnisexual rich boy became the protagonist.Writer’s & ProtagonistsWhat I had to further learn from Professors Carlene Hatcher Polite (another mentor—-late and great), Raymond Federman (who recommended me to Sukenick to be published) and Irving Feldman (the mentor who would eviscerate my work in front of the class…but always to question me to make it better. Great but not late…but old, very, very old.), was how to make a protagonist centrally. What that means is not that they have to be in every scene or that they know every character but that every character is in some way linked to them. They are the nexus of this universe being created. That takes a lot of deft work because to connect you often inflate other characters (hence the page increases) but their increase has to enhance or spotlight or return to the protagonist.Book ProductionIt can take longer than actual book writing because non-fiction is easier to lay out than fiction.Non fiction asks and answers essentially how to, what to, where to, what to, why to, when to.Fiction must establish the questions and the answers.Non-fiction is essentially a self-contained egg, while fiction is like Egg Foo Young or cake batter or a custard—-it contains the element of an egg but isn’t always an egg specific dish.The 6 Questions could be 6 chapters in a non-fiction book about parachuting and work out perfectly well. However in fiction, in Hush, working out the 6 questions, determining even if I had to answer them all and why, can be a scrambled mess.The scrambled mess is then represented in bad layout of the book itself. I’m finishing up Hush and Stay for release and the biggest issues aren’t the story, the biggest time suck is going line by line—-I often think I should just use a ruler—-and checking not only grammar, spelling—- but whether or not it’s in states of contradiction.Then battling widows and orphans in the physical appearance of the text. I also use graphics and text boxes in an experimental way to convey information to the reader that would be too laborious to have characters spew. Then at the end of Stay because of one character’s mental health issues, I do an outline of said mental health issues (bipolarity and border line personality disorder) for the audience to be concisely educated about issues obliquely mentioned by name but deeply shown in narrative.Production Costs of CreativityThe production issue has become cost to page amount to passed on book cost (to the customer) and then potential royalty (increase or decrease) from the increased physical sizes. That means playing with placement, fonts, chapter headers. Not sacrificing the readability of the book itself but trying to cut corners in as many places as possible.That further means a production cut of 100 pages hopefully without affecting the story itself (I’ve gotten it down to 558 pages playing with Font size changes and with some InDesign creative crunching I might be able to get it under 500 pages for both.) But still at 500 pages the page count demands a price of at least $12.00 WITHOUT royalties. You then have to pump up to say $19.75 to cover expenses and royalties.Now you see how being prolific costs a publisher? A lot of the books that are series have been done in that way to minimize costs and stabilize profits.Market & Sales Vision: Paperbacks, Hardcovers and EBooks and Royalties Through Sales Ratio Comparison from the General (Worldwide Market)The larger profit then will be made off of the eBook digital copy of the books, which has to be a consideration because then that revenue covers the production of other books. Which in turn covers the size/page count of future books.My current PB to EBook margin is 35% purchases PB/65% eBook. But because an EBook is just a file you can make out a little better with pricing to royalty/profit ratio. This then further adds to why you see EBooks at a certain price, higher than $4.99, because they’re compensating to profit ratio from lag from PBs and HCs.No one quite cares if I’m done with my tale or even if the story is well done. It helps but no one cares at the Production process points.Real writers though have to think about this AS they write books. That sometimes you write three books to support 1 bigger book that you know will cost more to produce and not sell as well.A new writer should consider all of this but generally they’re trying to figure out how to make the little boy—-or girl with a lightning bolt on their butt find the wand, rescue the dragon and save the kingdom….from the vampires.Style. Substance. Production.That’s what you want to be focused on. You’ll be a better writer though perhaps never a best selling author. There’s a (marketing) difference.#KylePhoenix#TheKylePhoenixShow

Really? This is a question?Okay then.Well, there are…Wait.You want short answer or long answer?Short: Yes, there are.Long: A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls, although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China, Walls of Benin, Hadrian's Wall, Anastasian Wall, the Cyclopean Wall Rajgir[1]and the metaphorical Atlantic Wall, which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. In mountainous terrain, defensive walls such as letzis were used in combination with castles to seal valleys from potential attack. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced.Existing ancient walls are almost always masonry structures, although brick and timber-built variants are also known. Depending on the topography of the area surrounding the city or the settlement the wall is intended to protect, elements of the terrain such as rivers or coastlines may be incorporated in order to make the wall more effective.Walls may only be crossed by entering the appropriate city gate and are often supplemented with towers. The practice of building these massive walls, though having its origins in prehistory, was refined during the rise of city-states, and energetic wall-building continued into the medieval period and beyond in certain parts of Europe.Simpler defensive walls of earth or stone, thrown up around hillforts, ringworks, early castles and the like, tend to be referred to as ramparts or banks.From very early history to modern times, walls have been a near necessity for every city. Uruk in ancient Sumer (Mesopotamia) is one of the world's oldest known walled cities. Before that, the proto-city of Jericho in what is now the West Bank had a wall surrounding it as early as the 8th millennium BC.The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples and defensive walls.[2]Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified. By about 3500 BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets. The stone and mud brick houses of Kot Diji were clustered behind massive stone flood dykes and defensive walls, for neighboring communities quarreled constantly about the control of prime agricultural land.[3] Mundigak (c. 2500 BC) in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun dried bricks.[4]Babylon was one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, especially as a result of the building program of Nebuchadnezzar, who expanded the walls and built the Ishtar Gate.Exceptions were few, but neither ancient Sparta nor ancient Rome had walls for a long time, choosing to rely on their militaries for defense instead. Initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar.In Central Europe, the Celts built large fortified settlements which the Romans called oppida, whose walls seem partially influenced by those built in the Mediterranean. The fortifications were continuously expanded and improved.In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). In classical era Greece, the city of Athens built a long set of parallel stone walls called the Long Walls that reached their guarded seaport at Piraeus.Large rammed earth walls were built in ancient China since the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600–1050 BC), as the capital at ancient Ao had enormous walls built in this fashion (see siege for more info). Although stone walls were built in China during the Warring States (481–221 BC), mass conversion to stone architecture did not begin in earnest until the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD). Sections of the Great Wall had been built prior to the Qin Dynasty (221–207 BC) and subsequently connected and fortified during the Qin dynasty, although its present form was mostly an engineering feat and remodeling of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD) during the 15th and 16th centuries. The large walls of Pingyao serve as one example. Likewise, the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing were established in the early 15th century by the Yongle Emperor.The Romans fortified their cities with massive, mortar-bound stone walls. Among these are the largely extant Aurelian Walls of Rome and the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, together with partial remains elsewhere. These are mostly city gates, like the Porta Nigra in Trier or Newport Arch in Lincoln.Apart from these, the early Middle Ages also saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only rarely protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches. From the 12th century AD hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe, which very often obtained the right of fortification soon afterwards.The founding of urban centers was an important means of territorial expansion and many cities, especially in central and eastern Europe, were founded for this purpose during the period of Eastern settlement. These cities are easy to recognise due to their regular layout and large market spaces. The fortifications of these settlements were continuously improved to reflect the current level of military development.During the Renaissance era, the Venetians raised great walls around cities threatened by the Ottoman Empire. Examples include the walled cities of Nicosia and Famagusta in Cyprus and the fortifications of Candia and Chania in Crete, which still stand.The city walls of Jaisalmer, India, also known as Jaisalmer Fort due to its size and complexity in comparison to other city walls. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered one of the largest and best preserved city walls, along with its Medieval Indian town, where many of the stone-carved buildings have not changed since the 12th century.Historic defensive wallsThe Walls of Constantinople, a UNESCO World Heritage SiteDefensive wall in Cartagena, ColombiaThe gate of the Gonio castleWall of Hittite Capital Hattusa (reconstruction)9th century BC relief of an Assyrian attack on a walled townLugo's Roman walls, Galicia, a UNESCO World Heritage SiteDerbent Walls, late Sassanian periodCity walls in Ávila, Spain, a UNESCO World Heritage SiteThe remaining section of city walls in town of Svätý Jur, SlovakiaThe walls of Tallinn, Estonia, a UNESCO World Heritage SiteThe walls of Dubrovnik, CroatiaA city gate with its towers, the defensive walls, and the city ditch from the 13th century in Metz, FranceDefensive wall in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, GermanyPart of the wall in San Francisco de Campeche, a UNESCO World Heritage SiteA defensive wall in Taroudannt, MoroccoThe medieval fortress overlooking the city of Ohrid in the Republic of MacedoniaMedieval churches visible beyond the Renaissance defensive walls of Famagusta, CyprusChinese and Korean troops assaulting the Japanese forces of Hideyoshi in the Siege of Ulsan Castle during the Imjin War (1592–1598)Model of the Lines of Communication built around London in 1642–43A section of the city walls around York, UKNarikala fortress, Tbilisi, GeorgiaAerial view of Neuf-Brisach (Alsace) with walls and fortifications built by Vauban after 1697Derawar Wall located in Bahawlpur, PakistanA defensive wall located in City of San Marino, San MarinoModel of the defensive wall around MegiddoDefensive walls around the ancient Egyptian settlement of BuhenA coastal defensive wall of Ulcinj Castle, MontenegroWalls of the Ark of BukharaGreek walls in Gela, SicilyThe defensive walls of Intramuros, the "Walled City" of old Manila, PhilippinesPorte St. Louis, part of Ramparts of Quebec City, the only remaining fortified city walls in North America north of MexicoComposition[edit]At its simplest, a defensive wall consists of a wall enclosure and its gates. For the most part, the top of the walls were accessible, with the outside of the walls having tall parapets with embrasures or merlons. North of the Alps, this passageway at the top of the walls occasionally had a roof.In addition to this, many different enhancements were made over the course of the centuries:City ditch: a ditch dug in front of the walls, occasionally filled with water.Gate tower: a tower built next to, or on top of the city gates to better defend the city gates.Wall tower: a tower built on top of a segment of the wall, which usually extended outwards slightly, so as to be able to observe the exterior of the walls on either side. In addition to arrow slits, ballistae, catapults and cannons could be mounted on top for extra defence.Pre-wall: wall built outside the wall proper, usually of lesser height – the space in between was usually further subdivided by additional walls.Additional obstacles in front of the walls.The defensive towers of west and south European fortifications in the Middle Ages were often very regularly and uniformly constructed (cf. Ávila, Provins), whereas Central European city walls tend to show a variety of different styles. In these cases the gate and wall towers often reach up to considerable heights, and gates equipped with two towers on either side are much rarer. Apart from having a purely military and defensive purpose, towers also played a representative and artistic role in the conception of a fortified complex. The architecture of the city thus competed with that of the castle of the noblemen and city walls were often a manifestation of the pride of a particular city.Urban areas outside the city walls, so-called Vorstädte, were often enclosed by their own set of walls and integrated into the defense of the city. These areas were often inhabited by the poorer population and held the "noxious trades". In many cities, a new wall was built once the city had grown outside of the old wall. This can often still be seen in the layout of the city, for example in Nördlingen, and sometimes even a few of the old gate towers are preserved, such as the white tower in Nuremberg. Additional constructions prevented the circumvention of the city, through which many important trade routes passed, thus ensuring that tolls were paid when the caravans passed through the city gates, and that the local market was visited by the trade caravans. Furthermore, additional signaling and observation towers were frequently built outside the city, and were sometimes fortified in a castle-like fashion. The border of the area of influence of the city was often partially or fully defended by elaborate ditches, walls and hedges. The crossing points were usually guarded by gates or gate houses. These defenses were regularly checked by riders, who often also served as the gate keepers. Long stretches of these defenses can still be seen to this day, and even some gates are still intact. To further protect their territory, rich cities also established castles in their area of influence. An example of this practice is the Romanian Bran Castle, which was intended to protect nearby Kronstadt (today's Braşov).The city walls were often connected to the fortifications of hill castles via additional walls. Thus the defenses were made up of city and castle fortifications taken together. Several examples of this are preserved, for example in Germany Hirschhorn on the Neckar, Königsberg and Pappenheim, Franken, Burghausen in Oberbayern and many more. A few castles were more directly incorporated into the defensive strategy of the city (e.g. Nuremberg, Zons, Carcassonne), or the cities were directly outside the castle as a sort of "pre-castle" (Coucy-le-Chateau, Conwy and others). Larger cities often had multiple stewards – for example Augsburg was divided into a Reichstadt and a clerical city. These different parts were often separated by their own fortifications.With the development of firearms came the necessity to expand the existing installation, which occurred in multiples stages. Firstly, additional, half-circular towers were added in the interstices between the walls and pre-walls in which a handful of cannons could be placed. Soon after, reinforcing structures – or "bastions" – were added in strategically relevant positions, such as at the gates or corners. A well-preserved example of this is the Spitalbastei in Rothenburg or the bastions built as part of the 17th-century walls surrounding Derry, a city in Northern Ireland; however, at this stage the cities were still only protected by relatively thin walls which could offer little resistance to the cannons of the time. Therefore, new, star forts with numerous cannons and thick earth walls reinforced by stone were built. These could resist cannon fire for prolonged periods of time. However, these massive fortifications severely limited the growth of the cities, as it was much more difficult to move them as compared to the simple walls previously employed – to make matters worse, it was forbidden to build "outside the city gates" for strategic reasons and the cities became more and more densely populated as a result.Decline[edit]In the wake of city growth and the ensuing change of defensive strategy, focusing more on the defense of forts around cities, many city walls were demolished. Also, the invention of gunpowder rendered walls less effective, as siege cannons could then be used to blast through walls, allowing armies to simply march through. Today, the presence of former city fortifications can often only be deduced from the presence of ditches, ring roads or parks.Furthermore, some street names hint at the presence of fortifications in times past, for example when words such as "wall" or "glacis" occur. Wall Street in New York City, itself a metonym for the entire United States financial system, is one example.In the 19th century, less emphasis was placed on preserving the fortifications for the sake of their architectural or historical value – on the one hand, complete fortifications were restored (Carcassonne), on the other hand many structures were demolished in an effort to modernize the cities. One exception to this is the "monument preservation" law by the Bavarian King Ludwig I of Bavaria, which led to the nearly complete preservation of many monuments such as the Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nördlingen and Dinkelsbühl. The countless small fortified towns in the Franconia region were also preserved as a consequence of this edict.Modern era[edit]Walls and fortified wall structures were still built in the modern era. They did not, however, have the original purpose of being a structure able to resist a prolonged siege or bombardment. Modern examples of defensive walls include:Berlin's city wall from the 1730s to the 1860s was partially made of wood. Its primary purpose was to enable the city to impose tolls on goods and, secondarily, also served to prevent the desertion of soldiers from the garrison in Berlin. The Berlin Wall did not exclusively serve the purpose of protection of an enclosed settlement. One of its purposes was to prevent the crossing of the Berlin border between the German Democratic Republic and the West German exclave of west-Berlin.The Nicosia Wall along the Green Line divides North and South Cyprus.Defensive walls have been built in between North Korea and South Korea, along the De-militarised Zone.In the 20th century and after, many enclaves Jewish settlements in Israel were and are surrounded by fortified wallsMexico–United States barrier a wall to be constructed in the Mexico–United States border to prevent illegal immigration and organized crime [5]Belfast, Northern Ireland by the "peace lines".Additionally, in some countries, different embassies may be grouped together in a single "embassy district," enclosed by a fortified complex with walls and towers – this usually occurs in regions where the embassies run a high risk of being target of attacks. An early example of such a compound was the Legation Quarter in Beijing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Most of these modern city walls are made of steel and concrete. Vertical concrete plates are put together so as to allow the least space in between them, and are rooted firmly in the ground. The top of the wall is often protruding and beset with barbed wire in order to make climbing them more difficult. These walls are usually built in straight lines and covered by watchtowers at the corners. Double walls with an interstitial "zone of fire", as had the former Berlin Wall, are now rare.In September 2014, Ukraine announced the construction of the "European Rampart" alongside its border with Russia to be able to successfully apply for a visa-free movement with the European Union.[6]Modern defensive wallsA view of the Berlin Wall in 1986A "peace line" in Belfast, Northern IrelandThe fortified wall of a police station in Belfast, Northern IrelandFortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs. The term is derived from the Latin fortis ("strong") and facere ("to make").From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek Phrourion was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum or English fortress. These construction mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and lands that might threaten the kingdom. Though smaller than a real fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch and maintain the border.The art of setting out a military camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called "castramentation" since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches: permanent fortification and field fortification. There is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the generic fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble and command a specific defensive territory.Roman forts and hill forts were the main antecedents of castles in Europe, which emerged in the 9th century in the Carolingian Empire. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of some towns built around castles.Medieval-style fortifications were largely made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb and disperse the energy of cannon fire. Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes.The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification. Star forts did not fare well against the effects of high explosive, and the intricate arrangements of bastions, flanking batteries and the carefully constructed lines of fire for the defending cannon could be rapidly disrupted by explosive shells. Steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in modern warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations.Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, providing a buffer between potentially hostile militaries.Contents [hide]1 Nomenclature2 History2.1 Ancient2.2 India2.3 China2.4 Filipino2.5 Islamic2.6 Medieval Europe2.7 Development after introduction of firearms2.8 19th century2.9 20th and 21st centuries2.9.1 Counter-insurgency3 Forts3.1 North America4 Prisons and others5 See also6 Gallery7 Notes8 References9 External linksNomenclature[edit]Srebrenik Fortress in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the Bosnia's best-preserved medieval castles dating from at least 1333.This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)Many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Indeed, during the pioneering era of North America, many outposts on the frontiers, even non-military outposts, were referred to generically as forts. Larger military installations may be called fortresses; smaller ones were once known as fortalices. The word fortification can also refer to the practice of improving an area's defence with defensive works. City walls are fortifications but are not necessarily called fortresses.The art of setting out a military camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. The art/science of laying siege to a fortification and of destroying it is commonly called siegecraft or siege warfare and is formally known as poliorcetics. In some texts this latter term also applies to the art of building a fortification.Fortification is usually divided into two branches: permanent fortification and field fortification. Permanent fortifications are erected at leisure, with all the resources that a state can supply of constructive and mechanical skill, and are built of enduring materials. Field fortifications—for example breastworks—and often known as fieldworks or earthworks, are extemporized by troops in the field, perhaps assisted by such local labour and tools as may be procurable and with materials that do not require much preparation, such as earth, brushwood and light timber, or sandbags (see sangar). An example of field fortification was the construction of Fort Necessity by George Washington in 1754.There is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. This is employed when in the course of a campaign it becomes desirable to protect some locality with the best imitation of permanent defences that can be made in a short time, ample resources and skilled civilian labour being available. An example of this is the construction of Roman forts in England and in other Roman territories where camps were set up with the intention of staying for some time, but not permanently.Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the generic fort or fortress in that it describes a residence of a monarch or noble and commands a specific defensive territory. An example of this is the massive medieval castle of Carcassonne.History[edit]Ancient[edit]From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for many cities. In Bulgaria, near the town of Provadia a walled fortified settlement today called Solnitsata starting from 4700 BC had a diameter of about 300 feet (100 meters), was home to 350 people living in two-storey houses, and was encircled by a fortified wall. The huge walls around the settlement, which were built very tall and with stone blocks which are 6 feet (2 meters) high and 4.5 feet (1.5 meters) thick, make it one of the earliest walled settlements in Europe[2][3] but it is younger than the walled town of Sesklo in Greece from 6800 BC.[4][5] Uruk in ancient Sumer (Mesopotamia) is one of the world's oldest known walled cities. The Ancient Egyptians also built fortresses on the frontiers of the Nile Valley to protect against invaders from neighbouring territories. Many of the fortifications of the ancient world were built with mud brick, often leaving them no more than mounds of dirt for today's archaeologists.A model of the prehistoric town of Los Millares 3000 BC Spain, with its walls.Artists impression of the battlements at Buhen fortress in Egypt about 1800BCA massive prehistoric stone wall surrounded the ancient temple of Ness of Brodgar 3200 BC in Scotland. Named the "Great Wall of Brodgar" it was four metres thick and four metres tall. The wall had some symbolic or ritualistic function.[6][7] The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples and defensive walls.[8]Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified. By about 3500 BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets. The stone and mud brick houses of Kot Diji were clustered behind massive stone flood dykes and defensive walls, for neighbouring communities bickered constantly about the control of prime agricultural land.[9] Mundigak (c. 2500 BC) in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun dried bricks.[10]In Bronze Age Malta, some settlements also began to be fortified. The most notable surviving example is Borġ in-Nadur, where a bastion built in around 1500 BC was found.Model of Ishtar Gate and part of the walls of Babylon built by NebuchadnezzarBabylon was one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, especially as a result of the building program of Nebuchadnezzar, who expanded the walls and built the Ishtar Gate.Exceptions were few—notably, ancient Sparta and ancient Rome did not have walls for a long time, choosing to rely on their militaries for defence instead. Initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar.The Lion Gate at Mycenae, Greece (1600 BC)In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). In classical era Greece, the city of Athens built two parallel stone walls, called the Long Walls, that reached their fortified seaport at Piraeus a few miles away.Heuneburg, a Celtic fort in Germany 600 BC, with mudbrick wallsIn Central Europe, the Celts built large fortified settlements known as oppida, whose walls seem partially influenced by those built in the Mediterranean. The fortifications were continuously being expanded and improved. Around 600 BC, in Heuneburg, Germany, forts were constructed with a limestone foundation supported by a mudbrick wall approximately 4 metres tall, probably topped by a roofed walkway, thus reaching a total height of 6 metres. The wall was clad with lime plaster, regularly renewed. Towers protruded outwards from it.[11][12]Oppidum of Manching Germany 200 BC with its 7.2 km wallsThe Oppidum of Manching (German: Oppidum von Manching) was a large Celtic proto-urban or city-like settlement at modern-day Manching (near Ingolstadt), Bavaria (Germany). The settlement was founded in the 3rd century BC and existed until c. 50-30 BC. It reached its largest extent during the late La Tène period (late 2nd century BC), when it had a size of 380 hectares. At that time, 5,000 to 10,000 people lived within its 7.2 km long walls.Aurelian Walls Rome, with up to 16 meter tall wallsThe Aurelian Walls (Italian: Mura aureliane) are a line of city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus. The walls enclosed all the seven hills of Rome plus the Campus Martius and, on the right bank of the Tiber, the Trastevere district. The river banks within the city limits appear to have been left unfortified, although they were fortified along the Campus Martius. The full circuit ran for 19 kilometres (12 mi) surrounding an area of 13.7 square kilometres (5.3 sq mi). The walls were constructed in brick-faced concrete, 3.5 metres (11 ft) thick and 8 metres (26 ft) high, with a square tower every 100 Roman feet (29.6 metres (97 ft)). In the 5th century, remodelling doubled the height of the walls to 16 metres (52 ft). By 500 AD, the circuit possessed 383 towers, 7,020 crenellations, 18 main gates, 5 postern gates, 116 latrines, and 2,066 large external windows.[13]File:Templeborough Roman Fort visualised 3D flythrough - Rotherham.webmA reconstruction of Templeborough Roman fort in EnglandThe Romans fortified their cities with massive, mortar-bound stone walls. The most famous of these are the largely extant Aurelian Walls of Rome and the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, together with partial remains elsewhere. These are mostly city gates, like the Porta Nigra in Trier or Newport Arch in Lincoln. Hadrian's Wall was built by the Roman Empire across the width of what is now northern England following a visit by Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 76–138) in AD 122.India[edit]Main article: List of forts in IndiaMehrangarh FortMehrangarh FortChittorgarh FortChittorgarh FortChittorgarh Fort and Mehrangarh Fort built under Hindu Rajput states are the largest fort examples on the Indian subcontinent.India has more forts than any other country in the world, which were built in all periods between the late stone age and the British Raj. "Fort" is the word used in India for all old fortifications. India currently has over 180 forts, with the state of Maharashtra alone having over 70 forts, which are also known as durg,[14][15][16] many of them built by Shivaji, founder of the Maratha state. A large majority of forts in India are in North India. The most notable forts are the Red Fort at Delhi, the Red Fort at Agra, the Chittorgarh Fort and Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, the Ranthambhor Fort in Rajasthan and Gwalior Fort in Madhya Pradesh.[17]China[edit]The Great Wall of China.Large tempered earth (i.e. rammed earth) walls were built in ancient China since the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1050 BC); the capital at ancient Ao had enormous walls built in this fashion (see siege for more info). Although stone walls were built in China during the Warring States (481–221 BC), mass conversion to stone architecture did not begin in earnest until the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The Great Wall had been built since the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC), although its present form was mostly an engineering feat and remodelling of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD). The large walls of Pingyao serve as one example. Likewise, the famous walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing were established in the early 15th century by the Yongle Emperor.Filipino[edit]Main articles: Ivatan people and Architecture of the PhilippinesThe defensive wall of Hispanic Colonial Intramuros in Manila, Philippines.The Ivatan people of the northern islands of Batanes often built fortifications to protect themselves during times of war. They built their so-called idjangs on hills and elevated areas.[18] These fortifications were likened to European castles because of their purpose. Usually, the only entrance to the castles would be via a rope ladder that would only be lowered for the villagers and could be kept away when invaders arrived.The Igorots built forts made of stone walls that averaged several meters in width and about two to three times the width in height around 2000 BC.[19]With the arrival of Muslim scholars from nearby Indonesia, the native Filipinos were introduced to the concept of the Kota or fort. The Muslim Filipinos of the south built strong fortresses called kota or moong to protect their communities. Usually, many of the occupants of these kotas are entire families rather than just warriors. Lords often had their own kotas to assert their right to rule, it served not only as a military installation but as a palace for the local Lord. It is said that at the height of the Maguindanao Sultanate's power, they blanketed the areas around Western Mindanao with Kotas and other fortifications to block the Spanish advance into the region. These kotas were usually made of stone and bamboo or other light materials and surrounded by trench networks. As a result, some of these kotas were burned easily of destroyed. With further Spanish campaigns in the region, the Sultanate was subdued and majority of Kotas dismantled or destroyed. Kotas were not only used by the Muslims as defense against Spaniards and other foreigners, renegades and rebels also built fortifications in defiance of other chiefs in the area.[20] During the American occupation, rebels built strongholds and the Datus, Rajahs or Sultans often built and reinforced their kotas in a desperate bid to maintain rule over their subjects and their land.[21] Many of these forts were also destroyed by American expeditions, as a result, very very few kotas still stand to this day. Notable Kotas:Kota Selurong: an outpost of the Bruneian Empire in Luzon, later became the City of Manila.Kuta Wato/Kota Bato: Literally translates to "stone fort" the first known stone fortification in the country, its ruins exist as the "Kutawato Cave Complex"[22]Kota Sug/Jolo: The capital and seat of the Sultanate of Sulu. When it was occupied by the Spaniards in the 1870s they converted the kota into the world's smallest walled city.And during the Spanish Era, The Intramuros is the old walled city of Manila located along the southern bank of the Pasig River.[23] The historic city was home to centuries-old churches, schools, convents, government buildings and residences, the best collection of Spanish colonial architecture before much of it was destroyed by the bombs of World War II. Of all the buildings within the 67-acre city, only one building, the San Agustin Church, survived the war.Islamic[edit]Main article: List of expeditions of MuhammadDuring Muhammad's era in Arabia, many tribes made use of fortifications. In the Battle of the Trench, the largely outnumbered defenders of Medina, mainly Muslims led by Islamic prophet Muhammad, dug a trench, which together with Medina's natural fortifications, rendered the confederate cavalry (consisting of horses and camels) useless, locking the two sides in a stalemate. Hoping to make several attacks at once, the confederates persuaded the Medina-allied Banu Qurayza to attack the city from the south. However, Muhammad's diplomacy derailed the negotiations, and broke up the confederacy against him. The well-organized defenders, the sinking of confederate morale, and poor weather conditions caused the siege to end in a fiasco.[24]During the Siege of Ta'if in January 630,[25] Muhammad ordered his followers to attack enemies who fled from the Battle of Hunayn and sought refuge in the fortress of Taif.[26]Medieval Europe[edit]Spiš Castle in Slovakia - one of the largest castles in Central Europe. An aerial photography documents its enlargement in the course of 11th - 17th centuries.Genoese fortress in Sudak, UkraineAmberd Castle in Armenia 7th centuryMain article: Medieval fortificationSee also: Austrian walled townsRoman forts and hill forts were the main antecedents of castles in Europe, which emerged in the 9th century in the Carolingian Empire.Jajce is a walled city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, protected by two rivers and long walls.Narva castle and bastions (Estonia) from the 13th century and part of Ivangorod stronghold (Russia) on the leftThe Early Middle Ages saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only rarely protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches. From the 12th century hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe, which very often obtained the right of fortification soon afterwards.Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork: the world’s largest brick gothic castle, in PolandThe fortified city of Valença, Portugal as seen from across the Minho River (Portugal's northern border with Spain)The well preserved Bulgarian medieval fort Baba Vida.Table of Fortification, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia.Austro-Hungarian Fort 31 Benedykt of Kraków fortressAustro-Hungarian Fort I "Salis Soglio" of Przemyśl fortressThe founding of urban centres was an important means of territorial expansion and many cities, especially in eastern Europe, were founded precisely for this purpose during the period of Eastern Colonisation. These cities are easy to recognise due to their regular layout and large market spaces. The fortifications of these settlements were continuously improved to reflect the current level of military development.During the Renaissance era, the Venetians raised great walls around cities threatened by the Ottoman Empire. The finest examples are, among others, in Nicosia (Cyprus) and Chania (Crete), which proved to be futile but still stand to this day.Development after introduction of firearms[edit]Medieval-style fortifications were largely made obsolete by the arrival of cannons on the 14th century battlefield. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb and disperse the energy of cannon fire. Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes.This placed a heavy emphasis on the geometry of the fortification to allow defensive cannonry interlocking fields of fire to cover all approaches to the lower and thus more vulnerable walls.The evolution of this new style of fortification can be seen in transitional forts such as Sarzanello[27] in North West Italy which was built between 1492 and 1502. Sarzanello consists of both crenellated walls with towers typical of the medieval period but also has a ravelin like angular gun platform screening one of the curtain walls which is protected from flanking fire from the towers of the main part of the fort. Another example are the fortifications of Rhodes which were frozen at 1522 so that Rhodes is the only European walled town that still shows the transition between the classical medieval fortification and the modern ones.[28]Fortifications also extended in depth, with protected batteries for defensive cannonry, to allow them to engage attacking cannon to keep them at a distance and prevent them bearing directly on the vulnerable walls.The result was star shaped fortifications with tier upon tier of hornworks and bastions, of which Fort Bourtange is an excellent example. There are also extensive fortifications from this era in the Nordic states and in Britain, the fortifications of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the harbour archipelago of Suomenlinna at Helsinki being fine examples.19th century[edit]The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification. Star forts did not fare well against the effects of high explosive and the intricate arrangements of bastions, flanking batteries and the carefully constructed lines of fire for the defending cannon could be rapidly disrupted by explosive shells.Worse, the large open ditches surrounding forts of this type were an integral part of the defensive scheme, as was the covered way at the edge of the counter scarp. The ditch was extremely vulnerable to bombardment with explosive shells.In response, military engineers evolved the polygonal style of fortification. The ditch became deep and vertically sided, cut directly into the native rock or soil, laid out as a series of straight lines creating the central fortified area that gives this style of fortification its name.Wide enough to be an impassable barrier for attacking troops, but narrow enough to be a difficult target for enemy shellfire, the ditch was swept by fire from defensive blockhouses set in the ditch as well as firing positions cut into the outer face of the ditch itself.The profile of the fort became very low indeed, surrounded outside the ditch covered by caponiers by a gently sloping open area so as to eliminate possible cover for enemy forces, while the fort itself provided a minimal target for enemy fire. The entrypoint became a sunken gatehouse in the inner face of the ditch, reached by a curving ramp that gave access to the gate via a rolling bridge that could be withdrawn into the gatehouse.Much of the fort moved underground. Deep passages and tunnels now connected the blockhouses and firing points in the ditch to the fort proper, with magazines and machine rooms deep under the surface.The guns, however, were often mounted in open emplacements and protected only by a parapet; both in order to keep a lower profile and also because experience with guns in closed casemates had seen them put out of action by rubble as their own casemates were collapsed around them.Gone were citadels surrounding towns: forts were to be moved to the outside of the cities some 12 km to keep the enemy at a distance so their artillery could not bombard the city center. From now on a ring of forts were to be built at a spacing that would allow them to effectively cover the intervals between them.The new forts abandoned the principle of the bastion, which had also been made obsolete by advances in arms. The outline was a much simplified polygon, surrounded by a ditch. These forts, built in masonry and shaped stone, were designed to shelter their garrison against bombardment. One organizing feature of the new system involved the construction of two defensive curtains: an outer line of forts, backed by an inner ring or line at critical points of terrain or junctions (see, for example, Séré de Rivières system in France).Entry, Fort d'UxegneyTraditional fortification however continued to be applied by European armies engaged in warfare in colonies established in Africa against lightly armed attackers from amongst the indigenous population. A relatively small number of defenders in a fort impervious to primitive weaponry could hold out against high odds, the only constraint being the supply of ammunition.20th and 21st centuries[edit]Aerial photograph, Fort de Douaumont, Verdun (1916).St. David's Battery, housing coastal artillery in Bermuda, was placed below ground level, except its guns, obscuring it from view and protecting it from return fire. Defending against landward attack was not a consideration, consequently the rear of the battery is exposed, and there is no defensive wall or ditch.Steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in modern warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. In the 1930s and 1940s, some fortifications were built with designs taking into consideration the new threat of aerial warfare, for example Fort Campbell in Malta.[29] Despite this, only underground bunkers are still able to provide some protection in modern wars. Many historical fortifications were demolished during the modern age, but a considerable number survive as popular tourist destinations and prominent local landmarks today.Dragon's teeth—tank traps in the EifelThe downfall of permanent fortifications had two causes:The ever-escalating power, speed, and reach of artillery and air power meant that almost any target that could be located could be destroyed, if sufficient force were massed against it. As such, the more resources a defender devoted to reinforcing a fortification, the more combat power that fortification justified being devoted to destroying it, if the fortification's destruction was demanded by an attacker's strategy. From World War II, bunker busters were used against fortifications. By 1950, nuclear weapons were capable of destroying entire cities, and produced dangerous radiation. This led to the creation of civilian nuclear air raid shelters.The second weakness of permanent fortification was its very permanency. Because of this it was often easier to go around a fortification and, with the rise of mobile warfare in the beginning of World War II, this became a viable offensive choice. When a defensive line was too extensive to be entirely bypassed, massive offensive might could be massed against one part of the line allowing a breakthrough, after which the rest of the line could be bypassed. Such was the fate of the many defensive lines built before and during World War II, such as the Siegfried Line, the Stalin Line and the Atlantic Wall. This was not the case with the Maginot Line; it was designed to force the Germans to invade other countries (Belgium or Switzerland) to go around it, and was successful in that sense.[30]Bunkers in Albania[31]Instead field fortification rose to dominate defensive action. Unlike the trench warfare which dominated World War I, these defences were more temporary in nature. This was an advantage because since it was less extensive it formed a less obvious target for enemy force to be directed against.If sufficient power were massed against one point to penetrate it, the forces based there could be withdrawn and the line could be re-established relatively quickly. Instead of a supposedly impenetrable defensive line, such fortifications emphasized defence in depth, so that as defenders were forced to pull back or were overrun, the lines of defenders behind them could take over the defence.Because the mobile offensives practised by both sides usually focused on avoiding the strongest points of a defensive line, these defences were usually relatively thin and spread along the length of a line. The defence was usually not equally strong throughout however.The strength of the defensive line in an area varied according to how rapidly an attacking force could progress in the terrain that was being defended—both the terrain the defensive line was built on and the ground behind it that an attacker might hope to break out into. This was both for reasons of the strategic value of the ground, and its defensive value.This was possible because while offensive tactics were focused on mobility, so were defensive tactics. The dug in defences consisted primarily of infantry and antitank guns. Defending tanks and tank destroyers would be concentrated in mobile "Fire Brigades" behind the defensive line. If a major offensive was launched against a point in the line, mobile reinforcements would be sent to reinforce that part of the line that was in danger of failing.Thus the defensive line could be relatively thin because the bulk of the fighting power of the defenders was not concentrated in the line itself but rather in the mobile reserves. A notable exception to this rule was seen in the defensive lines at the Battle of Kursk during World War II, where German forces deliberately attacked into the strongest part of the Soviet defences seeking to crush them utterly.The terrain that was being defended was of primary importance because open terrain that tanks could move over quickly made possible rapid advances into the defenders' rear areas that were very dangerous to the defenders. Thus such terrain had to be defended at all cost.In addition, since in theory the defensive line only had to hold out long enough for mobile reserves to reinforce it, terrain that did not permit rapid advance could be held more weakly because the enemy's advance into it would be slower, giving the defenders more time to reinforce that point in the line. For example, the battle of the Hurtgen Forest in Germany during the closing stages of World War II is an excellent example of how difficult terrain could be used to the defenders' advantage.After World War II, ICBMs capable of reaching much of the way around the world were developed, and so speed became an essential characteristic of the strongest militaries and defenses. Missile silos were developed, so missiles could be fired from the middle of a country and hit cities and targets in another country, and airplanes (and air carriers) became major defenses and offensive weapons (leading to an expansion of the use of airports and airstrips as fortifications). Mobile defenses could be had underwater, too, in the form of nuclear submarines capable of firing missiles. Some bunkers in the mid to late 20th century came to be buried deep inside mountains and prominent rocks, such as Gibraltar and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. On the ground itself, minefields have been used as hidden defences in modern warfare, often remaining long after the wars that have produced them have ended.Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, providing a buffer between potentially hostile militaries.Counter-insurgency[edit]Just as in colonial periods, comparatively obsolete fortifications are still used for low-intensity conflicts. Such fortifications range in size from small patrol bases or forward operating bases up to huge airbases such as Camp Bastion/Leatherneck in Afghanistan. Much like in the 18th and 19th century, because the enemy is not a powerful military force with the heavy weaponry required to destroy fortifications, walls of gabion, sandbag or even simple mud can provide protection against small arms and anti-tank weapons - although such fortifications are still vulnerable to mortar and artillery fire.Forts[edit]Engineers fill Hesco bastions at a forward operating base in Afghanistan.Forts in modern usage often refer to space set aside by governments for a permanent military facility; these often do not have any actual fortifications, and can have specializations (military barracks, administration, medical facilities, or intelligence). In the United States usage, forts specifically refer to US Army bases; US Marine Corps bases are referred to as camps.[citation needed]However, there are some modern fortifications that are referred to as forts. These are typically small semi permanent fortifications. In urban combat they are built by upgrading existing structures such as houses or public buildings. In field warfare they are often log, sandbag or gabion type construction.Such forts are typically only used in low level conflict, such as counterinsurgency conflicts or very low level conventional conflicts, such as the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, which saw the use of log forts for use by forward platoons and companies. The reason for this is that static above ground forts can not survive modern direct or indirect fire weapons larger than mortars, RPGs and small arms.North America[edit]This historical reconstruction, of an American frontier fort, featured a log stockade, with a sturdy blockhouse built, as a temporary, defensive structure, on the western frontier.Fort Snelling on, the confluence of, the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, in 1844, in a painting by John Caspar Wild (1804-1846).In British North America, and subsequently on western frontier of the United States, prior to the 20th century the term fort was increasingly used for any military base of operations regardless of how fortified it was. Military forts in the American Old West during the Indian Wars were often lightly fortified enclosures, with log or adobe walls. In many areas the term fort was used to refer to any European or U.S. outpost, military, para-military, or civilian, that was located in an undeveloped region. Many of these outposts were simply a trading post, with a stockade and possibly blockhouses added, or a combination of a trading post and an Army post.Prisons and others[edit]Fortifications designed to keep the inhabitants of a facility in rather than out can also be found, in prisons, concentration camps, and other such facilities, with supermaxes having some of the strongest of those. Those are covered in other articles, as most prisons and concentration camps are not primarily military forts (although forts, camps, and garrison towns have been used as prisons and/or concentration camps; such as Theresienstadt, Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the Tower of London for example.See also[edit]Captain John Smith's 1624 map of Bermuda, showing important sites, including the Castle Islands Fortifications.The Kumbhalgarh Fort in Rajasthan, India. For more than three centuries, the fort remained impregnable.The effect of thirty years evolution in the design of coastal fortifications, between the 1790s and 1822, can be discerned between Ferry Island Fort (in the foreground), with multiple guns arrayed to cover the water westward, and the Martello tower in the background, which used a single gun with 360° traverse to cover all of the surrounding area. Ferry Reach, Bermuda, 2011.Border fenceCastraCavinCitadelCoastal fortificationDefensive wallHesco bastionKuruwa, the walls of a Japanese castleList of fortificationsList of fortsMilitary campFort componentsAbatisBanquetteBarbed wire, Razor wire, Wire entanglement, and Wire obstacleBartizanBastionBermCapitalCaponierCasemateCurtainCzech hedgehogDefensive fighting position (aka a "foxhole")DitchEmbrasureGlacisGun turretKeepPalisadeParapetPillboxPosternRavelinRevetmentSandbagSangarScarp and CounterscarpTurretZwingerTypes of forts and fortificationBlockhouseBunkerCastleChinese city wallCompoundDefensive wallDiaolouFire support baseFlak towerFortress church or fortified churchGrad, a Slavic wooden fortified settlementGusuku, castles, forts, and fortifications in the Ryukyu IslandsHill fortLand batteryMartello towerMedieval fortificationMissile siloPā a 19th-century Māori fortificationPeel towerPlanetary fortressPolygonal fortPromontory fortRedoubtStockadeStar fortWater defencesFortification and siege warfareMedieval warfareMilitary engineeringMilitary historySiegeSiege engineFamous expertsHenri Alexis BrialmontCésar CuiBernard de GommeFrancesco LaparelliMoziDiades of PellaJames of Saint GeorgeFritz TodtMenno van CoehoornSébastien Le Prestre de VaubanGallery[edit]Remnants of the Slavic ring fortress Jaromarsburg at Cape Arkona (Rügen Island, Germany)Klis Fortress in Croatia, built into the south face of a rocky mass. Lost and re-conquered several times over more than two thousand years.St. Angelo Fort, Kannur, Kerala, India built by Portuguese in 1505.Forte dos Reis Magos in Natal, Brazil, built in 1599.Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg, GermanyView of Alamghiri Gate of Lahore Fort.Fort St Angelo in Birgu, MaltaPetrovaradin Fortress "Gibraltar on the Danube" - Austrian fortress from the 18th century and one of the best preserved fortifications in Serbia.Fortaleza de Santa Teresa - Fortress in Eastern Uruguay built in 1762 by Portugal, later occupied by Spain and finally by Uruguay garrisons alternatively.Fortifications of Edinburgh Castle used the natural volcanic landscape to best advantage. Image painted by Alexander Nasmyth (~1780).Fort Tigné in Sliema, Malta. It is one of the oldest polygonal forts in the world.Aerial view of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's main fort in Taleh, the capital of his Dervish State.Rödberget fort, a part of the modern Boden Fortress in Sweden, seen from the north. The moat and the armored turrets are clearly visible.Did I mention that it was long? Btw, this is from Google. for all those who read this all the way through, this meme is for you.