city walls
Defensive stone perimeter
City walls are fortifications built around a settlement for defense against invasion.
Before modern artillery, walls defined the boundary between protected urban space and vulnerable countryside.
Gates in city walls controlled entry and exit.
Many historic cities—Jerusalem, Rome, Beijing—preserve sections of their ancient walls as monuments, though the walls no longer serve defensive purposes.
- rampartsProtective fortress walls
- fortsDefensive military installations
- JerichoAncient walled Palestinian city
- battlementsNotched defensive wall top
- fortificationsDefensive barriers against attack
Hadrian's Wall · sally port · enceinte · watchtower · night watch · crenellation · Great Wall of China · Constantinople · barbican · gatehouse · archers · defense · bastion · sentries · protection · keep out · under siege · storming the gates
- DubrovnikAdriatic Sea, cable car, terracotta roofs, summer festival
- JerusalemWestern Wall, Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Temple Mount, Jewish Quarter
- Medieval CitiesVenice, Genoa, Florence, Milan, Pisa
- Medieval GermanyHoly Roman Empire, Charlemagne, Franconia, guild system, Swabia
- Nanjingancient capital, salted duck, Nanking Massacre, Treaty of Nanking, metro system
- Roman siegessiege warfare, siege engines, siege tactics, Marcellus, Archimedes
city wallsmoat
Defensive water ditch
ditch · city gates · trench · rampart · earthworks
city wallssiege engines
Weapons for attacking fortifications
battering ram · siege tower · catapult · trebuchet · cannon
city, walls, civilian, civilized, civility, cityscape, urbanity, civilize, citywide