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73-428: It was formed on 1 January 2004 through the merger of the former municipalities: The municipality comprises the population centres: [REDACTED] Dutch topographic map of the municipality of Midden-Delfland, June 2015 The green area that comprises the municipality of Midden-Delfland was named Midden-Delfland before 2004, and it referred to the green area surrounded by cities (such as The Hague and Rotterdam) and

146-537: A Qing incursion in 1638. By 1641, there were ten bastion forts in the county. Before bastion forts could spread any further, the Ming dynasty fell in 1644, and they were largely forgotten as the Qing dynasty was on the offensive most of the time and had no use for them. In the wake of city growth and the ensuing change of defensive strategy, focusing more on the defense of forts around cities, many city walls were demolished. Also,

219-501: A bit more than a third the width of a major wall in China. According to Philo the width of a wall had to be 4.5 metres (15 ft) thick to be able to withstand ancient (non-gunpowder) siege engines. European walls of the 1200s and 1300s could reach the Roman equivalents but rarely exceeded them in length, width, and height, remaining around 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) thick. When referring to

292-635: A building on the Delft University of Technology campus. It opened in 2009 and offers several bachelor's degrees for the Faculty of Technology, Innovation & Society. Inholland University of Applied Sciences also has a building on the Delft University of Technology campus. Several bachelor's degrees for the Agri, Food & Life Sciences faculty and the Engineering, Design and Computing faculty are being taught at

365-416: A canal, the 'Delf', which comes from the word delven , meaning to delve or dig, and this led to the name Delft. At the elevated place where this 'Delf' crossed the creek wall of the silted up river Gantel, a Count established his manor , probably around 1075. Partly because of this, Delft became an important market town, the evidence for which can be seen in the size of its central market square. Having been

438-486: A cost benefit hypothesis, where the Ming recognized the highly resistant nature of their walls to structural damage, and could not imagine any affordable development of the guns available to them at the time to be capable of breaching said walls. Even as late as the 1490s a Florentine diplomat considered the French claim that "their artillery is capable of creating a breach in a wall of eight feet in thickness" to be ridiculous and

511-454: A ground rampart . The city was fortified with six city gates with each gate flanked by massive brick towers. In other areas of Southeast Asia, city walls spread in the 16th and 17th century along with the rapid growth of cities in this period as a need to defend against European naval attack. Ayutthaya built its walls in 1550 and Banten , Jepara , Tuban and Surabaya all had theirs by 1600; while Makassar had theirs by 1634. A sea wall

584-737: A maximum thickness of 43 metres and an average thickness of 20–30 metres. Ming prefectural and provincial capital walls were 10 to 20 metres (33 to 66 ft) thick at the base and 5 to 10 metres (16 to 33 ft) at the top. In Europe the height of wall construction was reached under the Roman Empire , whose walls often reached 10 metres (33 ft) in height, the same as many Chinese city walls, but were only 1.5 to 2.5 metres (4 ft 11 in to 8 ft 2 in) thick. Rome's Servian Walls reached 3.6 and 4 metres (12 and 13 ft) in thickness and 6 to 10 metres (20 to 33 ft) in height. Other fortifications also reached these specifications across

657-423: A purely military and defensive purpose, towers also played a representative and artistic role in the conception of a fortified complex. The architecture of the city thus competed with that of the castle of the noblemen and city walls were often a manifestation of the pride of a particular city. Urban areas outside the city walls, so-called Vorstädte , were often enclosed by their own set of walls and integrated into

730-422: A response to gunpowder artillery, European fortifications began displaying architectural principles such as lower and thicker walls in the mid-1400s. Cannon towers were built with artillery rooms where cannons could discharge fire from slits in the walls. However, this proved problematic as the slow rate of fire, reverberating concussions, and noxious fumes produced greatly hindered defenders. Gun towers also limited

803-521: A rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed into a city, and on 15 April 1246, Count Willem II granted Delft its city charter . Trade and industry flourished. In 1389 the Delfshavensche Schie canal was dug through to the river Maas , where the port of Delfshaven was built, connecting Delft to the sea. Until the 17th century, Delft was one of the major cities of the then county (and later province) of Holland . In 1400, for example,

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876-543: A single "embassy district", enclosed by a fortified complex with walls and towers – this usually occurs in regions where the embassies run a high risk of being target of attacks. An early example of such a compound was the Legation Quarter in Beijing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of these modern city walls are made of steel and concrete. Vertical concrete plates are put together so as to allow

949-472: A very thick wall in medieval Europe, what is usually meant is a wall of 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) in width, which would have been considered thin in a Chinese context. There are some exceptions such as the Hillfort of Otzenhausen , a Celtic ringfort with a thickness of 40 metres (130 ft) in some parts, but Celtic fort-building practices died out in the early medieval period. Andrade goes on to note that

1022-624: Is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam , to the southeast, and The Hague , to the northwest. Together with them, it is a part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area and the Randstad . Delft is a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands, famous for its historical connections with the reigning House of Orange-Nassau , for its blue pottery , for being home to

1095-564: Is also a facility for renting bikes from the station.) Inside the city, apart from a central park, there are several smaller town parks, including "Nieuwe Plantage", "Agnetapark", "Kalverbos". There is also the Botanical Garden of the TU and an arboretum in Delftse Hout. Delft is the birthplace of: Delft is twinned with: Trains stopping at these stations connect Delft with, among others,

1168-490: Is known for its images of domestic life and views of households, church interiors, courtyards, squares and the streets of Delft. The painters also produced pictures showing historic events, flowers, portraits for patrons and the court as well as decorative pieces of art. Delft supports creative arts' companies. From 2001 the Bacinol  [ nl ] , a building that had been disused since 1951, began to house small companies in

1241-475: Is of Solnitsata , built in the 6th or 5th millennium BC. The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples and defensive walls. Babylon was one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, especially as a result of the building program of Nebuchadnezzar , who expanded the walls and built the Ishtar Gate . The Persians built defensive walls to protect their territories, notably

1314-727: Is the Romanian Bran Castle , which was intended to protect nearby Kronstadt (today's Braşov ). The city walls were often connected to the fortifications of hill castles via additional walls. Thus the defenses were made up of city and castle fortifications taken together. Several examples of this are preserved, for example in Germany Hirschhorn on the Neckar, Königsberg and Pappenheim , Franken, Burghausen in Oberbayern and many more. A few castles were more directly incorporated into

1387-518: Is well known for the Delft pottery ceramic products which were styled on the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century. The city had an early start in this area since it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company . It can still be seen at the pottery factories De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles (or Royal Delft) and De Delftse Pauw , while new ceramics and ceramic art can be found at

1460-782: The Derbent Wall and the Great Wall of Gorgan built on the either sides of the Caspian Sea against nomadic nations. Some settlements in the Indus Valley civilization were also fortified. By about 3500   BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets. The stone and mud brick houses of Kot Diji were clustered behind massive stone flood dykes and defensive walls, for neighboring communities quarreled constantly about

1533-596: The Gallery Terra Delft . The painter Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) was born in Delft. Vermeer used Delft streets and home interiors as the subject or background in his paintings. Several other famous painters lived and worked in Delft at that time, such as Pieter de Hoogh , Carel Fabritius , Nicolaes Maes , Gerard Houckgeest and Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet. They were all members of the Delft School . The Delft School

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1606-724: The Warring States (481–221   BC), mass conversion to stone architecture did not begin in earnest until the Tang dynasty (618–907   AD). Sections of the Great Wall had been built prior to the Qin dynasty (221–207   BC) and subsequently connected and fortified during the Qin dynasty, although its present form was mostly an engineering feat and remodeling of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644   AD). The large walls of Pingyao serve as one example. Likewise,

1679-720: The 16th century. The bastion and star fort was developed in Italy, where the Florentine engineer Giuliano da Sangallo (1445–1516) compiled a comprehensive defensive plan using the geometric bastion and full trace italienne that became widespread in Europe. The main distinguishing features of the star fort were its angle bastions, each placed to support their neighbor with lethal crossfire, covering all angles, making them extremely difficult to engage with and attack. Angle bastions consisted of two faces and two flanks. Artillery positions positioned at

1752-486: The 19th century, less emphasis was placed on preserving the fortifications for the sake of their architectural or historical value – on the one hand, complete fortifications were restored ( Carcassonne ), on the other hand many structures were demolished in an effort to modernize the cities. One exception to this is the "monument preservation" law by the Bavarian King Ludwig I of Bavaria , which led to

1825-581: The Delft Thunderclap, occurred on 12 October 1654 when a gunpowder store exploded, destroying much of the city. More than a hundred were killed and thousands were injured. About 30  t (29.5 long tons ; 33.1 short tons ) of gunpowder were stored in barrels in a magazine in a former Clarist convent in the Doelenkwartier district, where the Paardenmarkt is now located. Cornelis Soetens,

1898-435: The Delft campus. In the local economic field, essential elements are: East of Delft lies a relatively large nature and recreation area called the "Delftse Hout" ("Delft Wood"). Through the forest lie bike, horse-riding and footpaths. It also includes a vast lake (suitable for swimming and windsurfing), narrow beaches, a restaurant, and community gardens, plus camping ground and other recreational and sports facilities. (There

1971-563: The French "braggarts by nature". Very rarely did cannons blast breaches in city walls in Chinese warfare. This may have been partly due to cultural tradition. Famous military commanders such as Sun Tzu and Zheng Zhilong recommended not to directly attack cities and storm their walls. Even when direct assaults were made with cannons, it was usually by focusing on the gates rather than the walls. There were instances where cannons were used against walled fortifications, such as by Koxinga , but only in

2044-595: The Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence in 1572 in the former Saint-Agatha convent (subsequently called the Prinsenhof). At the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years' War . By then Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters. In October 1573, an attack by Spanish forces

2117-739: The ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its ' cyclopean ' walls). In classical era Greece, the city of Athens built a long set of parallel stone walls called the Long Walls that reached their guarded seaport at Piraeus . Exceptions were few, but neither ancient Sparta nor ancient Rome had walls for a long time, choosing to rely on their militaries for defense instead. Initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar . The Romans later fortified their cities with massive, mortar-bound stone walls. Among these are

2190-410: The appropriate city gate and are often supplemented with towers. The practice of building these massive walls, though having its origins in prehistory, was refined during the rise of city-states , and energetic wall-building continued into the medieval period and beyond in certain parts of Europe. Simpler defensive walls of earth or stone, thrown up around hillforts , ringworks , early castles and

2263-532: The case of small villages. During Koxinga's career, there is only one recorded case of capturing a settlement by bombarding its walls: the siege of Taizhou in 1658. In 1662, the Dutch found that bombarding the walls of a town in Fujian Province had no effect and they focused on the gates instead just as in Chinese warfare. In 1841, a 74-gun British warship bombarded a Chinese coastal fort near Guangzhou and found that it

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2336-416: The circumvention of the city, through which many important trade routes passed, thus ensuring that tolls were paid when the caravans passed through the city gates, and that the local market was visited by the trade caravans. Furthermore, additional signaling and observation towers were frequently built outside the city, and were sometimes fortified in a castle-like fashion. The border of the area of influence of

2409-518: The city had 6,500 inhabitants, making it the third largest city after Dordrecht (8,000) and Haarlem (7,000). In 1560, Amsterdam, with 28,000 inhabitants, had become the largest city, followed by Delft, Leiden and Haarlem, which each had around 14,000 inhabitants. In 1536, a large part of the city was destroyed by the great fire of Delft. The town's association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William

2482-475: The city was often partially or fully defended by elaborate ditches, walls and hedges. The crossing points were usually guarded by gates or gate houses. These defenses were regularly checked by riders, who often also served as the gate keepers. Long stretches of these defenses can still be seen to this day, and even some gates are still intact. To further protect their territory, rich cities also established castles in their area of influence. An example of this practice

2555-708: The city. From ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls , although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China , Walls of Benin , Hadrian's Wall , Anastasian Wall , and the Atlantic Wall , which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. In mountainous terrain, defensive walls such as letzis were used in combination with castles to seal valleys from potential attack. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing

2628-563: The city. In the 17th century, Delft experienced a new heyday, thanks to the presence of an office of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) (opened in 1602) and the manufacture of Delft Blue china . A number of notable artists based themselves in the city, including Leonard Bramer , Carel Fabritius , Pieter de Hoogh , Gerard Houckgeest , Emanuel de Witte , Jan Steen , and Johannes Vermeer . Reinier de Graaf and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek received international attention for their scientific research. The Delft Explosion, also known in history as

2701-525: The construction of the "European Rampart" alongside its border with Russia to be able to successfully apply for a visa-free movement with the European Union. At its simplest, a defensive wall consists of a wall enclosure and its gates. For the most part, the top of the walls were accessible, with the outside of the walls having tall parapets with embrasures or merlons . North of the Alps, this passageway at

2774-612: The control of prime agricultural land. Mundigak ( c.  2500   BC ) in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun dried bricks. The concept of a city fully enclosed by walls was not fully developed in Southeast Asia until the arrival of Europeans. However, Burma serves an exception, as they had a longer tradition of fortified walled towns; towns in Burma had city walls by 1566. Besides that, Rangoon in 1755 had stockades made of teak logs on

2847-450: The creative arts sector. Its demolition started in December 2009, making way for the new railway tunnel in Delft. The occupants of the building, as well as the name 'Bacinol', moved to another building in the city. The name Bacinol relates to Dutch penicillin research during WWII . Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is one of four universities of technology in the Netherlands. It

2920-527: The defense of the city. These areas were often inhabited by the poorer population and held the "noxious trades". In many cities, a new wall was built once the city had grown outside of the old wall. This can often still be seen in the layout of the city, for example in Nördlingen , and sometimes even a few of the old gate towers are preserved, such as the white tower in Nuremberg . Additional constructions prevented

2993-480: The devastation. The gunpowder store (Dutch: Kruithuis) was subsequently re-housed, a 'cannonball's distance away', outside the city, in a new building designed by architect Pieter Post . The city centre retains a large number of monumental buildings, while in many streets there are canals of which the banks are connected by typical bridges, altogether making this city a notable tourist destination. Historical buildings and other sights of interest include: Delft

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3066-417: The early Middle Ages also 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 AD hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe, which very often obtained the right of fortification soon afterwards. Several medieval town walls have survived into

3139-455: The empire, but all these paled in comparison to contemporary Chinese walls, which could reach a thickness of 20 metres (66 ft) at the base in extreme cases. Even the walls of Constantinople which have been described as "the most famous and complicated system of defence in the civilized world," could not match up to a major Chinese city wall. Had both the outer and inner walls of Constantinople been combined they would have only reached roughly

3212-623: The energy of artillery shots. Walls were constructed using wooden frameworks which were filled with layers of earth tamped down to a highly compact state, and once that was completed the frameworks were removed for use in the next wall section. Starting from the Song dynasty these walls were improved with an outer layer of bricks or stone to prevent erosion, and during the Ming, earthworks were interspersed with stone and rubble. Most Chinese walls were also sloped rather than vertical to better deflect projectile energy. The defensive response to cannon in Europe

3285-404: The flanks could fire parallel into the opposite bastion's line of fire, thus providing two lines of cover fire against an armed assault on the wall, and preventing mining parties from finding refuge. Meanwhile, artillery positioned on the bastion platform could fire frontally from the two faces, also providing overlapping fire with the opposite bastion. Overlapping mutually supporting defensive fire

3358-607: The hands of the Spanish. Therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day. Around this time, Delft also occupied a prominent position in the field of printing. A number of Italian glazed earthenware makers settled in the city and introduced a new style. The tapestry industry also flourished when famous manufacturer François Spierincx moved to

3431-513: The horticulture area of Westland. The supporters of a continuous green area were lucky that the municipality of Midden-Delfland became a reality: the cities of Delft , Vlaardingen and Schiedam wanted to build new houses here, and the Westland gardeners also wanted to expand. Now, Midden-Delfland is designated as a recreation area for people from the surrounding cities. Delft Delft ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdɛl(ə)ft] )

3504-436: The invention of gunpowder rendered walls less effective, as siege cannons could then be used to blast through walls, allowing armies to simply march through. Today, the presence of former city fortifications can often only be deduced from the presence of ditches, ring roads or parks. Furthermore, some street names hint at the presence of fortifications in times past, for example when words such as "wall" or "glacis" occur. In

3577-534: The keeper of the magazine, opened the store to check a sample of the powder and a huge explosion followed. Fortunately, many citizens were away, visiting a market in Schiedam or a fair in The Hague . Today, the explosion is primarily remembered for killing Rembrandt 's most promising pupil, Carel Fabritius , and destroying nearly all his works. Delft artist Egbert van der Poel painted several pictures of Delft showing

3650-846: The largely extant Aurelian Walls of Rome and the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople , together with partial remains elsewhere. These are mostly city gates, like the Porta Nigra in Trier or Newport Arch in Lincoln . In Central Europe, the Celts built large fortified settlements which the Romans called oppida , whose walls seem partially influenced by those built in the Mediterranean. The fortifications were continuously expanded and improved. Apart from these,

3723-457: The least space in between them, and are rooted firmly in the ground. The top of the wall is often protruding and beset with barbed wire in order to make climbing them more difficult. These walls are usually built in straight lines and covered by watchtowers at the corners. Double walls with an interstitial "zone of fire", as the former Berlin Wall had, are now rare. In September 2014, Ukraine announced

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3796-462: The like, tend to be referred to as ramparts or banks. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a near necessity for every city. Uruk in ancient Sumer ( Mesopotamia ) is one of the world's oldest known walled cities. Before that, the proto-city of Jericho in the West Bank had a wall surrounding it as early as the 8th millennium   BC. The earliest known town wall in Europe

3869-597: The modern age, such as the walled towns of Austria , walls of Tallinn , or the town walls of York and Canterbury in England, as well as Nordlingen , Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany. In Spain, Avila and Tossa del Mar hosts surviving medieval walls while Lugo has an intact Roman wall. The founding of urban centers was an important means of territorial expansion and many cities, especially in central and eastern Europe, were founded for this purpose during

3942-507: The natives experienced great difficulty in uprooting European invaders. In China, Sun Yuanhua advocated for the construction of angled bastion forts in his Xifashenji so that their cannons could better support each other. The officials Han Yun and Han Lin noted that cannons on square forts could not support each side as well as bastion forts. Their efforts to construct bastion forts, and their results, were limited. Ma Weicheng built two bastion forts in his home county, which helped fend off

4015-401: The nearby cities of Rotterdam and The Hague , as often as every five minutes, for most of the day. There are several bus routes from Delft to similar destinations. Trams frequently travel between Delft and The Hague via special double tracks crossing the city. The whole city center and adjacent areas are a paid on-street parking area. In 2018, with the day parking fee of 29.5 Euro, it

4088-658: The nearly complete preservation of many monuments such as the Rothenburg ob der Tauber , Nördlingen and Dinkelsbühl . The countless small fortified towns in the Franconia region were also preserved as a consequence of this edict. Walls and fortified wall structures were still built in the modern era. They did not, however, have the original purpose of being a structure able to resist a prolonged siege or bombardment. Modern examples of defensive walls include: Additionally, in some countries, different embassies may be grouped together in

4161-470: The painter Jan Vermeer , and for hosting Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Historically, Delft played a highly influential role in the Dutch Golden Age . In terms of science and technology, thanks to the pioneering contributions of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Martinus Beijerinck , Delft can be considered to be the birthplace of microbiology . The city of Delft came into being beside

4234-400: The period of Eastern settlement . These cities are easy to recognise due to their regular layout and large market spaces. The fortifications of these settlements were continuously improved to reflect the current level of military development. While gunpowder and cannons were invented in China, China never developed wall breaking artillery to the same extent as other parts of the world. Part of

4307-504: The reason is probably because Chinese walls were already highly resistant to artillery and discouraged increasing the size of cannons. In the mid-twentieth century a European expert in fortification commented on their immensity: "in China ... the principal towns are surrounded to the present day by walls so substantial, lofty, and formidable that the medieval fortifications of Europe are puny in comparison." Chinese walls were thick. The eastern wall of Ancient Linzi , established in 859 BC, had

4380-526: The size and number of cannon placements because the rooms could only be built so big. Notable surviving artillery towers include a seven layer defensive structure built in 1480 at Fougères in Brittany , and a four layer tower built in 1479 at Querfurth in Saxony. The star fort, also known as the bastion fort, trace italienne , or renaissance fortress, was a style of fortification that became popular in Europe during

4453-452: The status and independence of the communities they embraced. Existing ancient walls are almost always masonry structures, although brick and timber-built variants are also known. Depending on the topography of the area surrounding the city or the settlement the wall is intended to protect, elements of the terrain such as rivers or coastlines may be incorporated in order to make the wall more effective. Walls may only be crossed by entering

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4526-609: The time of Silla until the end of the Joseon dynasty . Throughout the period of the Joseon dynasty eupseongs were modified and renovated, and new eupseongs were built, but in 1910 Japan (the occupying power of Korea) issued an order for their demolition, resulting in most being destroyed. Studies of the ruins and reconstructions of the ancient city walls are currently being undertaken at some sites. In ancient Greece , large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece , such as

4599-600: The top of the walls occasionally had a roof. In addition to this, many different enhancements were made over the course of the centuries: The defensive towers of west and south European fortifications in the Middle Ages were often very regularly and uniformly constructed (cf. Ávila , Provins ), whereas Central European city walls tend to show a variety of different styles. In these cases the gate and wall towers often reach up to considerable heights, and gates equipped with two towers on either side are much rarer. Apart from having

4672-447: The wall. The morning came with most of our unit still behind us, but we were beyond the wall. Behind the gate great heaps of sandbags were piled up. We 'cleared them away, removed the lock, and opened the gates, with a great creaking noise. We'd done it! We'd opened the fortress! All the enemy ran away, so we didn't take any fire. The residents too were gone. When we passed beyond the fortress wall we thought we had occupied this city. As

4745-555: The walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing were established in the early 15th century by the Yongle Emperor . According to Tonio Andrade , the immense thickness of Chinese city walls prevented larger cannons from being developed, since even industrial era artillery had trouble breaching Chinese walls. Eupseongs (Hangul: 읍성), 'city fortresses', which served both military and administrative functions, have been constructed since

4818-404: The walls of the marketplace of Chang'an were thicker than the walls of major European capitals. Aside from their immense size, Chinese walls were also structurally different from the ones built in medieval Europe. Whereas European walls were mostly constructed of stone interspersed with gravel or rubble filling and bonded by limestone mortar, Chinese walls had tamped earthen cores which absorbed

4891-534: Was "almost impervious to the efforts of horizontal fire." In fact twentieth century explosive shells had some difficulty creating a breach in tamped earthen walls. We fought our way to Nanking and joined in the attack on the enemy capital in December. It was our unit which stormed the Chunghua Gate. We attacked continuously for about a week, battering the brick and earth walls with artillery, but they never collapsed. The night of December 11, men in my unit breached

4964-405: Was founded as an academy for civil engineering in 1842 by King William II . As of 2022, well over 27,000 students are enrolled. The UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, providing postgraduate education for people from developing countries, draws on the strong tradition in water management and hydraulic engineering of the Delft university. The Hague University of Applied Sciences has

5037-702: Was repelled in the Battle of Delft . After the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange . When William was shot dead on 10 July 1584 by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof (now the Prinsenhof Museum ), the family's traditional burial place in Breda was still in

5110-431: Was the greatest advantage enjoyed by the star fort. As a result, sieges lasted longer and became more difficult affairs. By the 1530s the bastion fort had become the dominant defensive structure in Italy. Outside Europe, the star fort became an "engine of European expansion," and acted as a force multiplier so that small European garrisons could hold out against numerically superior forces. Wherever star forts were erected

5183-609: Was the main defense for Gelgel . For cities that did not have city walls, the least it would have had was a stockaded citadel . This wooden walled area housed the royal citadel or aristocratic compounds such as in Surakarta and Aceh . Large rammed earth walls were built in ancient China since the Shang dynasty ( c.  1600 –1050   BC), as the capital at ancient Ao had enormous walls built in this fashion (see siege for more info). Although stone walls were built in China during

5256-474: Was the most expensive on-street parking area in the Netherlands, with the city centers of Deventer and Dordrecht being second and third, respectively. City wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with towers , bastions and gates for access to

5329-438: Was to build relatively low and thick walls of packed earth, which could both withstand the force of cannon balls and support their own, defensive cannon. Chinese wall-building practice was, by happenstance, extremely resistant to all forms of battering. This held true into the twentieth century, when even modern explosive shells had some difficulty in breaking through tamped earth walls. The Chinese Wall Theory essentially rests on

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