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Talus (fortification)

 

 
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The talus is an architectural feature of some late medieval castles, especially prevalent in crusader
Crusader

Crusader may refer to :* a newspaper in New Orleans that opposed segregation in the 1790s* a participant to the Crusade_,* Crusader tank, a British cruiser tank of World War II...
 constructions. It consists of a sloping face at the base of a fortified wall
Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs....
. The slope acts as an effective defensive measure in two ways. First, conventional siege equipment is less effective against a wall with a talus. Scaling ladders
Escalade

Escalade is the act of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders, and was a prominent feature of siege warfare in Middle Ages times....
 may be unable to reach the top of the walls and are also more easily broken due to the stresses caused by the angle they are forced to adopt.






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The talus is an architectural feature of some late medieval castles, especially prevalent in crusader
Crusader

Crusader may refer to :* a newspaper in New Orleans that opposed segregation in the 1790s* a participant to the Crusade_,* Crusader tank, a British cruiser tank of World War II...
 constructions. It consists of a sloping face at the base of a fortified wall
Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs....
. The slope acts as an effective defensive measure in two ways. First, conventional siege equipment is less effective against a wall with a talus. Scaling ladders
Escalade

Escalade is the act of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders, and was a prominent feature of siege warfare in Middle Ages times....
 may be unable to reach the top of the walls and are also more easily broken due to the stresses caused by the angle they are forced to adopt. Siege towers cannot approach closer than the base of the talus, and their gangplank
Corvus (weapon)

A corvus or harpago was a Ancient Rome military Boarding used in naval warfare during the First Punic War against Carthage.In Chapters 1.22-4-11 of his History, Polybius describes this device as a bridge 1.2 m wide and 10.9 m long, with a small parapet on both sides....
 may be unable to cover the horizontal span of the talus, rendering them useless. Furthermore, defenders are able to drop rocks over the walls, which will shatter on the talus, spraying a hail of shrapnel
Shrapnel

Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions which carried a large number of individual bullets to the target and then ejected them forwards, relying almost entirely on the shell's velocity for their lethality....
 into any attackers massed at the base of the wall.

See also

  • Glacis
    Glacis

    A glacis in military engineering is an artificial slope of earth used in late European Bastion_fortress so constructed as to keep any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders until the last possible moment....
  • Scarp
    Scarp

    Scarp may mean:* Scarp, Scotland, an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland* Scarp with a counterscarp, the inner and outer sides of a ditch...
  • Siege
    Siege

    A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by Battle of attrition and/or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit." A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a coup de main and refuses to surrender ....