Fortifications
are military constructions and buildings
designed for defense in warfare. 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"). Many
military installations are known as forts,
although they are not always fortified.
Larger forts may class as fortresses,
smaller ones formerly often bore the name
of fortalices. The word "fortification
" can also refer to the practice
of improving an area's defense with defensive
works. The art of laying out a military
camp or constructing a fortification traditionally
classes as castrametation, since the time
of the Roman legions. The art/science
of laying siege to a fortification and
of destroying it has the popular name
of siegecraft and the formal name of poliorcetics.
In some texts this latter term also applies
to the art of building a fortification.
Bourtange
fortification, restored to 1750 situation,
Groningen (province), NetherlandsFortification
is usually divided into two branches,
namely 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. Field fortifications
are extemporized by troops in the field,
perhaps assisted by such local labor and
tools as may be procurable, and with materials
that do not require much preparation,
such as earth, brushwood and light timber.
There is also an intermediate branch known
as semipermanent fortification.
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