1.
Beaumaris Castle
–
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of Edward Is campaign to conquer the north of Wales after 1282. Plans were probably first made to construct the castle in 1284, a substantial workforce was employed in the initial years under the direction of James of St George. Edwards invasion of Scotland soon diverted funding from the project, however, when work finally ceased around 1330 a total of £15,000 had been spent, a huge sum for the period, but the castle remained incomplete. Beaumaris Castle was taken by Welsh forces in 1403 during the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr, following the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, the castle was held by forces loyal to Charles I, holding out until 1646 when it surrendered to the Parliamentary armies. In the 21st century the castle is managed by Cadw as a tourist attraction. Historian Arnold Taylor described Beaumaris Castle as Britains most perfect example of symmetrical concentric planning, the inner ward was designed to contain ranges of domestic buildings and accommodation able to support two major households. The south gate could be reached by ship, allowing the castle to be supplied by sea. UNESCO considers Beaumaris to be one of the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe, Edward invaded with a huge army, pushing north from Carmarthen and westwards from Montgomery and Chester. Edward decided to permanently colonise North Wales and provisions for its governance were set out in the Statute of Rhuddlan, Wales was divided into counties and shires, emulating how England was governed, with three new shires created in the north-west, Caernarfon, Merioneth and Anglesey. Llanfaes was the wealthiest borough in Wales and largest in terms of population, the huge cost of the building the other castles, however, meant that the Llanfaes project had to be postponed. In 1294 Madog ap Llywelyn rebelled against English rule, the revolt was bloody and amongst the casualties was Roger de Pulesdon, the sheriff of Anglesey. Edward suppressed the rebellion over the winter and once Anglesey was reoccupied in April 1295 he immediately began to progress the delayed plans to fortify the area. The chosen site was called Beaumaris, meaning marsh, whose name derives from the Norman-French Beau Mareys. The deportation of the local Welsh opened the way for the construction of a prosperous English town, work began in the summer of 1295, overseen by Master James of St George. James had been appointed the master of the works in Wales, reflecting the responsibility he had in their construction. From 1295 onwards, Beaumaris became his responsibility and more frequently he was given the title magister operacionum de Bello Marisco. A huge amount of work was undertaken in the first summer and this consumed around £270 a week in wages and the project rapidly fell into arrears, forcing officials to issue leather tokens instead of paying the workforce with normal coinage. The centre of the castle was filled with temporary huts to house the workforce over the winter, all this takes no account of the garrison
Beaumaris Castle
–
The castle seen from the air
Beaumaris Castle
–
The moated north-west walls of the outer ward
Beaumaris Castle
–
A map by
John Speed showing the castle and the adjacent walled town in 1610
Beaumaris Castle
–
Beaumaris Castle, 1852
2.
Belvoir Fortress (Israel)
–
Belvoir Fortress is a Crusader fortress in northern Israel, on a hill 20 kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee. Gilbert of Assailly, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, began construction of the castle in 1168, the restored fortress is located in Belvoir National Park. It is the best-preserved Crusader fortress in Israel, the Knights Hospitaller purchased the site from Velos, a French nobleman, in 1168. Standing 500 metres above the Jordan River Valley, the plateau commanded the route from Gilead into the Kingdom of Jerusalem, to the north is the Sea of Galilee and west are hills. The site of Belvoir Castle dominated the area, and in the words of Abu Shama the castle is, set admidst the stars like an eagles nest. As soon as the Knights Hospitaller purchased the land they began construction of Belvoir Castle, while Gilbert of Assailly was Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller the order gained around thirteen new castles, among which Belvoir was the most important. The fortress of Belvoir served as an obstacle to the Muslim goal of invading the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem from the east. It withstood an attack by Muslim forces in 1180, during the campaign of 1182, the Battle of Belvoir Castle was fought nearby between King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Saladin. Following Saladins victory over the Crusaders at the battle of the Horns of Hattin, the siege lasted a year and a half, until the defenders surrendered on 5 January 1189. An Arab governor occupied it until 1219 when the Ayyubid ruler in Damascus had slighted, in 1241 Belvoir was ceded to the Franks, who controlled it until 1263. In modern times it became an Arab village, Kawkab al-Hawa, the Arab buildings on the site were demolished by the Israeli authorities between 1963 and 1968. The Hebrew name, Kochav Hayarden, meaning Star of the Jordan, preserves the name of Kochava – a Jewish village which existed nearby during the Roman, after the end of the Second World War, the study of Crusader castles experienced a lull. Syria, for instance, declared independence in 1946 and had money to spare for archaeology. In Israel, the study of Crusader castles developed under Joshua Prawer and its most significant discovery was made at Belvoir. Between 1963 and 1968 the Israel Department of Antiquities carried out excavations at the castle, before the investigations, it had been assumed that Belvoir was a simple castle, with just a single enclosure. Excavations in the 1960s demonstrated the complex nature of military architecture in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Belvoirs design bore similarities to that of a Roman castra, the enclosure was rectangular with towers at the corners. Belvoir is an example of the concentric castle plan, which was widely used in later crusader castles
Belvoir Fortress (Israel)
–
The remains of Belvoir Castle. Note the two circuits of defensive wall, one inside the other (
Concentric castle).
Belvoir Fortress (Israel)
–
Belvoir from southwest
3.
Castle
–
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. Usage of the term has varied over time and has applied to structures as diverse as hill forts. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with different features, although some, such as curtain walls. A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures served as centres of administration. Many castles were built from earth and timber, but had their defences replaced later by stone. Early castles often exploited natural defences, lacking features such as towers and arrowslits, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on flanking fire, many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence – several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castles firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the Crusades, such as concentric fortification, not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, so that devices such as moats evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape, while castles continued to be built well into the 16th century, new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. As a result, true castles went into decline and were replaced by artillery forts with no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles with the construction of castles, part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture. The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning fortified place. The Old English castel, Old French castel or chastel, French château, Spanish castillo, Italian castello, the word castle was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this type of building, which was then new to England. In its simplest terms, the definition of a castle accepted amongst academics is a fortified residence. Feudalism was the link between a lord and his vassal where, in return for service and the expectation of loyalty. Castles served a range of purposes, the most important of which were military, administrative, as well as defensive structures, castles were also offensive tools which could be used as a base of operations in enemy territory
Castle
–
The
Alcázar of Segovia in Spain overlooking the city
Castle
–
Bodiam Castle in
East Sussex, England, surrounded by a water-filled
moat
Castle
–
The
Norman "White Tower", the
keep of the
Tower of London, exemplifies all uses of a castle including city defence, a residence, and a place of refuge in times of crisis.
Castle
–
Windsor Castle in England was founded as a fortification during the
Norman Conquest and today is one of the principal official residences of Queen
Elizabeth II.
4.
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, Anne, Hughes, Michael, eds. The Popular Encyclopedia, or, Conversations Lexicon, I, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, Blackie & Son, p.444
Curtain wall (fortification)
–
Beaumaris Castle with curtain walls between the lower outer towers and higher inner curtain walls between the higher inner towers.
Curtain wall (fortification)
–
Two sections of curtain wall around
Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Curtain wall (fortification)
–
Reconstruction of defensive walls around ancient
Lachish.
5.
Concentric
–
In geometry, two or more objects are said to be concentric, coaxal, or coaxial when they share the same center or axis. Circles, regular polygons and regular polyhedra, and spheres may be concentric to one another, in the Euclidean plane, two circles that are concentric necessarily have different radii from each other. However, circles in three-dimensional space may be concentric, and have the radius as each other. For example, two different meridians of a terrestrial globe are concentric with each other and with the globe of the earth, more generally, every two great circles on a sphere are concentric with each other and with the sphere. The circumcircle and the incircle of a regular n-gon, and the regular n-gon itself, are concentric, for the circumradius-to-inradius ratio for various n, see Bicentric polygon#Regular polygons. The region of the plane between two circles is an annulus, and analogously the region of space between two concentric spheres is a spherical shell. For a given point c in the plane, the set of all circles having c as their forms a pencil of circles. Each two circles in the pencil are concentric, and have different radii, every point in the plane, except for the shared center, belongs to exactly one of the circles in the pencil. Every two disjoint circles, and every hyperbolic pencil of circles, may be transformed into a set of circles by a Möbius transformation. The ripples formed by dropping an object into still water naturally form an expanding system of concentric circles. Evenly spaced circles on the used in target archery or similar sports provide another familiar example of concentric circles. Coaxial cable is a type of cable in which the combined neutral. Johannes Keplers Mysterium Cosmographicum envisioned a system formed by concentric regular polyhedra. Concentric circles are found in diopter sights, a type of mechanic sights commonly found on target rifles. They usually feature a disk with a small-diametre hole near the shooters eye. When these sights are aligned, the point of impact will be in the middle of the front sight circle. Centered cube number Homoeoid Focaloid Circular symmetry Magic circle Geometry, Concentric circles demonstration With interactive animation
Concentric
–
An archery target, featuring evenly spaced concentric circles that surround a "
bullseye ".
6.
Belvoir Fortress
–
Belvoir Fortress is a Crusader fortress in northern Israel, on a hill 20 kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee. Gilbert of Assailly, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, began construction of the castle in 1168, the restored fortress is located in Belvoir National Park. It is the best-preserved Crusader fortress in Israel, the Knights Hospitaller purchased the site from Velos, a French nobleman, in 1168. Standing 500 metres above the Jordan River Valley, the plateau commanded the route from Gilead into the Kingdom of Jerusalem, to the north is the Sea of Galilee and west are hills. The site of Belvoir Castle dominated the area, and in the words of Abu Shama the castle is, set admidst the stars like an eagles nest. As soon as the Knights Hospitaller purchased the land they began construction of Belvoir Castle, while Gilbert of Assailly was Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller the order gained around thirteen new castles, among which Belvoir was the most important. The fortress of Belvoir served as an obstacle to the Muslim goal of invading the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem from the east. It withstood an attack by Muslim forces in 1180, during the campaign of 1182, the Battle of Belvoir Castle was fought nearby between King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Saladin. Following Saladins victory over the Crusaders at the battle of the Horns of Hattin, the siege lasted a year and a half, until the defenders surrendered on 5 January 1189. An Arab governor occupied it until 1219 when the Ayyubid ruler in Damascus had slighted, in 1241 Belvoir was ceded to the Franks, who controlled it until 1263. In modern times it became an Arab village, Kawkab al-Hawa, the Arab buildings on the site were demolished by the Israeli authorities between 1963 and 1968. The Hebrew name, Kochav Hayarden, meaning Star of the Jordan, preserves the name of Kochava – a Jewish village which existed nearby during the Roman, after the end of the Second World War, the study of Crusader castles experienced a lull. Syria, for instance, declared independence in 1946 and had money to spare for archaeology. In Israel, the study of Crusader castles developed under Joshua Prawer and its most significant discovery was made at Belvoir. Between 1963 and 1968 the Israel Department of Antiquities carried out excavations at the castle, before the investigations, it had been assumed that Belvoir was a simple castle, with just a single enclosure. Excavations in the 1960s demonstrated the complex nature of military architecture in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Belvoirs design bore similarities to that of a Roman castra, the enclosure was rectangular with towers at the corners. Belvoir is an example of the concentric castle plan, which was widely used in later crusader castles
Belvoir Fortress
–
The remains of Belvoir Castle. Note the two circuits of defensive wall, one inside the other (
Concentric castle).
Belvoir Fortress
–
Belvoir from southwest
7.
Krak des Chevaliers
–
The site was first inhabited in the 11th century by a settlement of Kurdish troops garrisoned there by the Mirdasids, as a result it was known as Hisn al-Akrad, meaning the Castle of the Kurds. In 1142 it was given by Raymond II, Count of Tripoli and it remained in their possession until it fell in 1271. It became known as Crac de lOspital, the name Krak des Chevaliers was coined in the 19th century, the Hospitallers began rebuilding the castle in the 1140s and were finished by 1170 when an earthquake damaged the castle. The order controlled a number of castles along the border of the County of Tripoli, Krak des Chevaliers was among the most important, and acted as a center of administration as well as a military base. After a second phase of building was undertaken in the 13th century and this phase created the outer wall and gave the castle its current appearance. The first half of the century has been described as Krak des Chevaliers golden age, at its peak, Krak des Chevaliers housed a garrison of around 2,000. Such a large garrison allowed the Hospitallers to exact tribute from a wide area, renewed interest in Crusader castles in the 19th century led to the investigation of Krak des Chevaliers, and architectural plans were drawn up. In the late 19th or early 20th century a settlement had created within the castle. The 500 inhabitants were moved in 1933 and the castle was given over to the French state, when Syria declared independence in 1946, it assumed control. Today, a village called al-Husn exists around the castle and has a population of nearly 9,000, Krak des Chevaliers is located approximately 40 kilometres west of the city of Homs, close to the border of Lebanon, and is administratively part of the Homs Governorate. Since 2006, the castles of Krak des Chevaliers and Qalat Salah El-Din have been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It was partially damaged in the Syrian civil war from shelling, the extent of the damage is unknown. The modern Arabic word for a castle is Kalaa, but Krak des Chavaliers is known as a Hosn and this derives from the name of an earlier fortification on the same site called Ḥoṣn al-Akrād, meaning fort of the Kurds. It was called by the Franks Le Crat and then by a confusion with karak, Crat was probably the Frankish version of Akrād, the word for Kurds. After the Knights Hospitaller took control of the castle, it known as Crac de lOspital. The castle sits atop a 650-metre-high hill east of Tartus, Syria, on the other side of the gap,27 kilometres away, was the 12th-century Gibelacar Castle. The route through the strategically important Homs Gap connects the cities of Tripoli, to the north of the castle lies the Jebel Ansariyah, and to the south Lebanon. The surrounding area is fertile, benefiting from streams and abundant rainfall, compared to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the other Crusader states had less land suitable for farming, however, the limestone peaks of Tripoli were well-suited to defensive sites
Krak des Chevaliers
–
Krak des Chevaliers from the southwest
Krak des Chevaliers
–
Krak des Chevaliers overlooking the surrounding area.
Krak des Chevaliers
–
Artist rendering of Krak des Chevaliers seen from the northeast. From Guillaume Rey Étude sur les monuments de l'architecture militaire des croisés en Syrie et dans l'île de Chypre (1871).
Krak des Chevaliers
–
The area between the inner and outer walls is narrow and was not used for accommodation.
8.
Margat
–
Margat, also known as Marqab from the Arabic Qalaat al-Marqab is a castle near Baniyas, Syria, which was a Crusader fortress and one of the major strongholds of the Knights Hospitaller. It is located around 2 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast and approximately 6 kilometres south of Baniyas, the castle remained in a poor state of preservation until 2007 when some reconstruction and renovation began. Margat is located on a formed by an extinct volcano about 360 metres above sea level on the road between Tripoli and Latakia, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. When the Principality was defeated at the Battle of Harran in 1104, a few years later it was captured by Tancred, Prince of Galilee, regent of Antioch, and became part of the Principality. In the 1170s it was controlled by Reynald II Mazoir of Antioch as a vassal of the count of Tripoli, the fortress was so large that it had its own household officials and a number of rear-vassals. Reynauds son Bertrand sold it to the Hospitallers in 1186 as it was too expensive for the Mazoir family to maintain, after some rebuilding and expansion by the Hospitallers it became their headquarters in Syria. Under Hospitaller control, its fourteen towers were thought to be impregnable, in 1188, Saladin marched on Margat having left Krak des Chevaliers in search of easier prey. According to Abul-Fida, Recognising that Maqab was impregnable and that he had no hope of capturing it and it was one of the few remaining territories left in Christian hands after Saladins conquests. By the beginning of the 13th century the Hospitallers controlled the land and roads and made a large profit from travellers. Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus was imprisoned there after Richard I of England captured Cyprus from him during the Third Crusade, the bishop of nearby Valenia also used Margat as his headquarters after around 1240. Margat was second in size and power only to the other Hospitaller fortress to the south, to punish the Hospitallers, Qalawun clandestinely raised an army in Damascus and besieged Margat on 17 April 1285. After a 38-day siege during which sappers and miners managed to dig several tunnels underneath the fortresss walls, the defenders panicked and on discovering the numerous tunnels around the fortress, surrendered to the Mamluk commander Fakhr al-Din Mukri on 23 May, with Qalwun entering Margat two days later. The siege was witnessed by eleven-year-old Abul Fida and his father, Qalawun allowed the Hospitallers to leave with everything they could carry. Rather than destroy Margat as he did with other fortresses, he repaired its defences, marqat, known as Marqab by the Muslims, became a district of the Mamluk province of Tripoli with maintenance of the area financed by the sultan. Intrepid traveller Ibn Battuta visited the fortress and noted that a suburb was built outside of it for foreigners, the district governor based at the Marqab fortress held the military rank of Emir of 20 Mamluks. He was charged with defending the coast, particularly from threats from the island of Cyprus, during the Burji Mamluk period, Margat was well known in the region for containing an imperial prison with many high-profile inmates. The 15th-century Muslim historian Khalil al-Zahiri noted that Marqab fortress was among the most important sites of Tripoli province, Marqab was clearly impregnable and controls a territory containing numerous villages. During the Ottoman era, Margat became the center of a kaza of the same name
Margat
–
Margat قلعة المرقب
9.
Spur castle
–
A spur castle is a type of medieval fortification that uses its location as a defensive feature. The name refers to the location on a spur projecting from a hill, ideally, a spur castle would be defended on three sides by steep hillsides, with the only vulnerable side the one where the spur joins the next hill. Depending on the topography, a spur castle may depend mostly on its inaccessible location, or combine it with defensive features such as walls. A typical feature is a neck ditch cutting off the spur from the rest of the hill, when the spur is long and narrow, the term ridge castle is sometimes used as well. A long spur castle is sometimes, but not always, subdivided into a lower ward, spur and hilltop castles were introduced by the Franks in order to hinder the deployment of the increasing use of the counterweight trebuchet. In the case of spur castles, heavy siege machinery could only be deployed on the uphill side enabling defensive works, the crusader castle Krak des Chevaliers lies on the spur of a hill only accessible from the south. At the same time, it has strong concentric castle defences on all sides, in the castle at Saône, the defences are concentrated on the vulnerable side of the spur, most notably a deep ditch. The lower bailey at Saône has weaker walls and towers, the Alcázar of Segovia in Spain is located on a narrow spur with deep drops all around except from the east where it is approached on level ground. Stirling Castle in Scotland is located on a spur with drops on three sides and a gentle slope providing access from the south-east. Château de Chinon in France was used by the counts of Anjou in the 12th century, in 1205, it was captured by the French king and was the largest castle in the Loire valley. Crusader Castles in the Holy Land
Spur castle
–
Ruins of Montfort on the top of the spur.
Spur castle
–
Wildenstein Castle
10.
Ward (fortification)
–
In fortifications, a bailey or ward refers to a courtyard enclosed by a curtain wall. In particular, a type of European castle was known as a Motte-and-bailey. Castles can have more than one ward and their layout depends both on the local topography and the level of fortification technology employed, ranging from simple enclosures to elaborate concentric defences. Wards can be arranged in sequence along a hill, giving an upper ward and they can also be nested one inside the other, as in a concentric castle, giving an outer ward and inner ward. Large castles may have two outer wards, if in line they may form an outer and middle ward, on the other hand, Tower houses lack an enclosed ward. The most important and prestigious buildings, such as the great hall, nonetheless, there are a few castles where the keep is outside the inner ward, such as Château de Dourdan and Flint Castle. Lower or outer wards often held less important structures, such as stables, outer wards could also be largely defensive in function, without significant buildings. In general, wards could have any shape, including irregular or elongated ones, a particularly complex arrangement of wards can be found at Château Gaillard. In German-speaking countries, many castles had double walls with a narrow enclosure outside the main walls. The outermost wall was a Zwingermauer or type of low mantlet wall and these were often added at vulnerable points like the gate of a castle or town, but were rarely as fully developed as in the concentric castles in Wales or the Crusader castles. The castle in England and Wales, an interpretive history, studies in Archaeology Series, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-00350-6 Hull, Lise. Understanding the Castle Ruins of England and Wales, How to Interpret the History and Meaning of Masonry, castles, their construction and history, Dover Publications
Ward (fortification)
–
Outer (lower) ward of
Krak des Chevaliers as seen from the inner (upper) ward
Ward (fortification)
–
Château Gaillard had an elaborate sequence of outer and inner wards
11.
Keep
–
KEEP is a commercially supported FM radio station serving the general area of Fredericksburg, Texas, due west from Austin and due north of San Antonio. KEEP is owned by J & J Fritz Media and is broadcast from Johnson City and it was one of four member stations of the Texas Rebel Radio Network which supplies Texas music programming. This programming is available as streaming audio via the KEEP/Texas Rebel Radio website, on June 24,2011, KEEP, after three months of silence, returned to the air simulcasting country-formatted KNAF-FM105.7. Query the FCCs FM station database for KEEP Radio-Locator information on KEEP Query Nielsen Audios FM station database for KEEP
Keep
12.
Enceinte
–
Enceinte is a French term denoting the main defensive enclosure of a fortification. For a castle this is the defensive line of wall towers. For a settlement it would be the town wall with its associated gatehouses and towers. However, the outworks or defensive wall close to the enceinte were not considered as forming part of it, in early 20th-century fortification, the enceinte was usually simply the innermost continuous line of fortifications. In architecture, generally, an enceinte is the close or precinct of a cathedral, abbey, castle, the enceinte may be laid out as a freestanding structure or combined with buildings adjoining the outer walls. The enceinte not only provided protection for the areas behind it. The outline of the enceinte, with its towers and domestic buildings. The ground plan of an enceinte is affected by the terrain, from the 12th century onwards an additional enclosure called a zwinger was often built in front of the enceinte of many European castles. This afforded an additional layer of defence as it formed a killing ground in front of the defensive wall. During the Baroque era it was not uncommon for these enclosures to be turned into gardens as for example in Dresden). Enceinte is the adjective pregnant in the French language, friar, Stephen, The Sutton Companion to Castles, Stroud, Sutton Publishing, p.105, ISBN 978-0-7509-3994-2 Piper, Otto, Burgenkunde. Bauwesen und Geschichte der Burgen, in Piperer, R. et al
Enceinte
–
Enceinte of
Khotyn Fortress in
Ukraine
Enceinte
–
The keep of
Château de Vincennes protected by its own isolated enceinte
Enceinte
–
Krak des Chevaliers: a concentric castle.
13.
Lille
–
Lille is a city in northern France, in French Flanders. On the Deûle River, near Frances border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, archeological digs seem to show the area as inhabited by as early as 2000 BC, most notably in the modern-day quartiers of Fives, Wazemmes, and Vieux Lille. The legend of Lydéric and Phinaert puts the foundation of the city of Lille at 640, in the 8th century, the language of Old Low Franconian was spoken here, as attested by toponymic research. Lilles Dutch name is Rijsel, which comes from ter ijsel, the French equivalent has the same meaning, Lille comes from lîle. From 830 until around 910, the Vikings invaded Flanders, after the destruction caused by Norman and Magyar invasion, the eastern part of the region was ruled by various local princes. The first mention of the dates from 1066, apud Insulam. At the time, it was controlled by the County of Flanders, the County of Flanders thus extended to the left bank of the Scheldt, one of the richest and most prosperous regions of Europe. A notable local in this period was Évrard, who lived in the 9th century and participated in many of the days political, there was an important Battle of Lille in 1054. From the 12th century, the fame of the Lille cloth fair began to grow, in 1144 Saint-Sauveur parish was formed, which would give its name to the modern-day quartier Saint-Sauveur. Infante Ferdinand, Count of Flanders was imprisoned and the county fell into dispute, it would be his wife, Jeanne, Countess of Flanders and Constantinople and she was said to be well loved by the residents of Lille, who by that time numbered 10,000. He pushed the kingdoms of Flanders and Hainaut towards sedition against Jeanne in order to recover his land and she called her cousin, Louis VIII. He unmasked the imposter, whom Countess Jeanne quickly had hanged, in 1226 the King agreed to free Infante Ferdinand, Count of Flanders. Count Ferrand died in 1233, and his daughter Marie soon after, in 1235, Jeanne granted a city charter by which city governors would be chosen each All Saints Day by four commissioners chosen by the ruler. On 6 February 1236, she founded the Countesss Hospital, which one of the most beautiful buildings in Old Lille. It was in her honour that the hospital of the Regional Medical University of Lille was named Jeanne of Flanders Hospital in the 20th century, the Countess died in 1244 in the Abbey of Marquette, leaving no heirs. The rule of Flanders and Hainaut thus fell to her sister, Margaret II, Countess of Flanders, then to Margarets son, Lille fell under the rule of France from 1304 to 1369, after the Franco-Flemish War. The county of Flanders fell to the Duchy of Burgundy next, after the 1369 marriage of Margaret III, Countess of Flanders, Lille thus became one of the three capitals of said Duchy, along with Brussels and Dijon. By 1445, Lille counted some 25,000 residents, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, was even more powerful than the King of France, and made Lille an administrative and financial capital
Lille
–
Grand' place, Lille city centre.
Lille
–
The 'Vieille Bourse' on the 'Grand Place'
Lille
–
1641 map of Lille (Rijssel) in
Flandria Illustrata by
Anton Sander (Sanderus)
Lille
–
Entrance to the 'Vauban Citadel' (17th century)
14.
Assyrian people
–
Assyrian people, or Syriacs, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans, or as Arameans and they speak modern Aramaic, whose subdivisions include Northeastern, Central, and Western Neo-Aramaic, as well as another language, dependent on the country of residence. The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. The majority have migrated to regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity, whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, mostly speak the Central and Western branches. According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to Neanderthals such as the remains of those which have been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of early kings would have been local rulers. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abrahams grandson, however, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever, there is no mention in Assyrian records. The Assyrian people, after the fall of their empire, fell under foreign domination ever since, the Persian Empire was founded, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, the Assyrian army accounted for three legions of the Roman army, defending the Parthian border. In the 1st century, it was the Assyrian army that enabled Vespasians coup, from the later 2nd century, the Roman Senate included several notable Assyrians, including Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus and Avidius Cassius. From the 1st century BC, Assyria was the theatre of the protracted Roman–Persian Wars and it would become a Roman province from 116 to 363 AD. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur, the Greeks, Parthians, and Romans had a rather low-level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. The Assyrians were Christianized in the first to third centuries in Roman Syria, the population of the Sasanian province of Asōristān was a mixed one, composed of Assyrians, Arameans in the far south and the western deserts, and Persians. The Greek element in the cities, still strong during the Parthian Empire, the majority of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. Along with the Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans, the Council of Seleucia of ca.325 dealt with jurisdictional conflicts among the leading bishops
Assyrian people
–
The burning of bodies of Assyrian women
Assyrian people
Assyrian people
–
Assyrian refugees on a wagon moving to a newly constructed village on the
Khabur river in Syria.
Assyrian people
–
Celebration at a Syriac Orthodox monastery in
Mosul,
Ottoman Syria, early 20th century.
15.
Persian people
–
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import
Persian people
–
Costumes of an ancient Persian noblemen and soldiers.
Persian people
–
Geographic distribution of modern Iranian languages: Modern Persian (green) and other related Persian (some descendant of Middle Persian like Luri in Red) also shown in the map
Persian people
–
Greek
hoplite and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient
kylix, 5th century BC
Persian people
–
Tajiks in
Samarkand,
Uzbekistan
16.
Babylonians
–
Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia. A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained at this time the city of Babylon. Babylon greatly expanded during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC, during the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called Māt Akkadī the country of Akkad in the Akkadian language. It was often involved in rivalry with its older fellow Akkadian-speaking state of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia and it retained the Sumerian language for religious use, but by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad. During the 3rd millennium BC, a cultural symbiosis occurred between Sumerian and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian and vice versa is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the millennium as a sprachbund. Traditionally, the religious center of all Mesopotamia was the city of Nippur. The empire eventually disintegrated due to decline, climate change and civil war. Sumer rose up again with the Third Dynasty of Ur in the late 22nd century BC and they also seem to have gained ascendancy over most of the territory of the Akkadian kings of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia for a time. The states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance, King Ilu-shuma of the Old Assyrian Empire in a known inscription describes his exploits to the south as follows, The freedom of the Akkadians and their children I established. I established their freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur, Awal, past scholars originally extrapolated from this text that it means he defeated the invading Amorites to the south, but there is no explicit record of that. More recently, the text has been taken to mean that Asshur supplied the south with copper from Anatolia and these policies were continued by his successors Erishum I and Ikunum. During the first centuries of what is called the Amorite period and his reign was concerned with establishing statehood amongst a sea of other minor city states and kingdoms in the region. However Sumuabum appears never to have bothered to give himself the title of King of Babylon, suggesting that Babylon itself was only a minor town or city. He was followed by Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, each of whom ruled in the same manner as Sumuabum. Sin-Muballit was the first of these Amorite rulers to be regarded officially as a king of Babylon, the Elamites occupied huge swathes of southern Mesopotamia, and the early Amorite rulers were largely held in vassalage to Elam
Babylonians
–
Old Babylonian
Cylinder Seal,
hematite, The king makes an animal offering to
Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
Babylonians
–
Geography
17.
Lachish
–
Tel Lachish, is the site of an ancient Near East city, now an archaeological site and an Israeli national park. Lachish is located in the Shephelah region of Israel between Mount Hebron and the Mediterranean coast and it is first mentioned in the Amarna letters as Lakisha-Lakiša. According to the Bible, the Israelites captured and destroyed Lachish for joining the league against the Gibeonites, the territory was later assigned to the tribe of Judah and became part of the Kingdom of Israel. Of the cities in ancient Judah, Lachish was second in only to Jerusalem. One of the Lachish letters warns of the impending Babylonian destruction and it reads, Let my lord know that we are watching over the beacon of Lachish, according to the signals which my lord gave, for Azekah is not seen. According to the prophet Jeremiah, Lachish and Azekah were the last two Judean cities before the conquest of Jerusalem and this pottery inscription can be seen at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Occupation at the site of Lachish began during the Pottery Neolithic period, major development began in the Early Bronze Age. During the Middle Bronze II, the Canaanite settlement came under strong Egyptian influence, the next peak was the late Late Bronze Age, when Lachish is mentioned in the Amarna letters. This phase of the city was destroyed in a fire ca.1150 BCE, the city, under protection of the New Kingdom of Egypt, was rebuilt by the Caananites. One of the two discovered temples was built at the northwest corner of the mound, outside the city limits and within the disused moat, however, this settlement was soon destroyed by another fire, perhaps from an invasion by the Sea Peoples or Israelites. The mound was abandoned for two centuries, rebuilding of the city began in the Early Iron Age during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE when it was settled by the Israelites. The unfortified settlement may have been destroyed c.925 BCE by Egyptian Pharaoh Sheshonk I, in the first half of the 9th century BCE, under the kings Asa and Jehoshaphat, Lachish became an important city in the kingdom of Judah. It was heavily fortified with walls and ramparts and a royal palace was built on a platform in the center of the city. In 701 BCE, during the revolt of king Hezekiah against Assyria, some scholars believe that the fall of Lachish actually occurred during a second campaign in the area by Sennacherib ca.688 BCE. The site now contains the remains of an Assyrian siege ramp discovered so far. They hold depictions of Assyrian siege ramps, battering rams, sappers, in combination with the archaeological finds, they give a good understanding of siege warfare of the period. So much attention was given to the success at Lachish also because, unlike it, the town was rebuilt in the late 7th century BCE during the decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. However, the city fell to Nebuchadnezzar in his campaign against Judah in 586 BCE
Lachish
–
Main gate of Lachish
Lachish
–
Bronze Age ivory hand and other objects found at the Fosse temple at Lachish (
British Museum).
Lachish
–
Commander's palace.
Lachish
–
Assyrian siege ramp.
18.
Walls of Constantinople
–
With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, as the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Ultimately the city fell from sheer weight of numbers of the Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453 after a six-week siege. The walls were largely maintained intact during most of the Ottoman period, until sections began to be dismantled in the 19th century, despite the subsequent lack of maintenance, many parts of the walls survived and are still standing today. A large-scale restoration program has been under way since the 1980s, according to tradition, the city was founded as Byzantium by Greek colonists from Megara, led by the eponymous Byzas, around 658 BC. At the time the city consisted of a region around an acropolis. This wall was protected by 27 towers, and had at least two gates, one which survived to become known as the Arch of Urbicius. On the seaward side, the wall was much lower and this wall is known to have been repaired, utilising tomb stones, under the leadership of a certain Leo in 340 BC, against an attack by Philip II of Macedon. Byzantium was relatively unimportant during the early Roman period, contemporaries described it as wealthy, well peopled and well fortified, but this affluence came to an end due to its support for Pescennius Niger in his war against Septimius Severus. Severus punished the city harshly, the walls were demolished. The Patria also mention the existence of another wall during the siege of Byzantium by Constantine the Great during the conflict with Licinius. Like Severus before him, Constantine began to punish the city for siding with his defeated rival, during 324–336 the city was thoroughly rebuilt and inaugurated on 11 May 330 under the name of Second Rome. The name that prevailed in common usage however was Constantinople. The city of Constantine was protected by a new wall about 2.8 km west of the Severan wall, constantines fortification consisted of a single wall, reinforced with towers at regular distances, which began to be constructed in 324 and was completed under his son Constantius II. Only the approximate course of the wall is known, it began at the Church of St. Aemilianus, already by the early 5th century however, Constantinople had expanded outside the Constantinian Wall, in the extramural area known as the Exokionion or Exakionion. The wall survived during much of the Byzantine period, even though it was replaced by the Theodosian Walls as the primary defence. Only traces of the wall appear to have survived in later ages, the recent construction of Yenikapı Transfer Center has unearthed a section of the foundation of the wall of Constantine. The names of a number of gates of the Constantinian Wall survive, the gate stood somewhere on the southern slopes of the Seventh Hill
Walls of Constantinople
–
Map showing Constantinople and its walls during the Byzantine era
Walls of Constantinople
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls at the Selymbria Gate. The Outer Wall and the wall of the moat are visible, with a tower of the Inner Wall in the background.
Walls of Constantinople
–
Photo of the peribolos, the space between the inner and outer walls.
19.
Fortifications
–
Fortifications 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 and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. 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. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a 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 fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were 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, 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, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in 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, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
Fortifications
–
Krak des Chevaliers is one of the best-preserved Crusader
castles.
Fortifications
–
Bourtange star fort, restored to 1750 situation,
Groningen (province),
Netherlands.
Fortifications
–
The well preserved
Bulgarian medieval fort
Baba Vida.
Fortifications
–
Fortifications on the Iraq-Iran Border, viewed from the
ISS, 2014
20.
Ishtar Gate
–
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the side of the city. It was excavated in the early 20th century and a reconstruction using original bricks is now shown in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu and aurochs, symbolizing the gods Marduk, the roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. The gate was covered in lapis lazuli, a deep-blue semi-precious stone that was revered in antiquity due to its vibrancy and these blue glazed bricks would have given the façade a jewel-like shine. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls showing about 120 lions, bulls, dragons and flowers on enameled yellow and black glazed bricks, the gate itself depicted only gods and goddesses. These included Ishtar, Adad and Marduk, during celebrations of the New Year, statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way. The gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World and it was replaced on that list by the Lighthouse of Alexandria from the third century BC. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was built at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin out of material excavated by Robert Koldewey and it stands 14 m high and 30 m wide. The excavation ran from 1902 to 1914, and, during time,14 m of the foundation of the gate was uncovered. Claudius James Rich, British resident of Baghdad and a self-taught historian, acting as a scholar and collecting field data, he was determined to discover the wonders to the ancient world. C. J. Richs topographical records of the ruins in Babylon were the first ever published and it was reprinted in England no fewer than three times. C. J. Robert Koldewey, a successful German excavator, had previous work for the Royal Museum of Berlin, with his excavations at Surghul. Koldeweys part in Babylons excavation began in 1899, the method that the British were comfortable with was excavating tunnels and deep trenches, which was damaging the mud brick architecture of the foundation. Instead, it was suggested that the team focus on tablets. Despite the destructive nature of the used, the recording of data was immensely more thorough than in previous Mesopotamian excavations. Walter Andre, one of Koldeweys many assistants, was an architect and a draftsman and his contribution was documentation and reconstruction of Babylon. A small museum was built at the site and Andre was the museums first director, one of most complex and impressive architectural reconstructions in the history of archaeology, was the rebuilding of Babylons Ishtar gate and processional way in Berlin
Ishtar Gate
–
The
reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate in the
Pergamon Museum in
Berlin
Ishtar Gate
–
An
aurochs above a flower ribbon; missing tiles are replaced
Ishtar Gate
–
Pergamon Museum, Ishtar gate
Ishtar Gate
–
Photo of the remains from the 1930s of the excavation site in
Babylon
21.
Castrum
–
In the Roman Empire, the Latin word castrum was a building, or plot of land, used as a fortified military camp. Castrum was the used for different sizes of camps including a large legionary fortress, smaller auxiliary forts, temporary encampments. The diminutive form castellum was used for fortlets, typically occupied by a detachment of a cohort or a century, in English, the terms Roman fortress, Roman fort and Roman camp are commonly used for castrum. However, scholastic convention tends toward the use of the camp, marching camp. For a list of known castra see List of castra, the term castrum appears in three Italic languages, Oscan, Umbrian and Latin. g. Castrum Album, Castrum Inui, Castrum Novum, Castrum Truentinum, Castrum Vergium. The plural was used as a place name, as Castra Cornelia. Castrorum Filius was one of names used by the emperor Caligula, the terms stratopedon and phrourion were used by Greek language authors to translate castrum and castellum, respectively. A castrum was designed to house and protect the soldiers, their equipment and this most detailed description that survives about Roman military camps is De Munitionibus Castrorum, a manuscript of 11 pages that dates most probably from the late 1st to early 2nd century AD. Regulations required a major unit in the field to retire to a properly constructed camp every day, to this end a marching column ported the equipment needed to build and stock the camp in a baggage train of wagons and on the backs of the soldiers. They could throw up a camp under enemy attack in as little as a few hours. Judging from the names, they used a repertory of camp plans, selecting the one appropriate to the length of time a legion would spend in it, tertia castra, quarta castra. A camp of three days, four days, etc, more permanent camps were castra stativa, standing camps. The least permanent of these were castra aestiva or aestivalia, summer camps, in which the soldiers were housed sub pellibus or sub tentoriis, under tents. For the winter the soldiers retired to castra hiberna containing barracks and other buildings of solid materials. The camp allowed the Romans to keep a rested and supplied army in the field, neither the Celtic nor Germanic armies had this capability, they found it necessary to disperse after only a few days. The largest castra were legionary fortresses built as bases for one or more whole legions, previously, legions were raised for specific military campaigns and subsequently disbanded, requiring only temporary castra. From then on many castra of various sizes were established many of which became permanent settlements, from the most ancient times Roman camps were constructed according to a certain ideal pattern, formally described in two main sources, the De Munitionibus Castrorum and the works of Polybius
Castrum
–
Reconstructed gateway of a Castra Stativa. Note the battlements, the Roman arches, the turres.
Castrum
–
Basic ideal plan of a Roman castrum. (1) Principia; (2) Via Praetoria; (3) Via Principalis; (4) Porta Principalis Dextra; (5) Porta Praetoria (main gate); (6) Porta Principalis Sinistra; (7)Porta Decumana (back gate).
Castrum
–
Reconstruction of the specula or vigilarium (Germanic burgus), "watchtower", a type of castrum, of
Fectio. An ancient watchtower would have been surrounded by wall and ditch.
Castrum
–
The reconstructed porta praetoria of the castle Pfünz,
Germany, near the Raetian Limes.
22.
Siege
–
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. This derives from sedere, Latin for to sit, Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is not uncommon, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy, a siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by direct assault and refuses to surrender. Failing a military outcome, sieges can often be decided by starvation, thirst, or disease and this form of siege, though, can take many months or even years, depending upon the size of the stores of food the fortified position holds. During the process of circumvallation, the force can be set upon by another force of enemies due to the lengthy amount of time required to starve a position. During the Warring States era of ancient China, there is textual and archaeological evidence of prolonged sieges and siege machinery used against the defenders of city walls. Siege machinery was also a tradition of the ancient Greco-Roman world, during the Renaissance and the early modern period, siege warfare dominated the conduct of war in Europe. Leonardo da Vinci gained as much of his renown from the design of fortifications as from his artwork, Medieval campaigns were generally designed around a succession of sieges. In the Napoleonic era, increasing use of more powerful cannon reduced the value of fortifications. In the 20th century, the significance of the classical siege declined, with the advent of mobile warfare, a single fortified stronghold is no longer as decisive as it once was. Modern sieges are more commonly the result of smaller hostage, militant, the Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples, and defensive walls. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified, by about 3500 BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus River floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets, mundigak in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun-dried bricks. City walls and fortifications were essential for the defence of the first cities in the ancient Near East, the walls were built of mudbricks, stone, wood, or a combination of these materials, depending on local availability. They may also have served the purpose of showing presumptive enemies the might of the kingdom. The great walls surrounding the Sumerian city of Uruk gained a widespread reputation, the walls were 9.5 km in length, and up to 12 m in height. Later, the walls of Babylon, reinforced by towers, moats, in Anatolia, the Hittites built massive stone walls around their cities atop hillsides, taking advantage of the terrain. In Shang Dynasty China, at the site of Ao, large walls were erected in the 15th century BC that had dimensions of 20 m in width at the base and enclosed an area of some 2,100 yards squared
Siege
–
Picture of the
siege of Rancagua during the
Chilean War of Independence
Siege
–
The Egyptian
siege of Dapur in the 13th century BC, from
Ramesseum,
Thebes
Siege
–
Depiction of various
siege machines in the mid-16th century.
Siege
–
Medieval
trebuchets could sling about two projectiles per hour at enemy positions.
23.
Crusader state
–
The name also refers to other territorial gains made by medieval Christendom against Muslim and pagan adversaries. The Crusader States in the Levant were the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, the Eastern Romans, or Byzantines, partially recovered lost territory on numerous occasions but over time gradually lost all but Anatolia and parts of Thrace and the Balkans. In the West, the Roman Catholic kingdoms of northern Iberia launched a series of known as the Reconquista to reconquer the peninsula from the Arabized Berbers known as Moors. The conquered Iberian principalities are not customarily called Crusader states, except for the Kingdom of Valencia, professor Barber indicates that, in the Crusader State of the Kingdom of Jerusalem the Holy Sepulchre was added to in the 7th century and rebuilt in 1022, after a previous collapse. The situation represented an existential threat for the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire. The Emperor sent a plea to the Pope in Rome to send military aid with the goal of restoring the formerly Christian territories to Christian rule, the result was a series of western European military campaigns into the eastern Mediterranean, known as the Crusades. The first four Crusader states were created in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade, The first Crusader state, the Principality of Antioch, founded in 1098, lasted until 1268. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099, lasted until 1291, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia had its origins before the Crusades, but was granted the status of a kingdom by Pope Innocent III, and later became fully westernized by the Lusignan dynasty. During the Third Crusade, the Crusaders founded the Kingdom of Cyprus, Richard I of England conquered Cyprus on his way to Holy Land. The Templars promptly returned the island to Richard who resold it to the displaced King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan in 1192. For much of its history under the Lusignan Kings, Cyprus was a prosperous Medieval Kingdom, the Kingdoms decline began when it became embroiled in the dispute between the Italian Merchant Republics of Genoa and Venice. Indeed, the Kingdoms decline can be traced to a war with Genoa in 1373–74 which ended with the Genoese occupying the principal port City of Famagusta. Eventually with the help of Venice, the Kingdom recovered Famagusta but by then it was too late and in any event, venetian rule over Cyprus lasted for just over 80 years until 1571, when the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim II Sarkhosh invaded and captured the entire island. These states faced the attacks of the Byzantine Greek successor states of Nicaea and Epirus, thessalonica and the Latin Empire were reconquered by the Byzantine Greeks by 1261. Descendants of the Crusaders continued to rule in Athens and the Peloponnesus until the 15th century when the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The military order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John established itself on Rhodes in 1310, with influx of new blood. The island of Kastellorizo was taken by the Knights of St, other neighbouring territories temporarily under the order were, the cities of Smyrna, Attaleia, the city of Salona and the islands of Ikaria and Kos, all now in Greece. The coins minted in Jerusalem during the 12th century show patriarchal crosses with various modifications, coins minted under Henry I show a cross with four dots in the four quarters, but the Jerusalem cross proper appears only on a coin minted under John II
Crusader state
–
Asia Minor and the Crusader states, c. 1140
Crusader state
–
The Near East in 1135, with the Crusader states marked with red crosses.
24.
Siege engine
–
A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some have been operated close to the fortifications, while others have used to attack from a distance. From antiquity, siege engines were constructed largely of wood and tended to use mechanical advantage to fling stones, with the development of gunpowder and improved metallurgical techniques, siege engines became artillery. Collectively, siege engines or artillery together with the necessary troops, the earliest engine was the battering ram, developed by the Assyrians, followed by the catapult in ancient Greece. The first Mediterranean people to use advanced siege machinery were the Carthaginians and these engines influenced the ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius I, who developed a catapult in 399 BC. The first two rulers to use of siege engines to a large extent were Philip II of Macedonia. The most utilized engines were simple battering rams, or tortoises, for sea sieges or battles, seesaw-like machines were used. These were giant ladders, hinged and mounted on a base mechanism and they were normally mounted on two or more ships tied together and some sambykē included shields at the top to protect the climbers from arrows. Other hinged engines were used to catch enemy equipment or even opposing soldiers with opposable appendices which are probably ancestors to the Roman corvus, other weapons dropped heavy weights on opposing soldiers. The Romans preferred to assault enemy walls by building earthen ramps or simply scaling the walls, soldiers working at the ramps were protected by shelters called vineae, that were arranged to form a long corridor. Wicker shields were used to protect the front of the corridor during its construction, another Roman siege engine sometimes used resembled the Greek ditch-filling tortoise, called a musculus. The Roman Legions first used siege towers around 200 BC, the first documented occurrence of ancient siege artillery pieces in Europe was the gastraphetes, a kind of large crossbow. These were mounted on wooden frames, greater machines forced the introduction of pulley system for loading the projectiles, which had extended to include stones also. Later torsion systems appeared, based on sinew springs, the onager was the main Roman invention in the field. Much of what we now know of the technology of the time came to us from Books 14 and 15 on Siege Warfare from the Mo Jing. Recorded and preserved on bamboo strips, much of the text is now unfortunately extremely corrupted, medieval designs include a large number of catapults such as the Mangonel, Onager, the ballista, the traction trebuchet, and the counterweight trebuchet. These machines used mechanical energy to fling large projectiles to batter down stone walls, also used were the battering ram and the siege tower, a wooden tower on wheels that allowed attackers to climb up and over castle walls, while protected somewhat from enemy arrows. Another weapon was the petard, a device designed specifically for breaching gates
Siege engine
–
Replica
battering ram at
Château des Baux,
France.
Siege engine
–
A stone-throwing machine set to defend a gate, in the fresco of Guidoriccio da Fogliano by
Simone Martini (14th century).
Siege engine
–
The medieval
Mons Meg with its 20" (50 cm)
cannonballs
Siege engine
–
One of super-heavy
Karl-Gerät siege mortars used by the German army in
World War II
25.
Crossbows
–
A crossbow, also known as horizontal bow, is a type of weapon based on the bow and consisting of a horizontal bow-like assembly mounted on a stock. It shoots projectiles called bolts or quarrels, the medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which were derived from the word ballista, a torsion siege engine resembling a crossbow. Historically, crossbows played a significant role in the warfare of East Asia, Europe, the introduction of the crossbow in ancient China caused a major shift in the role of projectile weaponry. The traditional bow and arrow had long been a weapon that required a considerable training, physical strength. A crossbow is a bow mounted on a stick with a mechanism in it that holds the bow string. The earliest designs featured a slot in the stock, down into which the string was placed, to shoot this design, a vertical rod is thrust up through a hole in the bottom of the notch, forcing the string out. This rod is attached perpendicular to a rear-facing lever called a trigger or tickler. A later design implemented a rolling cylindrical pawl called a nut to retain the string and this nut has a perpendicular center slot for the bolt, and an intersecting axial slot for the string, along with a lower face or slot against which the internal trigger sits. They often also have some form of strengthening internal sear or trigger face and these roller nuts were either free-floating in their close-fitting hole across the stock, tied in with a binding of sinew or other strong cording, or mounted on a metal axle or pins. Removable or integral plates of wood, ivory, or metal on the sides of the stock kept the nut in place laterally, nuts were made of antler, bone, or metal. Bows could be kept taut and ready to shoot for some time with little effort, the bow of early crossbows was made of a single piece of wood, usually ash or yew. Composite bows are made from layers of different material, often wood, horn and these composite bows made of several layers are much stronger and more efficient in releasing energy than simple wooden bows. As steel became more available in Europe around the 14th century. The crossbow prod is very short compared to ordinary bows, resulting in a draw length. This leads to a draw weight in order to store the same amount of energy. Furthermore, the thick prods are a bit less efficient at releasing energy, traditionally, the prod was often lashed to the stock with rope, whipcord, or other strong cording. This cording is called the bridle, the strings for a crossbow are typically made of strong fibers that would not tend to fray. Whipcord was very common, however linen, hemp, and sinew were used as well, in wet conditions, twisted mulberry root was occasionally used
Crossbows
–
Sketch by
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500
Crossbows
–
Stirrup
Crossbows
–
Cranequin (Rack & Pinion)
Crossbows
–
Modern recurve crossbow
26.
Trebuchet
–
A trebuchet is a type of siege engine most frequently used in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes called a trebuchet or counterpoise trebuchet, to distinguish it from an earlier weapon called the traction trebuchet. The counterweight trebuchet appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the 12th century and it was commonly used to fling projectiles weighing between 50 kilograms and 100 kilograms at or into enemy fortifications located up to 300 metres away. Its use continued into the 15th century, well after the introduction of gunpowder, the three distinguishing characteristics of a trebuchet are, The trebuchet is a compound machine—a combination of simple machines. The trebuchet makes use of the advantage of a lever. Most trebuchets are powered exclusively by the force of gravity, potential energy is stored by means of an extremely heavy weight box attached to the counterweight portion of the throwing arm. When the trebuchet is fired, the box is permitted to fall. The throwing arm is usually four to six times the length of the counterweight portion and these factors multiply the acceleration transmitted to the throwing portion of the arm and its attached sling. The sling is affixed to the end of the portion of the throwing arm. The sling contains the projectile and transmits the forces generated at the end of the arm to the projectile. The sling also changes the trajectory, so that, at the time of release from the sling, the couillard is a smaller version with a single stem or platform instead of the usual double A frames. The counterweight is split into two halves to avoid hitting the center stem, the trebuchet derives from the ancient sling, and originated in China. A variation of the sling, called staff sling, contained a piece of wood to extend the arm. This evolved into the traction trebuchet in which a number of people pulled on ropes attached to the arm of a lever that has a sling on the long arm. This type of trebuchet was smaller and had a shorter range and these teams would sometimes be local citizens helping in the siege or in the defense of their town. Traction trebuchets had a range of 100 to 200 feet when casting weights up to 250 pounds, the first traction trebuchets were invented by the Chinese sometime before the 4th century BC. The first traction trebuchets may have used by the Mohists in China as early as 4th century BC. At the Battle of Caishi in 1161, trebuchets operated by Song Dynasty soldiers fired bombs of lime, recent work showed that the traction trebuchet was transferred to the eastern Mediterranean by the late 6th century during the Northern Zhou or Sui dynasty
Trebuchet
–
Trebuchets at
Château de Castelnaud
Trebuchet
–
trebuchet constructed on the design of the "Warwolf"
Trebuchet
–
Medieval traction trebuchet (also called a perrier) next to a staff slinger
Trebuchet
–
Sìjiǎo "Four Footed" Trebuchet from the
Wujing Zongyao.
27.
Tower
–
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, Towers are specifically distinguished from buildings in that they are not built to be habitable but to serve other functions. Towers can be stand alone structures or be supported by adjacent buildings or can be a feature on top of a structure or building. Old English torr is from Latin turris via Old French tor, the Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, connected with the Illyrian toponym Βου-δοργίς. The oldest known may be the stone tower in walls of Neolithic Jericho. Some of the earliest towers were ziggurats, which existed in Sumerian architecture since the 4th millennium BC, the most famous ziggurats include the Sumerian Ziggurat of Ur, built the 3rd millennium BC, and the Etemenanki, one of the most famous examples of Babylonian architecture. The latter was built in Babylon during the 2nd millennium BC and was considered the tallest tower of the ancient world, some of the earliest surviving examples are the broch structures in northern Scotland, which are conical towerhouses. These and other examples from Phoenician and Roman cultures emphasised the use of a tower in fortification, for example, the name of the Moroccan city of Mogador, founded in the first millennium BC, is derived from the Phoenician word for watchtower. The Romans utilised octagonal towers as elements of Diocletians Palace in Croatia, which monument dates to approximately 300 AD, while the Servian Walls, the Chinese used towers as integrated elements of the Great Wall of China in 210 BC during the Qin Dynasty. Towers were also an important element of castles, other well known towers include the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372 and the Two Towers in Bologna, Italy built from 1109 until 1119. The Himalayan Towers are stone towers located chiefly in Tibet built approximately 14th to 15th century, up to a certain height, a tower can be made with the supporting structure with parallel sides. However, above a height, the compressive load of the material is exceeded. This can be avoided if the support structure tapers up the building. A second limit is that of buckling—the structure requires sufficient stiffness to avoid breaking under the loads it faces, many very tall towers have their support structures at the periphery of the building, which greatly increases the overall stiffness. A third limit is dynamic, a tower is subject to varying winds, vortex shedding and these are often dealt with through a combination of simple strength and stiffness, as well as in some cases tuned mass dampers to damp out movements. Varying or tapering the outer aspect of the tower with height avoids vibrations due to vortex shedding occurring along the building simultaneously. Although not correctly called towers many modern skyscraper are often called towers, in the United Kingdom, tall domestic buildings are referred to as tower blocks. In the United States, the original World Trade Center had the nickname the Twin Towers, the tower throughout history has provided its users with an advantage in surveying defensive positions and obtaining a better view of the surrounding areas, including battlefields
Tower
–
The
Eiffel Tower in
Paris,
France
Tower
–
Azadi Tower in
Tehran,
Iran, depicting
Persian Architecture styles of various eras
Tower
–
The
Two Towers in
Bologna,
Italy
Tower
–
CN Tower (world's sixth tallest freestanding structure) in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada
28.
Crenellation
–
These gaps are termed crenels, and the act of adding crenels to a previously unbroken parapet is termed crenellation. The solid widths between the crenels are called merlons, a wall with battlements is said to be crenelated or embattled. Battlements on walls have protected walkways behind them, on tower or building tops, the roof is used as the protected fighting platform. The term originated in about the 14th century from the Old French word batailler, the word crenel derives from the ancient French cren, Latin crena, meaning a notch, mortice or other gap cut out often to receive another element or fixing, see also crenation. In medieval England a licence to crenellate granted the permission to fortify their property. The castles in England vastly outnumber the licences to crenellate, royal pardons were obtainable, on the payment of an arbitrarily determined fine, by a person who had fortified without licence. The surviving records of such licences, generally issued by letters patent, there has been academic debate over the purpose of licensing. The view of military-focused historians is that licensing restricted the number of fortifications that could be used against a royal army and they indicated to the observer that the grantee had obtained royal recognition, acknowledgment and compliment. The crown usually did not charge for the granting of such licences, battlements have been used for thousands of years, the earliest known example is in the fortress at Buhen in Egypt. Battlements were used in the walls surrounding Assyrian towns, as shown on bas reliefs from Nimrud, traces of them remain at Mycenae in Greece, and some ancient Greek vases suggest the existence of battlements. The Great Wall of China has battlements, late merlons permitted fire from the first firearms. From the 13th century, the merlons could be connected with wooden shutters that provided added protection when closed, the shutters were designed to be opened to allow shooters to fire against the attackers, and closed during reloading. The Romans used low wooden pinnacles for their first aggeres, in the battlements of Pompeii, additional protection derived from small internal buttresses or spur walls, against which the defender might stand so as to gain complete protection on one side. Loop-holes were frequent in Italian battlements, where the merlon has much greater height, Italian military architects used the so-called Ghibelline or swallowtail battlement, with V-shaped notches in the tops of the merlon, giving a horn-like effect. This would allow the defender to be protected whilst shooting standing fully upright, the normal rectangular merlons were later nicknamed Guelph. In Muslim and African fortifications, the merlons often were rounded, the battlements of the Arabs had a more decorative and varied character, and were continued from the 13th century onwards not so much for defensive purposes as for a crowning feature to the walls. They serve a similar to the cresting found in the Spanish Renaissance. European architects persistently used battlements as a decorative feature throughout the Decorated
Crenellation
–
Battlements on the
Great Wall of China
Crenellation
–
Drawing of battlements on a tower
Crenellation
–
Battlements in
Persepolis
Crenellation
–
9th-century BC relief of an
Assyrian attack on a walled town with
zig-zag shaped battlements
29.
Machicolation
–
The word derives from the Old French word machecol, mentioned in Medieval Latin as machecollum, probably from Old French machier crush, wound and col neck. Machicolate is only recorded in the 18th century in English, but a verb machicollāre is attested in Anglo-Latin, the Spanish word denoting this structure, matacán, is similarly composed from matar canes meaning roughly killing dogs, the latter being a reference to infidels. The design of a machicoulis, commonly known as drop box, in Arab fortifications they are usually found on defensive walls. The original Arab design was small, and similar to the domestic wooden balcony known as Mashrabiya. However, different from the balcony, for defense purposes it prominently features a wide opening at the bottom. The opening allows the dropping of hot water or oil and other material intended to harm to the enemy below. The feature of a closed balcony also allows to cover while making use. A hoarding is a structure made of wood, usually temporarily constructed in the event of a siege. Advantages of machicolations over wooden hoardings include the strength and fire resistance of stone. Machicolations were more common in French castles than English, where they were restricted to the gateway. One of the first examples of machicolation that still exists in northern France is Château de Farcheville built in 1291 outside Paris, similar to a machicolation is a smaller version which opens as a balcony, generally from a tower rather than a larger structure. Machicolations were a feature in many towers and rural buildings in Malta until the 18th century. Buildings with machicolations include Cavalier Tower, Gauci Tower, the Captains Tower, machicolation was later used for decorative effect with spaces between the corbels but without the openings, and subsequently became a characteristic of many non-military buildings. Bretèche Arrow slit Hoarding Murder hole Media related to Machicolations at Wikimedia Commons Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture, machicolation
Machicolation
–
Functional machicolation at
Château de Pierrefonds
30.
Syria
–
Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
Syria
–
Female figurine, 5000 BC.
Ancient Orient Museum.
Syria
–
Flag
Syria
–
God head, the kingdom of
Yamhad (c. 1600 BC)
Syria
–
Ebla royal palace c. 2400 BC
31.
Bent entrance
–
A bent entrance is a defensive feature in mediaeval fortification. In a castle with a bent entrance, the passage is narrow. Its purpose is to slow down attackers attempting to rush the gate and it is often combined with means for an active defence, such as machicolations, in effect confining intruders to a narrow killing zone. Its defensive function is related to that of a barbican in front of the gate, bent entrances are typical of Arab fortifications and crusader castles. The Citadel of Aleppo is an example of the former. The most elaborate bent entrance among crusader castles is the entrance ramp at Crac des Chevaliers. In addition to the gate, postern gates could also feature a bent entrance. For instance, in the crusader castle at Belvoir, posterns open into the moat at the angle between the outer wall and the corner towers. Bent entrances of such complexity as at Crac are less common in European castles, see for example the long gate passage at Harlech Castle, which uses multiple doors and murder-holes, but no turns. The castle in England and Wales, an interpretive history
Bent entrance
–
Bent entrance of
Citadel of Aleppo, Syria
32.
Hospitallers
–
It was headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, until it became known by its current name. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thoms order and it regained strength during the early 19th century as it redirected itself toward religious and humanitarian causes. In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, acquired new headquarters in Rome, in 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital, in 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist and it was served by the Order of Saint Benedict. Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under his successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character. Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as Master of the Hospital in 1118, organised a militia from the orders members, in 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a silver cross in a field of red. The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land, frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185. The statutes of Roger de Moulins deal only with the service of the sick, the order numbered three distinct classes of membership, the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service. In 1248 Pope Innocent IV approved a military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour, they wore a red surcoat with a cross emblazoned on it. Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars, at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers, the property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies. As early as the late 12th century the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England, as a result, buildings such as St Johns Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. His successor, Foulques de Villaret, executed the plan, and on 15 August 1310, after four years of campaigning
Hospitallers
–
Grand Master and senior Knights Hospitaller in the 14th century
Hospitallers
–
Knights Hospitaller
Hospitallers
–
Street of Knights in Rhodes
Hospitallers
–
The Knights' castle at Rhodes
33.
Templars
–
The order was founded in 1119 and active from about 1129 to 1312. The order, which was among the wealthiest and most powerful, became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and they were prominent in Christian finance. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades, the Templars were closely tied to the Crusades, when the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France – deeply in debt to the order – took advantage of the situation to control over them. In 1307, he had many of the members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip, the abrupt reduction in power of a significant group in European society gave rise to speculation, legend, and legacy through the ages. The re-use of their name for later organizations has kept the name Templar alive to the modern day, after Europeans in the First Crusade recovered Jerusalem in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land. Although the city of Jerusalem was under relatively secure Christian control, in 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims. The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomons Temple, and from this location the new order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or Templar knights. The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard, had few financial resources and their emblem was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasising the orders poverty. The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long, another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent IIs papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, with its clear mission and ample resources, the order grew rapidly. One of their most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, although the primary mission of the order was military, relatively few members were combatants. The others acted in support positions to assist the knights and to manage the financial infrastructure, the Templar Order, though its members were sworn to individual poverty, was given control of wealth beyond direct donations. A nobleman who was interested in participating in the Crusades might place all his assets under Templar management while he was away, based on this mix of donations and business dealing, the Templars established financial networks across the whole of Christendom. The Order of the Knights Templar arguably qualifies as the worlds first multinational corporation, in the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The Muslim world had become united under effective leaders such as Saladin, and dissension arose amongst Christian factions in, and concerning
Templars
–
A
Seal of the Knights Templar
Templars
–
The first headquarters of the Knights Templar, on the
Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Crusaders called it the
Temple of Solomon and from this location derived their name of Templar.
Templars
–
Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187, the turning point in the Crusades
Templars
–
Convent of Christ Castle in Tomar,
Portugal. Built in 1160 as a stronghold for the Knights Templar, it became the headquarters of the renamed
Order of Christ. In 1983, it was named a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
34.
Monastery
–
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
Monastery
–
The
Monastery of Santa María del Parral of the
Hieronymites monks in
Segovia,
Spain
Monastery
–
Monastery of St. Nilus on
Stolbnyi Island in
Lake Seliger near
Ostashkov,
Russia, ca. 1910
Monastery
–
Tengboche Buddhist monastery,
Nepal
Monastery
–
Rumtek Monastery,
Gangtok Sikkim
35.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
36.
Wales
–
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
Wales
–
Bryn Celli Ddu, a late Neolithic chambered tomb on Anglesey
Wales
–
Flag
Wales
–
This article is about the country. For other uses, see
Wales (disambiguation).
Wales
–
Coin of
Magnus Maximus
37.
Holy Roman Empire
–
The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
Holy Roman Empire
–
The Holy Roman Empire at its maximal extent, in the 13th century
Holy Roman Empire
–
Imperial Banner
Holy Roman Empire
–
An illustration from
Schedelsche Weltchronik depicting the structure of the Reich: The Holy Roman Emperor is sitting; on his left are three ecclesiastics; on his right are four secular electors.
Holy Roman Empire
–
Double-headed eagle with coats of arms of individual states, symbol of the Holy Roman Empire (painting from 1510)
38.
Zwinger (castle)
–
A Zwinger is an open area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. Zwingers were built in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period to improve the defence of castles, the term is German and usually left untranslated. The word is linked with zwingen, to force, perhaps because the Zwinger forced an enemy to negotiate it before assaulting the main defensive line. If attackers succeed in getting past the Zwinger wall, they would be trapped in the Zwinger and were a target for the defenders on the main wall. Further progress was thus seriously impeded, in central Europe most Zwingers were built in front of older castle walls as a later addition and reinforcement of the defences. The Zwinger in front of a gate is a fortified area between the main gate and the outer gate of a medieval town gateway system. Town gates were built in the shape of a gate tower, with a second. In front of the walls in the area of the town gates there was usually a second wall in which the outer gate was located. An enemy who had breached the gate and penetrated the Zwinger would find himself in an enclosed area with very little scope to exploit his initial success. By contrast, the defenders retreating behind the town walls could easily engage the enemy below them in the killing ground of the Zwinger. The barbican is based on a concept to the gateway Zwinger and is found in front of the main wall. In the Hussite period impressive examples were built that were intended as protection against early firearms. The open area of the Zwinger was mainly used in peacetime to keep animals or as a garden, as their defensive function became superfluous, in many cases barns, stables and storage buildings were erected in Zwingers. The Zwinger at Dresden inherited its name from the old Zwinger in front of the Crown Gate on the wall of the fortress. It was never intended as a fortification, however, but was conceived as the courtyard of a new palace. The development of the Zwinger has not been researched to date. By the fifth century A. D. a fully developed Zwinger had been built in front of the Byzantine walls of Constantinople, in early medieval fortifications, too, a succession of defensive walls can be seen. Especially during the time of the Hungarian invasions, defensive castles were protected by berms and these were not Zwingers in the true sense of the word, often an intermediate moat separated the lines of defence
Zwinger (castle)
–
Gateway leading into the Zwinger in
Carcassonne. Right: the lower Zwinger wall.
Zwinger (castle)
–
The Zwinger around
Coburg Fortress reinforced by Early Modern Era bastions
Zwinger (castle)
–
Part view of the
Theodosian Wall of the former city of Constantinople. In the foreground: the double Zwinger.
Zwinger (castle)
–
The Krak des Chevaliers with its extensive Zwinger system around the inner ward (artist's reconstruction from 1871)
39.
Theodosian Walls
–
With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, as the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Ultimately the city fell from sheer weight of numbers of the Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453 after a six-week siege. The walls were largely maintained intact during most of the Ottoman period, until sections began to be dismantled in the 19th century, despite the subsequent lack of maintenance, many parts of the walls survived and are still standing today. A large-scale restoration program has been under way since the 1980s, according to tradition, the city was founded as Byzantium by Greek colonists from Megara, led by the eponymous Byzas, around 658 BC. At the time the city consisted of a region around an acropolis. This wall was protected by 27 towers, and had at least two gates, one which survived to become known as the Arch of Urbicius. On the seaward side, the wall was much lower and this wall is known to have been repaired, utilising tomb stones, under the leadership of a certain Leo in 340 BC, against an attack by Philip II of Macedon. Byzantium was relatively unimportant during the early Roman period, contemporaries described it as wealthy, well peopled and well fortified, but this affluence came to an end due to its support for Pescennius Niger in his war against Septimius Severus. Severus punished the city harshly, the walls were demolished. The Patria also mention the existence of another wall during the siege of Byzantium by Constantine the Great during the conflict with Licinius. Like Severus before him, Constantine began to punish the city for siding with his defeated rival, during 324–336 the city was thoroughly rebuilt and inaugurated on 11 May 330 under the name of Second Rome. The name that prevailed in common usage however was Constantinople. The city of Constantine was protected by a new wall about 2.8 km west of the Severan wall, constantines fortification consisted of a single wall, reinforced with towers at regular distances, which began to be constructed in 324 and was completed under his son Constantius II. Only the approximate course of the wall is known, it began at the Church of St. Aemilianus, already by the early 5th century however, Constantinople had expanded outside the Constantinian Wall, in the extramural area known as the Exokionion or Exakionion. The wall survived during much of the Byzantine period, even though it was replaced by the Theodosian Walls as the primary defence. Only traces of the wall appear to have survived in later ages, the recent construction of Yenikapı Transfer Center has unearthed a section of the foundation of the wall of Constantine. The names of a number of gates of the Constantinian Wall survive, the gate stood somewhere on the southern slopes of the Seventh Hill
Theodosian Walls
–
Map showing Constantinople and its walls during the Byzantine era
Theodosian Walls
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls at the Selymbria Gate. The Outer Wall and the wall of the moat are visible, with a tower of the Inner Wall in the background.
Theodosian Walls
–
Photo of the peribolos, the space between the inner and outer walls.
40.
Constantinople
–
Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
Constantinople
–
Constantinople in the Byzantine era
Constantinople
–
Map of Byzantine Constantinople
Constantinople
–
Emperor
Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.
Hagia Sophia, c. 1000
Constantinople
–
Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople
41.
Carcassonne
–
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the Region of Occitanie. Inhabited since the Neolithic period, Carcassonne is located in the Aude plain between historic trade routes, linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean sea and the Massif Central to the Pyrénées and its strategic location led successive rulers to expand its fortifications until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The city is famous for the Cité de Carcassonne, a medieval fortress restored by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1853, consequently, Carcassonne relies heavily on tourism but also counts manufacture and wine-making as some of its other key economic sectors. Carcassonne is located in the south of France, about 80 kilometres east from the city of Toulouse and its strategic location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea has been known since the neolithic era. The towns area is about 65 km2, which is larger than the numerous small towns in the Aude department. The rivers Aude, Fresquel and the Canal du Midi flow through the town, the Volcae Tectosages fortified the oppidum. The folk etymology – involving a châtelaine named Carcas, a ruse ending a siege, Carcas on a column near the Narbonne Gate, is of modern invention. The name can be derived as an augmentative of the name Carcas, Carcassonne became strategically identified when Romans fortified the hilltop around 100 BC and eventually made the colonia of Julia Carsaco, later Carcasum. The main part of the courses of the northern ramparts dates from Gallo-Roman times. In 462 the Romans officially ceded Septimania to the Visigothic king Theodoric II who had held Carcassonne since 453 and he built more fortifications at Carcassonne, which was a frontier post on the northern marches, traces of them still stand. Theodoric is thought to have begun the predecessor of the basilica that is now dedicated to Saint Nazaire, in 508 the Visigoths successfully foiled attacks by the Frankish king Clovis. A medieval fiefdom, the county of Carcassonne, controlled the city and it was often united with the County of Razès. The origins of Carcassonne as a county probably lie in local representatives of the Visigoths, Bello founded a dynasty, the Bellonids, which would rule many honores in Septimania and Catalonia for three centuries. In 1067, Carcassonne became the property of Raimond-Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes, through his marriage with Ermengard, in the following centuries, the Trencavel family allied in succession either with the counts of Barcelona or of Toulouse. They built the Château Comtal and the Basilica of St. Nazaire, in 1096, Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of the new cathedral. Carcassonne became famous for its role in the Albigensian Crusades, when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars, in August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal Legate, Abbot Arnaud Amalric, forced its citizens to surrender. Raymond-Roger de Trencavel was imprisoned whilst negotiating his citys surrender and died in mysterious circumstances three months later in his own dungeon, simon De Montfort was appointed the new viscount. In 1240, Trencavels son tried to reconquer his old domain, the city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247
Carcassonne
–
Panorama of the
Cité de Carcassonne
Carcassonne
–
Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209
Carcassonne
–
View of Carcassonne in the late 19th century.
42.
Vauban
–
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban, commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age. He also advised Louis XIV on how to consolidate Frances borders, Vauban made a radical suggestion of giving up some land that was indefensible to allow for a stronger, less porous border with Frances neighbours. Vauban was born in Saint-Léger-de-Foucheret, in Burgundy France, into a family of minor nobility, at the age of ten he was left an orphan in very poor circumstances, and his boyhood and youth were spent amongst the peasantry of his native place. At the age of seventeen Vauban joined the regiment of Condé in the war of the Fronde and he received the offer of a commission within a year, which he declined on account of poverty. Condé then employed him to assist in the fortification of Clermont-en-Argonne and he was employed in the siege of Sainte-Menehould and won a lieutenancy in the regiment of Burgundy, and at Stenay he was wounded twice. About this time he married a cousin, Jeanne dAulnay, after the peace, Vauban was put in charge of the construction of several important defences, amongst other places at Dunkirk, where his work continued until the year before his death. On the renewal of war in 1662 he conducted, while the king was present, during the siege of Lille he so distinguished himself that he received a lieutenancy in the guard. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle confirmed Frances possession of new fortresses, which Vauban now improved or rebuilt, hitherto the characteristic features of his methods of fortification had not been developed, and the systems of preceding engineers were faithfully followed. On the renewal of war Vauban again conducted the most important sieges, in the latter year he also supervised the only defence in which he ever took part, that of Oudenaarde. This was followed by the reduction of Dinant, Huy and Limbourg, at this time he wrote for the commandants of Verdun and Le Quesnoy, valuable Instructions pour la défense. In 1675 Vauban bought the Château de Bazoches, in 1676 he was made Maréchal de camp. He took Condé, Bouchain and other places in that year, Valenciennes and Cambrai in 1677, Ghent and Ypres in 1678. It was at time that Vauban synthesized the methods of attacking strong places. The Peace of Nijmegen gave more territory to France, and more fortresses had to be adapted. Most of these had been rebuilt by Vauban, and further acquisitions, notably Strasbourg, involved him in unceasing work, at Saarlouis for the first time appeared Vaubans first system of fortification, which remained the accepted standard until comparatively recent times. He never hesitated to retain what was of advantage in the methods of his predecessors, which he had hitherto followed, having now attained the rank of Lieutenant Général, he took the field once more, and captured Kortrijk in 1683, and Luxembourg in the following year. In 1687 he chose Landau as the place of arms of Lower Alsace. But side by side with this development grew up the far more important scheme of attack and his last siege was that of Old Breisach in 1703, when he reduced the place in a fortnight
Vauban
–
Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban
Vauban
–
Vauban, French School painting of the 18th century
Vauban
–
Model of typical Vauban's star-shaped citadel (
Citadel of Lille)
Vauban
–
Citadel of Besançon
43.
Citadel
–
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a fortress, castle, or fortified center, the term is a diminutive of city and thus means little city, so called because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. It is positioned to be the last line of defense, should the enemy breach the other components of the fortification system, a citadel is also a term of the third part of a medieval castle, with higher walls than the rest. It was to be the last line of defense before the keep itself, some of the oldest known structures which have served as citadels were built by the Indus Valley Civilization, harappan, where the citadel represented a centralised authority. The main citadel in Indus Valley was almost 12 meters tall, the purpose of these structures, however, remains debated. Though the structures found in the ruins of Mohenjo-daro were walled, rather, they may have been built to divert flood waters. The most well-known is the Acropolis of Athens, but nearly every Greek city-state had one – the Acrocorinth famed as a strong fortress. In a much later period, when Greece was ruled by the Latin Empire, rebels who took power in the city but with the citadel still held by the former rulers could by no means regard their tenure of power as secure. One such incident played an important part in the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, the Hellenistic garrison of Jerusalem and local supporters of the Seleucids held out for many years in the Acra citadel, making Maccabean rule in the rest of Jerusalem precarious. When finally gaining possession of the place, the Maccabeans pointedly destroyed and razed the Acra, a city where the citadel held out against an invading army was not considered conquered. In the Philippines The Ivatan people of the islands of Batanes often built fortifications to protect themselves during times of war. They built their so-called idjangs on hills and elevated areas. These fortifications were likened to European castles because of their purpose. Usually, the entrance to the castles would be via a rope ladder that would only be lowered for the villagers. In time of war the citadel in many cases afforded retreat to the living in the areas around the town. For example, during the Dutch Wars of 1664-67, King Charles II of England constructed a Royal Citadel at Plymouth, barcelona had a great citadel built in 1714 to intimidate the Catalans against repeating their mid-17th- and early-18th-century rebellions against the Spanish central government. A similar example is the Citadella in Budapest, Hungary, the Citadelle of Québec still survives as the largest citadel still in official military operation in North America. It is home to the Royal 22nd Regiment of Canada, citadels since the mid 20th century, are commonly military command and control centres built to resist attack commonly aerial or nuclear bombardment. The Military citadels under London such as the underground complex beneath the Ministry of Defense called Pindar is one such example
Citadel
–
In this seventeenth-century plan of the fortified city of
Casale Monferrato the citadel is the large star-shaped structure on the left.
Citadel
–
Vauban 's citadel of
Neuf Brisach (France)
Citadel
–
The
Citadel of Aleppo,
Syria.
Citadel
–
The Citadel of
Gondershe, Somalia was an important city in the Medieval
Ajuran Empire.
44.
Sao Jorge Castle
–
São Jorge Castle is a Moorish castle occupying a commanding hilltop overlooking the historic centre of the Portuguese city of Lisbon and Tagus River. The strongly fortified citadel dates from period of Portuguese history. Although the first fortifications on this date from the 2nd century BC. The first fortification was, presumably, erected in 48 BC, during the 10th century, the fortifications were rebuilt by Muslim Berber forces, these included the walls or Cerca Moura. With the taking of the castle Christian forces were able to maintain the defense of Lisbon until the end of the 12th century. When Lisbon became the capital of the kingdom in 1255, the served as the alcáçova. It was extensively renovated around 1300 by King Denis I, transforming the Moorish alcáçova into the Royal Palace of the Alcáçova. Between 1373 and 1375, King Ferdinand I ordered the building of the Cerca Nova or Cerca Fernandina, the master builders João Fernandes and Vasco Brás were responsible for its construction. This wall, which replaced the old Moorish walls, was designed to encircle previously unprotected parts of the city. Completed in two years, it had 77 towers and a perimeter of 5,400 metres, the castle and the city resisted the forces of Castile several times during the 14th century. It was during this period that the castle was dedicated to Saint George by King John I, Saint George, the warrior-saint, was normally represented slaying a dragon, and was very popular in both countries. From this point onward many of the records were housed in the Torre de Ulisses, also known as the Torre Albarrã. The Portuguese National Archive, where the eminent Portuguese chroniclers Fernão Lopes, on 9 December 1448, Gil Pires was named the castle master builder to replace Afonso Esteves, being paid 400 réis for his work. Between 1448 and 1451, the builder was paid several stipends for his work on the palace. Similarly, the mason João de Alverca was paid a sum for stonework. These public works continued from 1449 until 1452, with payments being made for labor. As the royal palace, the castle was the setting for the reception by King Manuel I of the navigator Vasco da Gama when he returned from discovering the maritime route to India in 1498. The castle also served as a theater in 1502 when pioneering playwright Gil Vicente staged his Monólogo do Vaqueiro to honor the birth of Manuel Is son and heir, the future João III
Sao Jorge Castle
–
The visible profile of the Castle of São Jorge overlooking the historical centre of Lisbon
Sao Jorge Castle
–
A 16th century illuminated manuscript of Lisbon, in the Crónica de D. Afonso Henriques by Duarte Galvao, depicting the castle and walls, including the Royal Palace (Alcáçova) (1505)
Sao Jorge Castle
–
Lisbon seen from São Jorge Castle
Sao Jorge Castle
–
The castle walls and towers, constructed during the Moorish occupation of Lisbon
45.
Lisbon
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Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km². Its urban area extends beyond the administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and it is continental Europes westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean, the westernmost areas of its metro area is the westernmost point of Continental Europe. Lisbon is recognised as a city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education. It is one of the economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector. Humberto Delgado Airport serves over 20 million passengers annually, as of 2015, and the motorway network, the city is the 7th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Milan, with 1,740,000 tourists in 2009. The Lisbon region contributes with a higher GDP PPP per capita than any region in Portugal. Its GDP amounts to 96.3 billion USD and thus $32,434 per capita, the city occupies 32nd place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinationals in the country are located in the Lisbon area and it is also the political centre of the country, as its seat of Government and residence of the Head of State. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, in 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbons status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal. It has one of the warmest winters of any metropolis in Europe, the typical summer season lasts about four months, from June to September, although also in April temperatures sometimes reach around 25 °C. Although modern archaeological excavations show a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, another conjecture based on ancient hydronymy suggests that the name of the settlement derived from the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus, Lisso or Lucio. Lisbons name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by the geographer Pomponius Mela and it was later referred to as Olisippo by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. The Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population and this indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects
Lisbon
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Clockwise, from top:
Praça do Comércio,
Parque Eduardo VII,
Padrão dos Descobrimentos,
Torre de Belém, the
Sé de Lisboa, and
Parque das Nações.
Lisbon
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Phoenician archaeological dig in the
Lisbon Cathedral cloisters
Lisbon
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Section of the Cerca Velha (Old Wall) of Visigothic origin.
Lisbon
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São Jorge Castle and the surrounding areas of Castelo and Mouraria.
46.
Kidwelly Castle
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Kidwelly Castle is a Norman castle overlooking the River Gwendraeth and the town of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The present remains of the castle include work from about 1200 to about 1476, created as a defence against the Welsh, the castle fell to the Welsh several times in the twelfth century. Later in its history, it was besieged by forces of Owain Glyndŵr in 1403 with assistance from soldiers from France. The castle was relieved by a Norman army after just three weeks, the gatehouse was extensively damaged and it was rebuilt on the instructions of King Henry V. It largely escaped involvement in the English Civil War, the river prevents this from being a truly concentric plan, however a jutting tower protects the riverside walls, and the final plan is very strong. The castle is relatively well-preserved, and is managed by Cadw, the surrounding countryside is reputedly haunted by the headless ghost of Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd, wife of the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Rhys, who was beheaded in 1136. Kidwelly was used as a location for the film Monty Python, after the first view of King Arthur and Patsy, a very misty establishing shot shows Kidwelly as their destination. However, the close up filming was done at Doune Castle in Scotland. List of Cadw properties List of castles in Wales Castles in Great Britain and Ireland Kenyon, John R. Kidwelly Castle, Cardiff, Cadw, ISBN 978-1-85760-256-2 Cadw page Kidwelly Castle
Kidwelly Castle
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Kidwelly Castle
Kidwelly Castle
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Plan of Kidwelly Castle
Kidwelly Castle
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The castle in the 1890s, with the ruins partly overgrown
47.
Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle is a medieval fortification in Caerphilly in South Wales. It is famous for having introduced concentric castle defences to Britain, Gilbert began work on the castle in 1268 following his occupation of the north of Glamorgan, with the majority of the construction occurring over the next three years at a considerable cost. The project was opposed by Gilberts Welsh rival Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, leading to the site being burnt in 1270, despite these interruptions, Gilbert successfully completed the castle and took control of the region. The dams for these lakes were further fortified, and an island to the west provided additional protection, the concentric rings of walls inspired Edward Is castles in North Wales, and proved what historian Norman Pounds has termed a turning point in the history of the castle in Britain. The castle was attacked during the Madog ap Llywelyn revolt of 1294, in the late 15th century, however, it fell into decline and by the 16th century the lakes had drained away and the walls were robbed of their stone. The Marquesses of Bute acquired the property in 1776 and under the third, in 1950 the castle and grounds were given to the state and the water defences were re-flooded. In the 21st century, the Welsh heritage agency Cadw manages the site as a tourist attraction, Caerphilly Castle was built in the second half of the 13th century, as part of the Anglo-Norman expansion into South Wales. The Normans began to make incursions into Wales from the late 1060s onwards and their advance was marked by the construction of castles and the creation of regional lordships. The powerful de Clare family acquired the earldom in 1217 and continued to attempt to conquer the whole of the Glamorgan region, in 1263, Gilbert de Clare, also known as Red Gilbert because of the colour of his hair, inherited the family lands. Opposing him in Glamorgan was the native Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Llywelyn had taken advantage of the chaos of the civil war in England between Henry III and rebel barons during the 1260s to expand his power across the region. De Clare believed his lands and power were under threat and allied himself with Henry III against the rebel barons, the baronial revolt was crushed between 1266 and 1267, leaving de Clare free to advance north into Glamorgan from his main base in Cardiff. De Clare started to construct a castle at Caerphilly to control his new gains in 1268, the castle lay in a basin of the Rhymney Valley, alongside the Rhymney River and at the heart of network of paths and roads, adjacent to a former Roman fort. Work began at a pace, with ditches cut to form the basic shape of the castle, temporary wooden palisades erected. The walls and internal buildings were built at speed, forming the part of the castle. Llywelyn responded by intervening with his own forces but outright conflict was prevented by the efforts of Henry III. De Clare continued building work and in 1270 Llywelyn responded by attacking and burning the site, the bishops took possession of the castle later in 1271 and promised Llywelyn that building work would temporarily cease and that negotiations would begin the following summer. In February of the year, however, de Clares men seized back the castle, threw out the bishops soldiers. Neither Henry nor Llywelyn could readily intervene and de Clare was able to lay claim to the whole of Glamorgan, work on the castle continued, with additional water defences, towers and gatehouses added
Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle and moat
Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle seen from the west
Caerphilly Castle
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Great Hall (l), private apartments (c), Inner West Gatehouse (r)
Caerphilly Castle
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The restored Inner East Gatehouse (l), inspired by that at Tonbridge Castle (r)
48.
Rhuddlan Castle
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Rhuddlan Castle is a castle located in Rhuddlan, Denbighshire, Wales. It was erected by Edward I in 1277, following the First Welsh War, much of the work was overseen by master mason James of Saint George. Rhuddlan, which was not completed until 1282, was concurrently with Flint Castle. It was temporarily his residence, and his daughter, Elizabeth, is presumed to have been born there, Rhuddlan was planned as a concentric castle. It has a diamond in layout as the gatehouses are positioned at the corners of the square baileys instead of along the sides like at Flint. Records of construction costs show that it was the piece of building work being carried out by the English during the late 1270s. The inner ward has defensive walls with twin-tower gatehouses, the outer ward is surrounded by a curtain wall that has small towers and turrets. Within the inner ward there was a hall, kitchens, private apartments. The outer bailey had a granary, stables and a smithy, Rhuddlan is next to the River Clwyd. During the fortifications lengthy construction, the course was straightened and dredged to allow ships to sail inland along a man-made channel. Its purpose was to allow provisions and troops to reach the castle even if hostile forces or a siege prevented overland travel, a further protective earthwork and timber structure was created around it in 1280-82. The castle was completed prior to the rebellion of Llywelyn the Last in 1282, the story of Rhuddlan goes back much further than the fortress built by Edward I. Prior to the Norman occupation of lower Gwynedd, Rhuddlan was at the heart of a Welsh cantref, from here the Lords of Rhuddlan commanded the Perfeddwlad on behalf of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, the last ruler of all Wales. The town itself, however, began as a Saxon burgh founded by Edward the Elder, in the late 11th century, the Normans invaded Gwynedd. The remains of a Norman castle at Twthill, built in 1086, is just to the south of the current castle, it was built by Robert of Rhuddlan, a supporter of King William I of England. In July 1277, at the outbreak of the Welsh Wars, Edward I left Chester and established a base at Flint. With naval assistance from 25 ships of the Cinque Ports fleet, by August Edward had moved his forces on to Rhuddlan, which, as was his custom, he was able to supply by river. Three months later the town was ceded to the English Crown following the Treaty of Aberconwy between Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and Edward I, Edward I also created a new borough, north of his castle, away from the pre-existing Norman town and Dominican Friary
Rhuddlan Castle
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A view of the castle from across the
River Clwyd.
Rhuddlan Castle
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One of the two gatehouses to the inner ward, with the walls of the outer ward running off to the left.
Rhuddlan Castle
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The overgrown ruins of Rhuddlan Castle in the mid 19th-century
49.
Harlech Castle
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Harlech Castle, located in Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales, is a medieval fortification, constructed atop a spur of rock close to the Irish Sea. It was built by Edward I during his invasion of Wales between 1282 and 1289 at the substantial cost of £8,190. Over the next few centuries, the played a important part in several wars. It then became Glyndŵrs residence and military headquarters for the remainder of the uprising until being recaptured by English forces in 1409. During the 15th century Wars of the Roses, Harlech was held by the Lancastrians for seven years, before Yorkist troops forced its surrender in 1468, in the 21st century the ruined castle is managed by Cadw, the Welsh Governments historic environment service, as a tourist attraction. UNESCO considers Harlech to be one of the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe, Edward invaded with a huge army, pushing north from Carmarthen and westwards from Montgomery and Chester. English forces advanced down the Conwy valley and through Dolwyddelan and Castell y Bere, onto Harlech, Edward ordered the construction of a castle at Harlech, one of seven built across North Wales in the wake of the 1282 campaign. Money to pay for the initial phase arrived in mid-May and carpenters and 35 stonemasons were dispatched in June, John de Bonvillars was appointed the constable of the castle in 1285, after his death in 1287 his wife, Agnes, took up the role until 1290. Construction continued under the direction of James of Saint George. The castle was complete by the end of 1289, having cost an estimated £8,190. In 1294, Madog ap Llywelyn began an uprising against English rule that spread quickly through Wales, several English-held towns were razed and Harlech, along with Criccieth Castle and Aberystwyth Castle, were besieged that winter. Fresh supplies were sent from Ireland by sea, arriving via Harlechs water gate, in the aftermath of the revolt, additional defences were built around the route down to the sea. In 1400 a revolt broke out in North Wales against English rule, at the end of 1404, the castle fell to Glyndŵr. Harlech became his residence, family home and military headquarters for four years, when this failed to take the castle, Henry left John Talbot in charge of the siege and moved on to deal with Aberystwyth Castle. Supplies finally ran short, Mortimer and many of his men died of exhaustion, in the 15th century, Harlech was involved in the series of civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses that broke out between the rival factions of the House of Lancaster and York. Thanks to its defences and the supply route by sea, Harlech held out and as other fortresses fell. Tudors arrival caused Edward IV to order William Herbert to mobilise an army, possibly up to 10,000 strong, after a months siege, the small garrison surrendered on 14 August. This siege is credited with inspiring the song Men of Harlech, the English Civil War broke out in 1642 between the Royalist supporters of Charles I and the supporters of Parliament
Harlech Castle
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Harlech Castle
Harlech Castle
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Reconstruction of the castle in the early 14th century, seen from the sea
Harlech Castle
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The castle in 1776, painted by
Paul Sandby
Harlech Castle
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The
gatehouse at Harlech Castle, showing the
corbelled towers
