Tomb of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq and side tomb (3319047170)

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, batter is a receding slope of a

wall A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...

, structure, or earthwork. A wall sloping in the opposite direction is said to ''overhang''. When used in fortifications it may be called a talus. Dry Stone wall building

The term is used with buildings and non-building structures to identify when a wall or element is intentionally built with an inward slope. A battered corner is an architectural feature using batters. A batter is sometimes used in

foundations Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...

walls,

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

s, and

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

s. Other terms that may be used to describe battered walls are "tapered" and "flared". Typically in a battered wall, the taper provides a wide base to carry the weight of the wall above, with the top gradually resulting in the thinnest part as to ease the weight of wall below. The ''batter angle'' is typically described as a ratio of the offset and height or a degree angle that is dependent on the building materials and application. For example, typical dry-stone construction of retaining walls utilizes a 1:6 ratio, that is for every 1 inch that the wall steps back, it increases 6 inches in height.

Historical uses

Walls may be battered to provide structural strength or for decorative reasons. In

military architecture Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics be ...

, they made walls harder to undermine or tunnel, and provided some defense against artillery, especially early

siege engine A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while other ...

projectiles and cannon, where the energy of the projectile might be largely deflected, on the same principle as modern

sloped armor Sloped armour is armour that is neither in a vertical nor a horizontal position. Such angled armour is typically mounted on tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), as well as naval vessels such as battleships and cruisers. Sloping an a ...

Siege tower A Roman siege tower or breaching tower (or in the Middle Ages, a belfry''Castle: Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections''. Dorling Kindersley Pub (T); 1st American edition (September 1994). Siege towers were invented in 300 BC. ) is a specialized siege ...

s could not be pushed next to the top of a strongly battered wall. Types of fortification using batters included the talus and

glacis A glacis (; ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in bastion fort, early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More genera ...

Regional examples

Asia

Architectural styles that often include battered walls as a stylistic feature include

Indo-Islamic architecture Indo-Islamic architecture is the architecture of the Indian subcontinent produced by and for Islamic patrons and purposes. Despite an initial Arab presence in Sindh, the development of Indo-Islamic architecture began in earnest with the establ ...

, where it was used in many tombs and some mosques, as well as many

forts in India The existence of the earliest forts in India have been substantiated by documentation and excavation. In the medieval times, the architecture of the forts had both Hindu and Muslim influence. The forts constructed by the British Raj, British initia ...

Tughlaqabad Fort Tughluqabad Fort is a ruined fort in Delhi, built by Ghiyasuddin Tughluq, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty, of the Delhi Sultanate of India in 1321, as he established the third historic city of Delhi, which was later abandoned in 1327. It l ...

in Delhi is a good example, built by

Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq ) (Ghazi means 'fighter for Islam')ref name="sen2"> (died c.1325) was the Sultan of Delhi from 1320 to 1325. He was the first sultan of the Tughluq dynasty. During his reign, Ghiyath al-Din Tughlu ...

, whose tomb opposite the fort (illustrated above) also has a strong batter. In

Hindu temple architecture Hindu temple architecture as the main form of Hindu architecture has many varieties of style, though the basic nature of the Hindu temple remains the same, with the essential feature an inner sanctum, the ''garbha griha'' or womb-chamber, where ...

, the walls of the large

Gopuram A ''gopuram'' or ''gopura'' ( Tamil: கோபுரம், Malayalam: ഗോപുരം, Kannada: ಗೋಪುರ, Telugu: గోపురం) is a monumental entrance tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of a Hindu temple, in the South I ...

s of South India are usually battered, often with a slight concave curve. In the Himalayan region, battered walls are one of the typifying characteristics of traditional

Tibetan architecture Architecture of Tibet contains Chinese and Indian influences but has many unique features brought about by its adaptation to the cold, generally arid, high-altitude climate of the Tibetan plateau. Buildings are generally made from locally availabl ...

. With minimal foreign influence over the centuries, the region's use of battered walls are considered to be an indigenous creation and part of Tibet's vernacular architecture. This style of batter wall architecture was the preferred style of construction for much of Inner-Asia, and has been used from

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. The 13-story

Potala Palace The Potala Palace is a ''dzong'' fortress in Lhasa, Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and a World Heritage Site since 1994. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythica ...

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

, is one of the best known examples of this style and was named a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site in 1994.

Middle East

Battered walls are a common architectural feature found in

Ancient Egyptian architecture Spanning over three thousand years, ancient Egypt was not one stable civilization but in constant change and upheaval, commonly split into periods by historians. Likewise, ancient Egyptian architecture is not one style, but a set of styles diff ...

. Usually constructed from

mud brick A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also been fi ...

for residential applications, limestone, sandstone, or granite was used mainly in the construction of temples and tombs. In terms of monumental architecture, the

Giza pyramid complex The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Men ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

utilized different grades of battered walls to achieve great heights with relative stability. The

Pyramid of Djoser The pyramid of Djoser (or Djeser and Zoser), sometimes called the Step Pyramid of Djoser, is an archaeological site in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the ruins of Memphis. The 6-tier, 4-sided structure is the earliest colossal stone b ...

is an archeological remain in the

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...

necropolis, northwest of the city of

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

that is a quintessential example of battered walls used in sequence to produce a

step pyramid A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids are structures which characterized several ...

New World

In the Americas, battered walls are seen as a fairly common aspect of

Mission style architecture The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

, where Spanish design was hybridized with Native American

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

building techniques. As exemplified by the San Estevan del Rey Mission Church in Acoma, New Mexico, c.1629-42, the heights desired by Spanish Catholic Mission design was achieved through battering

bricks to achieve structural stability.

Gallery

Image:Krak des chevaliers04(js).jpg, The

Krak des Chevaliers Krak des Chevaliers, ar, قلعة الحصن, Qalʿat al-Ḥiṣn also called Hisn al-Akrad ( ar, حصن الأكراد, Ḥiṣn al-Akrād, rtl=yes, ) and formerly Crac de l'Ospital; Krak des Chevaliers or Crac des Chevaliers (), is a medieva ...

in Syria, with a tall and clearly defined talus File:BatteredPiles.jpg, ''Batter'' describes the intentional inclination of these

piling A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element ...

s. File:Ruins of St Edmund's Chapel - Hunstanton - St Edmund's Point.jpg, Battered buttresses reinforce this wall. File:San Esteban Del Rey Mission Church, Acoma, New Mexico.jpg, San Esteban Del Rey Mission Church, Acoma, New Mexico File:Lhasa Potala.jpg,

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. UNESCO World Heritage Site.

References

{{authority control Building engineering Types of wall Architectural terminology