Walls And Fortresses

The pros and cons of barriers to human movement have been in the news lately. I haven't found the topic here, so it would be interesting to see what there is about walls and fortresses pictured on stamps. I'll begin with a Great Wall which is now a UNESCO World Heritage structure. UN Vienna, 2013.

Great Britain
World Heritage Sites
April 21, 2005
Hadrian's Wall is an ancient Roman stone and masonry wall, constructed to protect the northern boundary of Roman Britain. Emperor Hadrian of Rome ordered its construction around 122 AD. The wall extended 117 km from Solway Firth to the mouth of the Tyne River and was about 6 m high and about 2.4 m wide.

Ukraine
The Beauty and Greatness of Ukraine Chernivtsi Region
August 7, 2015
Khotyn Fortress is a fortification complex located on the right bank of the Dniester River in Khotyn, southwestern Ukraine. Construction on the current Khotyn fortress was started in 1325.

Malta has a large number of fortifications from different periods of history, but mostly from the 16th to 20th centuries. In 2003 a set was issued depicting various examples of military architecture of the Maltese Islands. It was designed by Stephen C. Spiteri, one of the main experts on Maltese fortifications.

Images from the MaltaPost online stamp catalogue:



1c Fort St Elmo, Valletta - This fort began to be built in 1552, and it is best-known for its role in the Great Siege of 1565. It was besieged and heavily bombarded by the Ottomans, and it held out for 28 days before falling on 23 June 1565, with most of the garrison being massacred. The long attack on the fort bought time for defenders in other forts, and the Ottomans were eventually defeated after the arrival of a relief force in September 1565. The fort was rebuilt after the siege and it was incorporated into the walls of Valletta. It was heavily altered in later centuries, and it remained in use until 1972, seeing use once again in World War II as well. It now houses the National War Museum.

4c Rinella Battery, Kalkara - This battery was built by the British between 1878 and 1886 to house a single 100-ton gun. Intended to counter the Italian naval threat, the gun was never put into use. The fort and its gun are still intact and today it is a museum.

11c Fort St Angelo, Birgu - This was originally a castle, and no one knows when it was built, although it definitely existed by the 13th century. It became the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in 1530, and it withstood the aforementioned Great Siege of 1565. The present layout of the fort is from the late 17th century when it was rebuilt. It remained in use by the British until 1979, and today it is open to the public as a museum.

16c Reserve Post R15, Naxxar - This is one of many pillboxes built around the Maltese Islands in the years immediately before and during World War II. These concrete pillboxes, which included machine gun posts, were meant as defensive positions in the case of an Italian or German invasion.

44c Fort Tigné, Sliema - This was the last fort ever built by the Knights Hospitaller, being constructed between 1793 and 1795. It saw action during the French invasion of Malta in 1798, being heavily bombarded in the process. The fort remained in use, with heavy alterations, by the British until 1979. The area around the fort has now been heavily built up with apartments and a shopping mall, but the fort itself is still in good condition although it's not open to the public.

Here's a picture postcard I bought in Berlin back in '92. No, it's not a stamp, but it's too good not to post here.

The Berlin wall is perhaps one of the only walls ever to have been constructed to keep the citizens of a nation in instead of out. It didn't work for long. Begun in August 1961, it lasted only till November 1989. But one should remember that it was only a small section of a barrier made primarily of barbed wire "iron curtain" with a length of ca. 12,000 kilometers. I like this sheet because the holes in the wall are surrounded by profiles of bridges and the national colors are bow-like. 1990.

(Wonderful start to the thread! Thanks)

Spain
World Heritage of Humanity
November 30, 2001
Roman walls of Lugo stretch over 2 kilometers around the historic center of Lugo in Galicia. The walls, 4.2 meters wide and 8 to 12 meters high, were constructed in the 3rd century and are still largely intact.

France
Tourism
March 6, 2000
Carcassonne is a medieval fortified city in the department of Aude in southern France. The stamp shows panorama of the city with its two outer walls, the citadel, and 53 towers and barbicans.

The Limes (limit - limitation) was the fortified northern border of the Roman Empire begun in the 1st century AD. In what is now Germany it extended from the middle Rhein region ca. 550 kilometers to the Danube close to Regensburg. There were 900 manned watchtowers and about 100 camps along a barrier made of wooden palisades, ditches and and rock walls. The Limes, a UNESCO world heritage site, has been restored in some areas and is now a popular tourist attraction.

Republic of Korea (South Korea)
1st August 2002
Hometowns.
Seoul



Heung-injimun Fortress, Seoul (originally built in the 1300's, rebuilt in 1869). It is one of the eight gates of Seoul.

designed - Lee Gi-sok

Mali showed the Great Wall in winter; estimating by the numerous tracks in the snow, plenty of tourists visit even on cold days.

Israel
Tourism in Jerusalem
November 13, 2016
The stamp entitled Ramparts Promenade shows the stone pathway between the stone walls built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century.

United Arab Emirates
25th November 2013
Qasr al Hosn - oldest stone building in Abu Dhabi




Made from coral stones, rendered with lime, local sand and crushed sea shells.

Designed - Emirates Post Group (4 stamps plus MS)
Qty issued - 50,000 each value, 6,000 MS.

A youngster's drawing of one of the Roman watchtowers along the Limes. This kind of barrier was the background of the word wall - it comes from "vallus" in Latin to mean a row of stakes in the earth, in use already centuries earlier than the building of the Limes.

Fascinating comparison of old and new in Abu Dhabi.

Watchtowers and stockades at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, 1803, were built in a style remarkably similar to that of the Romans. A replica of the fort was a popular attraction at the World's Fair in 1933. Scan of a post card for the fair.

Another watchtower and stockade out on the American frontier. A wall is only effective if watched constantly. Photograph of two German towers maintained for historical purposes. stamp of 1978.