what is a fortified city

The term “fortified city” (often “fenced city” or “defenced city” in the KJV

) refers to a town with strong defenses, usually a massive wall structure and inner citadels or strongholds. In general the fortified city was a major military or administrative center for a region.

Full Answer

What does the Bible say about a fortified city?

I, the LORD, hereby promise to make you as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

Where were the first fortified cities in the world?

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 (famous for the huge stone blocks of its ' cyclopean ' walls).

What is a fortification?

Aerial photograph of Fort Vossegat, Utrecht, The Netherlands. A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to solidify rule in a region during peacetime.

What is the origin of the word'fortification'?

The term is derived from the Latin fortis ("strong") and facere ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified.

What is the meaning of fortified city?

A fortified town has strong walls that can be defended against enemies.

What are fortified towns called?

The fortified town or city was called as called Pura / Nagara.

What are fortified cities of Judah?

Jer 34:7 when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, Lachish and Azekah; for these were the only fortified cities of Judah that remained.

What does the Bible say about Fortify?

We are told in the Bible that we need to fortify the mind, it is our job, individually, and it cannot be passed off to another. This is a very critical matter, because how you think determines how you will live your life, (Proverbs 4:23). I challenge you to fortify your mind!

Do any cities still have walls around them?

7. Quebec City, Canada. Quebec City's ramparts are the only remaining city walls in North America north of Mexico.

Do any cities still have walls?

Mdina, Malta, stands out among ancient walled cities because, just like when it was built, the entire city remains inside the walls. In Mdina's case, this is easy since it has only about 250 residents left.

Why is Israel called Israel instead of Judah?

The name “Israel” thus came to the state by a process of elimination, because there wasn't time to come up with anything better. A majority voted for it—unenthusiastically.

Was Jerusalem a fortified city?

The Bible describes the city as heavily fortified with a strong city wall, a fact confirmed by archaeology.

What are the five cities of Sodom?

Sodom and Gomorrah along with the cities of Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (Bela) constituted the five “cities of the plain,” and they are referenced throughout both the Old and New Testament and the Qurʾān.

What does fortified mean spiritually?

to strengthen mentally or morally: to be fortified by religious faith.

What does it mean to fortified?

1 : made stronger or more secure a fortified city fortified bridges. 2 : improved or enhanced through the addition of one or more ingredients: such as.

What is a fortified life?

Fortified Life is a membership plan that is uniquely designed for you to live in your own home as long as possible, wherever your home may be. It supports you and your wellness choices through an innovative wellness focused approach. Fortified Life also protects your hard-earned assets for you and your family.

What is a fortified house called?

United States. In the United States, historically a fortified house was often called a fort or station depending on the region. This was a building built for defense against primarily Indian attacks in frontier areas.

What were medieval towns called?

commune, a town in medieval western Europe that acquired self-governing municipal institutions.

What is the name of the core fortified area of a town or city?

A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.

What is a fortified castle called?

castle. keep, English term corresponding to the French donjon for the strongest portion of the fortification of a castle, the place of last resort in case of siege or attack. Cardiff Castle.

Why was Verdun fortified?

This was due to the fact that after 1871, Germany annexed Alsace and parts of Lorraine, making Verdun a de facto border city which had to be fortified to prevent a new invasion of France from the north-east. This is a map summarizing the whole of the Séré-de-Rivières system of fortifications in the north-east:

What is a fortified city?

A fortified city is a city (or town, or village) that also is turned into a stronghold by adding defensive works to it and around it.

What is the name of the city surrounded by a wall to repel invaders?

A city surrounded by a wall to repel invaders. Québec City’s Old Town is a spectacular example, whose fortifications are well-preserved.

When was Samnyeon fortress built?

This is Samnyeon fortress built by the Silla Kingdom in the 5th century. Almost every other Korean fortresses contemporary or from later date had similar designs with just simple walls and barely any tower.

What was the only sack the city suffered?

The only sack the city suffered (1204 - Fourth Crusade) was through the lower quay-side walls and that was more through treachery with inside agitators than battle prowess.

Why did the ruler decide to destroy the walls of the city?

As for why, they got lucky the walls weren’t destroyed in any of the modern wars, or that a ruler decided to destroy them so the city could grow .

When did the wall go out of fashion?

Walls fell out of fashion with the artillery of the early modern period of gunpowder, and were obsolete by the XIX-century.

Bastions

A bastion is part of the city walls, these are the points that visible around the city. Parts of a bastion are; flank, face, salient, throat and the curtain.

Canals

The canals have been dug again outside the ramparts, again around the counter opponents. The canal is near the city gates pass with usually a drawbridge.

Ports

The gates are part of the ramparts/walls. Of course also intended to keep the opponent out of the door. In the wall is the gate usually simply hidden in the walls and finished with doors Close. Later at the stone walls, the gates often became beautiful buildings, with doors that can be closed and usually a portcullis in the gate.

Towers

The towers are often already incorporated in a stone city gate, but also towers were built into the wall for extra defense. The Towers are often beautiful buildings with embrasures to give the opponent no chance to give. Often there is a gunpowder tower present to store gunpowder.

Arsenal

The arsenal was the main storage place for the fortress. In the Arsenal's weapons were stored, in case of an attack the weapon quickly ready.

waterpomp

A pump with a large crank to pump up groundwater for drinking water. Deep wells were used for this and with a bucket of groundwater raised.

What was the first fortification in the Canaanite city?

The earliest fortification attempted was a rampart of earth following the natural contour of the hill (PEFS, 1903, 113). Within some such enclosing wall, houses were built and the inhabitants lived and pursued their avocations safely. The primitive earthbank in the case of Gezer was in course of time replaced first by an inner and then by an outer wall in succession. The outer wall when it was added to strengthen the inner was the chel, rendered in the English version "bulwark" ( Isaiah 26:1) or "rampart" ( Nahum 3:8, where the waters of the Nile served the same purpose). Professor Macalister estimates that the inner wall of Gezer had fallen into disuse and ruin by about 1450 BC and that it was the outer that saw the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. "Even in its present ruined form," says Professor Macalister, "the outer city wall is an imposing structure. In places it still stands to a height of from 10 to 14 ft., and these can hardly be regarded as being much more than the underground foundations. The outer face of the city wall, towering above the hill on which the city was built, may well have seemed impregnable to the messengers of Moses" (Bible Side-Lights, 142). The walls of a later time, as we learn from Assyrian representations, were provided with battlements, very often crenellated, and "thy pinnacles of rubies" ( Isaiah 54:12, the Revised Version (British and American), the Revised Version, margin "windows") may refer to them. For the purpose of strengthening the walls, especially at the least defensible points, revetments or facings of stone or kiln-burnt bricks were sometimes added. Even these again would be rendered less assailable by a trench (chel) serving to cut off a fortress from adjacent level or sloping ground, as may still be seen outside the North wall of Jerusalem, and many parts ofthe walls of Constantinople.

What were the cities of Canaan?

These cities of the primitive inhabitants of Canaan occupied sites easily capable of defense. They were built either upon a projecting spur of a mountain ridge, like Gezer, Megiddo, Tell ec-Safi (believed to be the ancient Gath) and primitive Jerusalem, or upon an isolated eminence in the plain like Tell el-Hesy (Lachish) or Taanach. Compared with modern cities the area was small--in the case of Gezer about a quarter of a mile square, Lachish 15 acres, Megiddo and Taanach 12 to 13 acres. A sufficient water supply within easy reach was an essential feature. Speaking of Gezer, Professor Macalister says:

What was the inner fortress of the city of Tell Zakariyah?

Every one of these ancient cities had an inner fortress which would be an internal means of protection, and the last refuge of the defenders in extremity. At Tell Zakariyah the acropolis wall has been traced, and its shape has been found to be conditioned by the contours of the hill on which it stood. In an old Hittite settlement a fortress has been found rectangular in shape and supported by an outer and lower wall at a distance of 12 to 30 yds. (Land of the Hittites, 162). There is evidence that the mound or bluff originally occupied remained the fortress or acropolis of the city when it spread out over a larger area, and this seems to have been the case for some time at least with the Jebusite fort taken by David and made the capital of the kingdom. At Sinjerli, while there was a wall surrounding the whole township, there was an outer as well as an inner defensive wall to the citadel. Upon this citadel were found palaces from which the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser I, copied the plan of a Hittite palace, called in Assyrian Hilani.

What materials were used in the early fortifications?

The excavations enable us to see the progress of the art of fortification from very primitive beginnings. Crude brick and rough stone-work were the materials of the earliest walls. They are usually found of uncoursed masonry in which the large stones are undressed field boulders. The facings of stone and the joints in walls were often packed with pebbles or with limestone chippings, the stones themselves being more or less roughly trimmed and dressed to shape by a hammer. Corner-stones are found in the towers showing marks of the chisel, but it is not till well on in the Hebrew period that stones are found with bosses and marginal drafting. At Zakariyah the walls of the acropolis were of rubble laid in mud, mixed with straw without lime, and they contained some well-worked stones, irregularly intermingled with field stones of various sizes. At a later time mortar was used to cover the walls and give greater strength and support. But the clay used for the purpose was apt to crack unless it was given consistency by treading with the feet and mixing with water. Thus we read of a wall daubed with untempered mortar ( Ezekiel 13:10-16; 22:28; compare Nahum 3:14 ). In the masonry of the Hittite fortress (see (6) above) the masonry of the inner wall is rough, dry stonewalling, while the outer is built of stones roughly pentagonal in shape, irregular in size, fitted to one another and laid without mortar, somewhat like the Cyclopean walls of the earliest periods of Greek history.

What did Solomon build?

Although Solomon was a man of peace, he included among the great buildings which he executed fortresses and works of defense. He built the wall of Jerusalem round about. He built Millo (called Akra ("citadel") in the Septuagint), and closed the breaches of the city of David, so that there might be no vulnerable point found in the defenses of the city ( 1 Kings 9:15 ). This fortification is represented in Septuagint, which has here an addition to the Massoretic Text, as securing the complete subjection of the original inhabitants who remained. Solomon also built Hazor to watch Damascus, Megiddo to guard the plain of Jezreel, and Gezer overlooking the maritime plain, his work being one of refortification rather than of building from the foundation. He fortified also Beth-horon, Upper and Nether, to block the way against Philistine invasion. The store cities, and cities to accommodate his chariots and horses, were also part of his military system ( 1 Kings 9:18 ).

What were the walls of Jericho?

thick, a citadel and protecting walls of hardly less substantial workmanship. Nearby also is the essential spring to furnish the water supply. Within the citadel were found the walls and rooms of Canaanite houses, and in many cases remains of infants buried in jars under the clay floors (Driver, Modern Research as Illustrating the Bible, 91). These examples of "foundation sacrifices" with which the excavations at Gezer have made us familiar give point to the account of the resettlement of the city in the days of Ahab, when Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho, laying the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and setting up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub ( 1 Kings 16:34 ).

What were the essentials of the Canaanite fortress?

One of the essential requisites of the primitive Canaanite fortress was a supply of water. At Gezer a copious spring within easy reach was available. Tell el-Hesy commands the only springs in that region (A Mound of Many Cities, 16). It is a strong point in favor of the modern theory of the ridge of Ophel being the site of Zion or David's town that the Virgin's Fountain, the only perennial spring in the whole circuit of Jerusalem, was close to it, and would have been an inducement to the Jebusites to build their fortress there. In the sites that have been excavated, cisterns, sometimes vaulted over and with steps down into them, have been constantly found. Traces have also been observed of concealed passages or tunnels by which access has been obtained to the nearest spring. Some such explanation has been given of the "gutter" ( 2 Samuel 5:8 the King James Version, "watercourse" the Revised Version (British and American)), by which Joab obtained access to the fortress of Jebus and enabled David to capture it ( 1 Chronicles 11:6; compare Vincent, Canaan d'apres l'exploration recente, 26). During an investment of a fortified city by an enemy, it was a point in strategy for the inhabitants to secure the fountain and to divert or conceal the stream flowing from it so that the besiegers might be left without a water supply ( 2 Kings 3:19,25; 2 Chronicles 32:3; compare also 2 Samuel 12:26,27, Century Bible, Kennedy's note).

What is a fortification in the 20th century?

Early 20th century aerial photograph of the fortifications of Valletta, Malta which were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Aerial photograph of Fort Vossegat, Utrecht, The Netherlands. A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defence of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region ...

What is the art of setting out a military camp or constructing a fortification called?

The art of setting out a military camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castrametation since the time of the Roman legions. The art/science of laying siege to a fortification and of destroying it is commonly called siegecraft or siege warfare and is formally known as poliorcetics.

Why was the geometry of the fortification important?

This placed a heavy emphasis on the geometry of the fortification to allow defensive cannonry interlocking fields of fire to cover all approaches to the lower and thus more vulnerable walls.

What are the branches of fortification?

Fortification is usually divided into two branches: permanent fortification and field fortification. Permanent fortifications are erected at leisure, with all the resources that a state can supply of constructive and mechanical skill, and are built of enduring materials.

What type of fortification did military engineers develop?

In response, military engineers evolved the polygonal style of fortification. The ditch became deep and vertically sided, cut directly into the native rock or soil, laid out as a series of straight lines creating the central fortified area that gives this style of fortification its name.

What were the main antecedents of castles in Europe?

Roman forts and hill forts were the main antecedents of castles in Europe, which emerged in the 9th century in the Carolingian Empire. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only rarely protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches. From the 12th century hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe, which very often obtained the right of fortification soon afterwards.

What is the name of the city in Luzon?

Kota Selurong: an outpost of the Bruneian Empire in Luzon, later became the City of Manila. Kuta Wato/Kota Bato: Literally translates to "stone fort" the first known stone fortification in the country, its ruins exist as the "Kutawato Cave Complex". Kota Sug/Jolo: The capital and seat of the Sultanate of Sulu.