here’s an incredible piece of wartime engineering - the grand shaft in dover. built between 1806 and 1809 during the napoleonic wars, this triple spiral staircase was used as a rapid route for soldiers making their way from the clifftop barracks to the town of dover and its harbour below. without it the troops had to navigate badly maintained winding roads from top to bottom.

a huge 140ft shaft was dug into the ground to house the 3 intertwined staircases, the inner shaft peppered with windows to ensure light from above reached the soldiers running down to possible battle. engineer william twiss was adamant that a single staircase wouldn’t provide a big enough route down for a huge volume of people so he wrapped 3 stairways around each other, the 3 exit points meeting at the bottom where a tunnel leads to the town of dover.

photo sources, clockwise from top: whibs, jelltecks and conundrum37

apparently at one point, after the wars had subsided and the shaft wasn’t needed by troops, each of the 3 staircases was only to be used by certain people, as pointed out by the sign at the top of each…

1. officers and their ladies

2. sergeants and their wives

3. soldiers and their women

below is the top of the grand shaft as seen on google maps. here’s the direct link.

sources: 1, 2

many of them still stand today in varying sizes. some are empty, some contain ruins. some, as you’ll see below, contain entire villages. be sure to check out the source links at the bottom for more info.

so here are 6 of the best star forts on earth…

1. palmanova, italy (google maps / wiki)

2. bourtange, the netherlands (google maps / wiki)

3. goryokaku, japan (google maps / wiki)

4. almeida, portugal (google maps / wiki)

5. saint-martin-de-ré, france (google maps / wiki)

6. naarden, the netherlands (google maps / wiki)

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

area - 0.026 km²

population prior to demolition - 50,000, approx

population density - 1,900,000 / km²

(it’s interesting to note that the city of london has a population density of 4,669 / km² and that hong kong itself a density of 6,206 / km2)

said to be the most densely populated area on earth until its demolition in 1993, kowloon walled city in hong kong was a near self-sufficient, self-regulated area pretty much un-touched by the rest of the world. in 1898 the majority of hong kong was handed over to the british, this tiny area being one of the excepted areas on the understanding that chinese troops stationed there didn’t interfere with british rule. the next year the british went back on the agreement, attacked the city and found no inhabitants. over the next few decades the question of ownership wasn’t really raised and the population (at that time residing in low-level buildings) increased.

after world war 2, squatters moved in and the real growth began, both in numbers and building size. surrounded by discussion about the future of the walled city and half-hearted attempts by different groups to assume control, the people within the walls started to modify their homes, building upwards, interconnecting apartments, slowly shutting out sunlight to all but those on the outer-edges. the triads even took control of the city until 1974, finally driven out by 3,000 seperate police raids.

in 1984 the chinese and british authorities finally realised that living conditions in the walled city were possibly ‘behind the times’ (the stench was apparently horrific and just walking down an alleyway would usually result in a downpour due to the plumbing systems between buildings) and agreed to demolish the area, this not actually happening until 1994.

a few movies were filmed inside the city prior to it’s demise, the most important being jean-claude van damme’s impeccable, oscar-worthy nugget of cinema, bloodsport. also, according to 100% factually correct website wikipedia, christopher nolan’s gotham city was largely based on kowloon walled city.

so now you know.

sources: 1, 2, 3

believed to be one of the widest building complexes in the world, it consists of 8 rectangular buildings, seperated by a small gap, situated in a line around the bay - the total length coming in at 4km. it was designed as a mass holiday resort by the nazis and the sheer scale of it meant 20,000 visitors could be accomodated simultaneously within it’s 10,000 bedrooms, however it was never actually used for that purpose due to the war. instead it was used as a military base.

more info on this incredible building here.