#fortification

Yongtai Fortress 永泰古城 is a village and historical fortress town on the Gobi desert in Gansu province, northwest China. Built in 1608 by the Ming dynasty rulers to defend against attacks from northern nomads. it stationed 2000 infantrymen and 500 cavalry units.

The entire fort is enclosed by a rammed earth wall including defensive towers. Due to desertification, the village is now mostly abandoned, dropping from 1500 people in the 1950s, to around 100 today.

For #MapMonday, a manuscript created in Japan during the second half of the 18th century that features a collection of maps of feudal castles in the current Kansai, Chubu, Kanto, and Chugoku regions in central Japan. (UPenn Ms. Codex 1592)

Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such as ports, river crossings, or crossroads, and almost always incorporated the landscape into their defenses.

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