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 ("strong") and facere ("to make").
Fortifications
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10Lahore Fort
The Lahore Fort, locally referred to as the Shahi Qila, is a citadel in the city of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the northwestern corner of the Walled City of Lahore in Iqbal Park, which is one of the largest urban parks in Pakistan.
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1Luncani-Piatra Rosie Dacian fortress
Piatra Rosie, which means Red Rock, was a Dacian hill fort two days march to the west from Costesti-Cetatuie, at Luncani in Bosorod municipality. It was built in two phases. In the first phase a long (102 m) rectangular main citadel was built at the height of land with watch towers on each end and two outlying watch towers. Later the larger area inside the watch towers was enclosed with walls. It appears that the hilltop was flattened in the process in order to produce a usable space.
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7Medzhybizh Fortress
Medzhybizh Castle, built as a bulwark against Ottoman expansion in the 1540s, became one of the strongest fortresses of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in Podolia.
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3Mezhyrich Monastery
Mezhyrich Monastery the complex of monastic buildings XVI-XVII century in the village Mezhyrich in Volyn.
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8Miko Castle
The Miko Castle is a fortified castle in Miercurea Ciuc, Romania. It is among the city's most important monuments, and today houses an ethnographic museum devoted to Szekely heritage.
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7Milecastle 29 (Tower Tye), Hadrian's Wall
Milecastle 29 (Tower Tye) was a milecastle of the Roman Hadrian's Wall. Its remains exist as a mutilated earth platform accentuated by deep robber-trenches around all sides, and are located beside the B6318 Military Road.
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10Muiden Fortress, Zuiderzee front, Defence Line of Amsterdam
Muiden Fortress (Dutch: Muizenfort - 'fort of mice') is a Dutch fortress in Muiden. It is part of the defence line of Muiden, that is part of the Stelling van Amsterdam, the UNESCO World Heritage site that consists of a set of forts around the city of Amsterdam.
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1Murney Tower, Kingston, Ontario
Murney Tower is a Martello tower in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, whose construction dates to 1846 and the Oregon crisis. While officially designated as Murray Tower, locals call it Murney Tower, as it was built on Murney Point (which was owned by the Murney family at the time).
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10Mystras
Mystras or Mistras in the Chronicle of the Morea, is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Situated on Mt. Taygetos, near ancient Sparta, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea in the 14th and 15th centuries, experiencing a period of prosperity and cultural flowering.
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7Nakijin Castle
Nakijin Castle is a Ryukyuan castle or fortress located in Nakijin, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is currently in ruins.
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7Neamt Citadel (Ruins)
Neamt Citadel is a medieval fortress located in north-eastern part of Romania, near Targu Neamt, Neamt County. It was built in 14th century Moldavia during Petru I of Moldavia's reign and expanded in the 15th century.
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10Neuf-Brisach
Neuf-Brisach is a fortified town and commune of the department of Haut-Rhin in the French region of Alsace. The fortified town was intended to guard the border between France and the Holy Roman Empire and, subsequently, Germany.
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10Old Fortress, Corfu
The Old Fortress of Corfu is a Venetian fortress in the city of Corfu. The fortress covers the promontory which initially contained the old town of Corfu that had emerged during Byzantine times.
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4Or Qapi Fortress (Ruins), Perekop
Or Qapi Fortress ruins near Perekop settlement located on the Perekop Isthmus connecting the Crimean peninsula to the Ukrainian mainland.
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7Oreshek Fortress
A wooden fortress named Oreshek or Orekhov was built by Grand Prince Yury of Moscow on behalf of the Novgorod Republic in 1323. It guarded the northern approaches to Novgorod and access to the Baltic Sea.
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10Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740. In the early 1920s, it was still used as a prison and execution ground by the bolshevik government.
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2Pidhirtsi Castle
Pidhirtsi Castle is a residential castle-fortress located in the village of Pidhirtsi in Lviv Oblast (province) western Ukraine, located eighty kilometers east of Lviv. It was constructed by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan between 1635–1640 by order of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, on the place of the older fortress.
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7Porolissum
Porolissum was an ancient Roman city in Dacia. Established as a military camp in 106 during Trajan's Dacian Wars, the city quickly grew through trade with the native Dacians and became the capital of the province Dacia Porolissensis in 124.
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5Porto Palermo Castle
Porto Palermo Castle is a castle near Himare in southern Albania. Huffington Post ranked Porto Palermo first among 15 Undiscovered European Destinations for 2014.
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10Potala Palace
The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It is now a museum and World Heritage Site.
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6Ramparts of Quebec City
Located in Canada, the Ramparts of Quebec City are the only remaining fortified city walls in North America north of Mexico. The British began refortifying the existing walls, after they took Quebec City from the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759.
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10Red Fort, Delhi
The Red Fort was the residence of the Mughal emperor for nearly 200 years, until 1857. It is located in the centre of Delhi and houses a number of museums. In addition to accommodating the emperors and their households, it was the ceremonial and political centre of Mughal government and the setting for events critically impacting the region.
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9Rohtas Fort
Rohtas Fort is a historical garrison fort located near the city of Jhelum in Punjab, Pakistan.
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1Roman Fort, Welzheim
The Eastern Fort in Welzheim was built during the second century AD and inhabited by Roman soldiers of the Ala Scubulorum.The town was home to two forts at this time but not much remains today of the much bigger Western Fort as the town has been built on top of it.
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10Roman Walls of Lugo
The Roman walls of Lugo were constructed in the 3rd century and are still largely intact today, stretching over 2 kilometers around the historic centre of Lugo in Galicia.
