In fantasy novels, it is not uncommon to encounter descriptions of a walled city or fortress which abuts a steep cliff or mountainside. In this arrangement, the outer wall forms a semicircle that runs up against the cliff or mountain slope, instead of encircling the city entirely.
Obviously “fantasy novel” is a fairly large indicator that strict architectural plausibility is not necessarily to be expected therein. However, I am curious about whether such an arrangement was ever used in reality; and if so, how it fared against attackers. I’m highly ignorant of siege warfare, but it seems to me that the disadvantages of this design would tend to outweigh its advantages in general.
Maybe, which is why I’m curious about if it ever actually happened. I can think of a few ways in which such a city would be less secure. If the peaks aren’t truly impassable, then your enemies could scootle down from above or just throw rocks down on you. At the very least, even one enemy observer on the slopes above would be a serious problem for defense. I was under the impression that castles and fortresses were typically built on the highest available ground. Having much higher ground right next door seems like a big hassle.
Also, what about the endpoints of the walls? It seems like you’d need to run the walls right up to a near-vertical incline on both ends to make them reasonably defensible. Maybe if your fortress was built alongside Devil’s Tower or something, it would work? I really don’t know.
They only have to be nearly-impassable. Just enough so the enemy can’t get an army up there. One squad isn’t going to be able to do jack, let alone build seige engines.
Was Masada fortified all the way 'round the top, or did it rely solely on the cliffs in some directions? It doesn’t quite fit the OP, since it occupies the entire plateau, but it’s the closest thing I can think of.
They can sneak in an open the front gates, which tends not to help your defences any
In answer to the OP, there are certainly plenty of real fortresses that rely on geographic defenses, I’m not sure in any of the describe exactly what the OP is refferring to. The fortresses in the in Pyrennes that we’re involved in the Cathar Crusade, and some of the Crusader fortresses in the holy land might be candidates.
The fact that the attackers could climb up and safely throw whatever they wanted on the defenders from above seems an obvious problem to me.
Hijack : it seems the “insert link” feature has changed . Previously, you would type, say, Monsegur, then insert the actual link and the word “Monsegur” would appear as a link. Now, I’m just asked to enter the link, but not the word or sentence I want it to be replaced with. What is it I’m doing wrong???
Maybe not a squad. But a company could do a lot of harm. In a fortress like the OP described, the city would be exposed to a force above it. A pretty small force could cause a lot of destruction just be throwing rocks off the top of the cliffside down into the city.
Yeah, you have to type the word you want as a hyperlink, highlight it, then hit the link button, and insert the web address. How’s that for a run-on sentence?
Nothing the link feature was changed. Write your post, highlight the words you want to use for a link, click the hyperlink button, and paste the URL in the box.
words
Thanks, it works. But previously, you didn’t have to highlight anything. You would be prompted to type the words, then to past the URL. Maybe highlighting worked too, but I never had used the link feature this way.
I think a lot depends on the size of the forces attacking you. There were early Japanese castles built on the side of a mountain, but these gave way to larger scale structures built on the top of lower sized mountains / hills, which eventually gave way to the grand-scale castles on the plains.
Another potential disadvantage would be that you couldn’t send out a cavalry sortee out the back door of your fortress to harrass the invaders, if you don’t have a back door.
Masada was surrounded on all sides by at least some degree of fortification. Even the sheer cliffs were topped by low crenelation-ish structures.
I would add that the most successful walled city in history was backed into a natural “fortification,” but not the type you’re looking for. Constantinople’s walls repelled attackers for over a thousand years, until the invention of gunpowder weapons. And yet the city backed up to the Bosphorus, and was protected from attack by sea only by a chain stretched across the Golden Horn. (It’s kind of hard to explain, but look at a map and you’ll see what I mean.)
The Sogdian Rock captured by Alexander the Great would appear to meet the criteria in the OP. Unfortunately it’s location is not now known but from the contemporary accounts it would appear to have been a cliff fortress with more cliff above. The defenders relied upon the difficulty of ascending the precipice but the Macedonian army included experienced climbers. During the night a small force was able to get above the fortress, which so intimidated the Sogdians that they surrendered. They really shouldn’t have taunted Alexander with their claim that his men would have to have wings to take the place…
