Fortifications at Crannog, Ireland, detail of causeway and bridge approach to island homestead, c. 1000 bc and subsequently occupied until the early 2nd millennium ad; reconstruction; photo © Allan T. Kohl/AICT

Ring fort farmstead at Crannog, Ireland, showing multiple dwellings inside circular stone and earth enclosure, sometimes topped by wooden palisade, type built from c. 600 bc and subsequently occupied until the early 2nd millennium ad; photo © Allan T. Kohl/AICT

Fortifications in Syria–Palestine, 10th century bc: (a) plan of Hazor; (b) plan of Gezer

Ancient Egyptian fortress of Shalfak, 2nd cataract area of Nubia, c. 1860 bc; reconstruction

Ancient Greek fortification at Kydna, view from the east, late 4th century bc; reconstruction

Roman fortification at Gheria el-Garbia, Libya, showing cutaway gate-towers, ad 198

Castelnuovo, Naples; reconstruction drawing based on a view of 1540 by Francisco de Holanda: (a) artillery platform and scarping around the landward face of the castle, 1451–3; (b) outer enceinte with circular gun-towers raised slightly above rampart levels, 1503–19 (destr.); (c) triangular bastion built to replace a round tower, 1536 (destr.)

Bastion at Porta Ardeatina, Rome, by Antonio da Sangallo the younger, from 1537: plan of single bastions and Sangallo’s double bastion (top left), section through the Ardeatine bastion (top right) and cutaway axonometric drawing showing a corner of the bastion (bottom): (a) early 16th-century bastion with straight flanks; (b) later 16th-century bastion with orecchioni; (c) double bastion with cavaliers; (d) cavaliers, raised gun platforms; (e) bomb-proof shelters; (f) open gun platforms; (g) casemates; (h) magazine; (i) countermine gallery; (j) well-shaft; (k) countermine shaft; (l) ventilation flue; (m) sallyport; (n) angled embrasure

British fortifications: (a) St Mawes Castle, Cornwall, England, built by Henry VIII, 1540; (b) Fort George, near Inverness, Highland, Scotland, showing bastions facing land and a tenaille trace facing sea, 1747–69

Portuguese overseas fort design: Fort St Sebastian, Mozambique, founded 1559

Dutch overseas fort design: Fort Jaffna, Sri Lanka, c. 1700

British overseas fort design: (a) Fort George, Vido Island, Corfu, begun 1824; (b) Fort William, Calcutta, India, rebuilt 1757

Liège fort, Belgium, by Henri de Brialmont, 1888–92; reconstruction

Rumeli Hisar, Istanbul, 1452; photo credit: Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom

Mycenae, Lion Gate, lh iiib; Photo credit: Vanni/Art Resource, NY

Ur, plan of temenos, from c. 2100 bc: (a) bastion of Warad-Sin; (b) temple platform (Etemenigur); (c) ziggurat (Egishirgal); (d) Court of Nanna; (e) Giparu; (f) Great Gate (Edublalmah); (g) Ekhursag; (h) Enunmah; (i) mausolea complex; (j) site of earlier Royal Cemetery

Syro-Palestinian building types, reconstruction drawings (top) and plans (bottom): (a) Migdol Temple, Shechem, c. 1600 bc; (b) Neo-Hittite bit hilani palace, Carchemish, c. 800 bc

Egyptian fortresses: (a) Buhen; (b) Uronarti; (c) Semna

Round City, Baghdad, Iraq, ad 762, plan: (a) palace; (b) mosque

Great Wall of China, c. 210 bc; photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

Cuzco, plan, c. ad 1438–c. 1550: (a) Coricancha; (b) Sacsahuaman; (c) Pumachupan; (d) Pucamarca; (e) Acllahuasi; (f) Huacaypata; (g) Cusipata; (h) Quishuarcancha; (i) Amarucancha

Map of the expansion of the Inca empire, c. ad 1500; those sites with separate entries in this dictionary are distinguished by Cross-reference type