Rural Fortifications

#3 -- Aqua Bella Manor House -- Ground Floor (After Pringle);

#4 -- Aqua Bella Manor House -- First Floor (After Pringle).

Un-named Eastern European Castle Ruin

The drawing features the Main Entrance and Roadway through the Upper Ward (open area surrounded by a curtain wall).  The church is the low section of the building, and what remains of the keep (donjon) looms above it pointing to the sky.

Hukvaldy Castle, Main Entrance

Huckvaldy Castle is located in the Eastern part of the Czech Republic.

Hukvaldy Hrad Castle

Hukvaldy Castle ---

The ruin of Hukvaldy Castle is one of the largest in Central Europe and the second largest in Morovia.   The stone castle was built in the 13th century by Arnold of Huckswagen and it was never captured.  It was only destroyed by fire in the 18th century and is currently partially restored.  The tower affords a broad view of the Moravian Gate and the whole Odra River Valley all the way to Ostrava and the main range of the Morovian-Silesian Mountains.

The Kabrul Gate

This is an Indian Fortress / Castle ruin.  The above gate is about all that remains of the structure that is intact. Note the special shape of the crenallations along the top of the gate structure and curtain wall.  The two salient-towers (towers thrust forward from a fortified wall) that flank the gate are rounded rather than squared indicating a European style of construction.

The Principality of Antioch

The Principality of Antioch;

In 1096 "The First Crusade" set out from Europe with the idea of regaining the "Holy City of Jerusalem," from Islamic control.  By 1099, this aim had expanded into the capture of Jerusalem and Palestine closely followed by the creation of the  so-called, "Crusader States" across the region in what are now parts of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Isreal, Palestine,  and Jordan.  The "Warrior Elite" of these four Crusader States of Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem had to build ever more formidable castle walls to defend these territories after 1109.

"Sea Castle" #2, Sidon, (Saidon) Lebanon