Bekal Fort
Bekal Fort, is the largest fort in Kerala, situated at Bekal village in Kasaragod district, Kerala and it is 65 km from Mangalore city spreading over 40 acres. An important feature of this fort is the water-tank with its flight of steps, the fort has a tunnel opening towards the south and a magazine for keeping ammunition with broad steps leading to the Observation Tower. From there one has a view of towns in the vicinity like Kanhangad, Bekal, Kottikkulam. The nearest railway stations are Bekal Fort, Kotikulam and this observation center had strategic significance in discovering even the smallest movements of the enemy and ensuring the safety of the Fort. The Fort appears to have built up from the sea since almost three fourths of its exterior is drenched and the waves continually stroke the citadel. The Mukhyaprana Temple of Hanuman and the ancient Muslim mosque nearby bear testimony to the religious harmony that prevailed in the area. The zigzag entrance and the trenches around the show the defense strategy inherent in the fort.
Unlike most other Indian forts, Bekal Fort was not a center of administration, for no remains of any palace, arguably the fort was built especially for fulfilling defence requirements. The holes on the walls of the fort are specially designed to defend the fort effectively. This is remarkable evidence of technology in defense strategy, Shivappa Nayaka of Bednore constructed the Bekal Fort in 1650 AD. During the Perumal Age Bekal was a part of Mahodayapuram, the Kodavalam inscription of Bhasakara Ravi II illustrate the undisputed political sway of Mahodayapuram over this region. Following the political decline of Mahodayapuram Perumals by the 12th century AD, North Kerala including Bekal, the maritime importance of Bekal increased much under the Kolathiris and it became an important port town of Tulunadu and Malabar. It was usual in older days for every royal palace to be protected by a fort, the Bekal fort might have, existed even from early days of the Chirakkal Rajas. While writing a description of the Kolathiri Kingdom in his Kerala History, padmanabha Menon writes, The eldest of the male members reigned as sovereign Kolathiri.
The next in succession, the apparent, was the Thekkelamkur. The residence assigned to him was the Vadakara fort, the third in succession was the Vadakkelamkur in charge of Vekkolath fort. This Vekkolath fort is identified by scholars as the present Bekal. Stuart, in his Handbook of South Canara, makes this observation, the two forts of Bekal and Chandragiri were originally under the Kolathiri or Chirakkal Rajas until the time of Shivappa Nayakas invasion
Hungary
Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship.
On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, literature and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe.
The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two towers of a castle, fortress, or town. In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, the outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site. In earlier designs of castle and town, the walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult. Evidence for curtain walls or a series of walls surrounding a town or fortress can be found in the sources from Assyria. Some notable examples are ancient Lachish and Buhen, enceinte Curry, Hughes, eds. The Popular Encyclopedia, or, Conversations Lexicon, I, Glasgow and London, Blackie & Son, p.444
Roundel (fortification)
The roundel is a strong artillery fortification with a rounded or circular plan of a similar height to the adjacent defensive walls. If the fortification is clearly higher than the walls it is called a battery tower, the design of a roundel, which was massive in comparison with a normal defensive tower, enabled the deployment of heavy cannon. Roundels were built of earth and brickwork, in the latter case, vaulted rooms were built on the inside. Roundels appeared in the 15th century when cannon gradually developed into a siege weapon. Roundels are the oldest permanent artillery fortifications and their heyday was in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Early examples of artillery roundels are in the fortifications of Tábor before 1433 and Sion Castle, that around 1426/27. Salzach, Heidelberg Palace, or the southwest roundel of Marburg Castle, like the horseshoe-shaped bastion, the roundel has a so-called blind spot which makes it vulnerable. In addition, the level of a roundel had little space for heavy cannon.
Even the casemates of a roundel could only house a few cannon because they created a lot of gunsmoke which only dispersed slowly, the roundel was a stage in the development of late medieval fortifications and did not meet the demands of defensive works of the early modern period. Even the construction of large and thick-walled roundels like those at Munot in Schaffhausen built from 1563 to 1585, were an insufficient response to the technology of the time. As a result of its disadvantages the roundel was replaced in many places during the 16th century by the bastion with a pentangular ground plan based on Italian practice. In addition, expertise on bastion design only spread slowly across many parts of Europe. Many fortresses consist entirely of interlinked roundels, for example Deal Castle on the south coast of England, in the late 18th and 19th centuries, roundels came back into vogue due to changes in military technology. At the fortress of Plassenburg in Kulmbach there are two staggered roundels, one is a high, roundel built within a much larger outer roundel.
This construction is one of the largest surviving roundel works in Germany, the inner and outer roundels house two gun decks, which meant that a staggered roundel could generate a heavy weight of fire from four batteries. The fortress with its roundels was used by the army until the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, the two roundels in the west of the fortress were rebuilt after the place had been slighted in 1554 following the Second Margrave War, although by that time bastions had already superseded them. Subsequently, between 1557 and 1607, more bastions were added, olaf Wagener, Thomas Kühtreiber, Taktik und Raum. Vorwerke als Elemente des Burgenbaus im 15, jahrhundert, in, Die Burg zur Zeit der Renaissance
Osijek
Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 108,048 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, Osijek is located on the right bank of the river Drava,25 kilometres upstream of its confluence with the Danube, at an elevation of 94 metres. The name was given to the city due to its position on elevated ground which prevented the city being flooded by the swamp waters. Its name Osijek comes from the Croatian word oseka which means ebb tide, the origins of human habitation of Osijek dates back to Neolithic times, with the first known inhabitants belonging to the Illyrians and invading Celtic tribes. Roman emperor Hadrian raised the old settlement of Mursa to a colony with special privileges in 131 and these battles, especially the latter one, had long-term consequences for the colony and the region which was already under ever-increasing pressure from the invading Goths and other invading tribes. The earliest recorded mention of Osijek dates back to 1196, the town was a feudal property of Kórógyi family between 1353 and 1472.
After the death of the last Kórógyi, King Mathias granted it to the Rozgonyi family, the city was almost completely destroyed by the Ottoman conquerors on 8 August 1526. The Turks rebuilt it in Ottoman oriental style and it was mentioned in the Turkish census of 1579, in 1566, Suleiman the Magnificent built a famous,8 kilometer-long wooden bridge of boats in Osijek, considered at that time to be one of the wonders of the world. In Ottoman Empire Osijek was part of the Budin Eyalet, following the Battle of Mohács in 1687, Osijek was liberated by the Habsburg Monarchy on 29 September 1687. Osijek was restored to rule on 29 September 1687 when the Turks were ousted. Between 1712 and 1715, the Austrian authorities built a new fortress, outer walls and all five planned bastions known as Tvrđa, in the heart of the town. Holy Trinity Square is surrounded on the north by the building of the Military Command, on the west by the Main Guard building, in the middle of the square there is a monument to the plague which was erected in 1729 by general Maximilian Petras widow.
The Gornji Grad was founded in 1692 and Donji Grad followed on 1698 settled mostly by the inhabitants from swampy area of Baranja, Tvrđa, and Donji grad continued as separate municipalities until 1786 when they were united into a single entity. In late 18th century it took over from Virovitica as the centre of the Verőce county, the Habsburg empire facilitated the migration and settlement of German immigrants into the town and region during this period. In 1809, Osijek was granted the title of a Free Royal City, the city developed along the lines of other central European cities, with cultural and socio-economic influences filtering down from Vienna and Buda. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Osijek was the seat of the Virovitica County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, during the 19th century, cultural life mostly revolved around the theatre, museums and printing houses. City society, whose development was accompanied by an economy and developed trade relations, was related to religious festivals, public events, entertainment.
The Novi Grad section of the city was built in the 19th century, the newest additions to the city include Sjenjak, Vijenac and Jug II, which were built in the twentieth century
Rhodes
Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of land area and the island groups historical capital. Administratively the island forms a municipality within the Rhodes regional unit. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Rhodes, the city of Rhodes had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. It is located northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens and just off the Anatolian coast of Turkey, Rhodes nickname is The island of the Knights, named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who once conquered the land. Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, the Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, the island has been known as Ρόδος in Greek throughout its history. In addition, the island has been called Rodi in Italian, Rodos in Turkish, and Rodi or Rodes in Ladino. The island of Rhodes is shaped like a spearhead,79.7 km long and 38 km wide, with an area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres.
The city of Rhodes is located at the tip of the island, as well as the site of the ancient. The main air gateway is located 14 km to the southwest of the city in Paradisi, the road network radiates from the city along the east and west coasts. There are mineral-rich spring water used to give medicinal baths and the spa resorts offer various health treatments, Rhodes is situated 363 km east-south-east from the Greek mainland, and 18 km from the southern shore of Turkey. The interior of the island is mountainous, sparsely inhabited and covered with forests of pine, while the shores are rocky, the island has arable strips of land where citrus fruit, wine grapes, vegetables and other crops are grown. The Rhodian population of deer was found to be genetically distinct in 2005. In Petaloudes Valley, large numbers of tiger moths gather during the summer months, mount Attavyros, at 1,216 metres, is the islands highest point of elevation. Earthquakes include the 226 BC earthquake that destroyed the Colossus of Rhodes, one on 3 May 1481 which destroyed much of the city of Rhodes, and one on 26 June 1926.
On 15 July 2008, Rhodes was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake causing minor damage to a few old buildings, Rhodes has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. The island was inhabited in the Neolithic period, although remains of this culture. In the 16th century BC, the Minoans came to Rhodes, Greek mythology recalled a Rhodian race called the Telchines and associated the island of Rhodes with Danaus, it was sometimes nicknamed Telchinis
Gabion
A gabion is a cage, cylinder, or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building, military applications and landscaping. For erosion control, caged riprap is used, for dams or in foundation construction, cylindrical metal structures are used. In a military context, earth- or sand-filled gabions are used to protect sappers, leonardo da Vinci designed a type of gabion called a Corbeille Leonard for the foundations of the San Marco Castle in Milan. Other uses include retaining walls, noise barriers, temporary walls, silt filtration from runoff, for small or temporary/permanent dams, river training. They may be used to direct the force of a flow of water around a vulnerable structure. Gabions are used as fish screens on small streams, a gabion wall is a retaining wall made of stacked stone-filled gabions tied together with wire. Gabion walls are usually battered, or stepped back with the slope, gabion baskets have some advantages over loose riprap because of their modularity and ability to be stacked in various shapes.
Gabions have advantages over more rigid structures, because they can conform to subsidence, dissipate energy from flowing water and resist being washed away and their strength and effectiveness may increase with time in some cases, as silt and vegetation fill the interstitial voids and reinforce the structure. They are sometimes used to prevent falling stones from a cut or cliff endangering traffic on a thoroughfare, the life expectancy of gabions depends on the lifespan of the wire, not on the contents of the basket. The structure will fail when the wire fails, galvanized steel wire is most common, but PVC-coated and stainless steel wire are used. PVC-coated galvanized gabions have been estimated to survive for 60 years, Some gabion manufacturers guarantee a structural consistency of 50 years. In the United States, gabion use within streams first began with projects completed from 1957 to 1965 on North River and Zealand River, more than 150 grade-control structures, bank revetments and channel deflectors were constructed on the two U. S.
Forest Service sites. Eventually, a portion of the in-stream structures failed due to undermining. In particular and abrasion of wires by bedload movement compromised the structures, other gabions were toppled into channels as trees grew and enlarged on top of gabion revetments, leveraging them toward the river channels. Gabions have used in building, as in the Dominus Winery in the Napa Valley, California by architects Herzog & de Meuron. There are various designs of gabions to meet particular functional requirements. For example, Bastion, a gabion lined internally with a membrane, typically of nonwoven geotextile to permit use of a granular soil fill, mattress, a form of gabion with relatively small height relative to the lateral dimensions, commonly very wide. For protecting surfaces from wave erosion and similar attack, rather than building or supporting high structures, trapion, a form of gabion with a trapezoidal cross section, designed for stacking to give a face that is sloping rather than stepped
Malta
Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta.
The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and in caves.
The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II.
After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors.
Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
.jpg)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "Bastion". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. 1 (first ed.). James and John Knapton, et al. p. 90.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
