Beijing city fortifications
The Beijing city fortifications were a series of walls with towers and gates constructed in the city of Beijing, China in the early 1400s until they were partially demolished in 1965 for the construction of the 2nd Ring Road and Line 2 of the Beijing Subway. The original walls were preserved in the southeastern part of the city, just south of the Beijing railway station. The entire perimeter of the Inner and Outer city walls stretched for approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi).
Tiananmen
Beijing Inner city Chongwenmen barbican as seen in 1902. The sluice gate of the barbican has already been dismantled by British forces. A railway arch was built underneath.
Beijing Inner city northeast corner guard tower, where an arch was made for the passage of trains
Ming era southeastern corner tower of the city wall
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates for access to the city. From 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, and the 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.
9th century BC relief of an Assyrian attack on a walled town
The lakeside wall of the Yueyang Tower, Yuan dynasty
Medieval defensive walls and towers in Szprotawa, Poland, made of field stone and bog iron
Dangjin-myeoncheon-eupseong (唐津沔川邑城)