The Koroszczyn fortress - a huge area of the fort, mostly with forest.

Send by: Jarek

Fort VI - Lebiedziew, part of the Brest Fortress. Fort heavily devastated. The entire area is surrounded by foss, mostly filled with water.

Send by: Jarek

Brest Fortress in Brest, Belarus, formerly known as Brest-Litovsk Fortress (the Polish name of the city was Brześć Litewski), is one of the most important Soviet World War II war monuments commemorating Soviet resistance against the German invasion on June 22, 1941. Following the war, in 1965 the title Hero-Fortress (Russian: крепость-герой, krepost'-geroy) was given to the Fortress to commemorate the heroic defence of the frontier stronghold during the very first weeks of the Great Patriotic War. It was then part of the Byelorussian SSR. The title Hero-Fortress corresponds to the title Hero City, that has been awarded to the total of twelve Soviet cities.

Originally it was the largest 19th century fortress of Russian Empire, one of the western Russian fortresses. It is located at the confluence of the Mukhavets and Western Bug rivers with total area 4 km². The initial phase of the construction lasted from 1836 until 1842. The defences were then progressively modernised and expanded throughout the 19th century, with forts added around the original citadel. The final works were carried out in 1914, the first year of World War I, resulting in a fortified area 30 km in circumference.

Babylon Fortress was a fortress city or castle in the Delta of Egypt, located at Babylon in the area known as Coptic Cairo. It was situated in the Heliopolite Nome, upon the right (eastern) bank of the Nile, at latitude 30° N., near the commencement of the Pharaonic Canal (also called Ptolemy's Canal and Trajan's Canal), from the Nile to the Red Sea.

It was at the boundary between Lower and Middle Egypt, where the river craft paid tolls when ascending or descending the Nile. Diodorus ascribes the erection of the first fort to rebel Assyrian captives in the reign of Sesostris, and Ctesias (Persica) dates it to the time of Semiramis; but Josephus (l. c.), with greater probability, attributes its structure to some Babylonian followers of Cambyses, in 525 BC. The Romans built a new fortress with typically Roman red and white banded masonry nearer to the river.

The Leopoldov Prison, originally a fortress, is a high-security prison in the town of Leopoldov, Slovakia.

Construction of a fortress against Ottoman Turks started in 1665 and was finished in 1669, on the initiative of Leopold I, after the Nové Zámky fortress fell to the Turks. The fortress was built in a star shape, with two entrance gates. During the reign of Maria Theresa of Austria, it was used as a military warehouse. After loss of military importance in the 19th century, it was rebuilt as a prison in 1855, with a capacity of around 1000 inmates, what was the biggest prison in the Kingdom of Hungary at that time. During the Communist Czechoslovakia, the Communist government used the prison for holding and liquidating political prisoners, particularly in the 1950s. The conditions were harsh for prisoners, and the prison was one of the most notorious in the former Czechoslovakia. Among the inmates was Gustáv Husák (from 1954 to 1960), who would be later president of Czechoslovakia. The prison was modernized and reconstructed in the second half of the 20th century. Before 1989 there were approximately 2600 inmates in the prison.

The Kızıl Kule (Red Tower) is a main tourist attraction in the Turkish city of Alanya. The building is considered to be the symbol of the city, and is even used on the city's flag. Construction of the building began in the beginning of the reign of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultan Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I and was completed in 1226. The sultan brought the accomplished architect Ebu Ali Reha from Aleppo, Syria to Alanya to complete the building. The name derives from the more red color brick he used in its construction. So well-made was it that it remains one of the finest examples of medieval military architecture. Though more preservation has gone into the building, it clearly is the best preserved Seljuk building in the city. The octagonal red brick tower protects the Tersane (arsenal) which dates from 1221. The building itself is 33 meters high and 12.5 meters wide. Like many buildings in the city, the Tower flies a Turkish Flag from its crenelations.

It is one of 18 forts of what is called a Stronghold-Poznań, constructed in the years 1876-1880, and later modernized between 1887 and 1888. Initially, it was simply referred to as Fort VII, but in 1902 this 14-hectar fortification was named Fort Colomb. Until 1918 it served an important function in Prussian plans regarding the defence of both the city and the eastern border of the 2nd Reich. In the period between the World Wars, it was used as a warehouse.

The Nazi occupation was the turning point in the history of the fortification. The Nazi authorities decided that the building would become the first concentration camp in the territory of Poland. The factors that prevailed while choosing Fort VII as the site for such a camp included its location - far away from settlements, surrounded by dirt walls and camouflaging vegetation, quite typical of forts, it was also within easy reach from the centre of Poznań. After the expulsion of Polish citizens from the surroundings of Fort VII and populating this area with families of camp officers and Gestapo staff, the site became strictly isolated from other parts of the city.

Krak des Chevaliers, also transliterated Crac des Chevaliers pronounced, is a Crusader fortress in Syria and one of the most important preserved medieval military castles in the world. In Arabic, the fortress is called Qal'at al-Ḥiṣn, the word Krak coming from the Syriac karak, meaning fortress. It is located 65 km west of the city of Homs, close to the border of Lebanon, and is administratively part of the Homs Governorate.

Krak des Chevaliers was the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades. It was expanded between 1150 and 1250 and eventually housed a garrison of 2,000. The inner curtain wall is up to 100 feet thick at the base on the south side, with seven guard towers 30 feet in diameter.

King Edward I of England, while on the Ninth Crusade in 1272, saw the fortress and used it as an example for his own castles in England and Wales. The fortress was described as “perhaps the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world” by T.E. Lawrence. This fortress was made a World Heritage Site, along with Qal’at Salah El-Din, in 2006 and is owned by the Syrian government. The fortress is one of the few sites where Crusader art (in the form of frescoes) has been preserved.