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While I see the point on the Berlin Wall (which did in the short term interfere with unauthorized crossings), the Great Wall (same), European ruins (same), I also note that every military base on which I have worked had fences or walls. While the walled cities of Italy in most cases fell to attack, they still built walls. I lean toward a suspicion that fortifications are a good thing as long as they are a supplement to other defenses and not the only line of defense. I'm not convinced that I am right, and I suspect thought on this question would evolve quickly in difficult times, but some sort of barrier (manned or patrolled) is almost a universal throughout history.

Alright, you were good natured about the photos, so I’ll offer some serious info on home security barriers. As the environment is now, you want the barriers to look nice—nice as a nice granny’s house. Here are some tips.

* If the place is far enough from the suburbs and doesn’t have any local codes against barbed wire, build a regular but extra strong stock fence less than six feet high. Be careful. Accidents can happen with barbed wire construction, especially if it’s stretched too tight for fastening. Study barbed wire fence construction. There are plenty of how-tos around the Net.

* Suburban fence. Find out what’s cool with the local codes, and find a way to build the best looking but most effective suburban fence. Hedges can also work but must be transplanted or allowed years to grow. Trim the hedges. ;-)

* Electric fences. There are some great solar fence chargers at vendor sites around the Net. Follow the instructions (no grounding on grass, etc.). Don’t build such a fence where neighbor kids will get zapped by them. Do _not_ charge a fence with household AC current, of course. Some kooks have done that and may be in prison by now for it.

* Rock veneer on a house. Properly built with the right materials, it will stop rifle bullets. Make it look great. Avoid building it to the eaves.

* Outside doors can be replaced and reinforced. Consider the walls, too. Make the job look really nice.

* Consider a small, efficient, humble house. Large houses can sometimes be more often selected by criminals. Small houses can still look nice.

* Cameras. Some low-light cameras are cheap now, although some may require protection against weather. Cameras can be used with computers, free operating systems and free software for camera security. For extra security, software can be configured to use software motion detection and automatically upload video to remote servers.

* A dog. Dogs are good as alarms. Liability dogs (bad dogs, breeds) are not so good in any environment, whether civil (criminal charges if neighbor bitten, lawsuits,...) or uncivil environment (retaliations from neighbors).

* Lighting. With enough forethought, lighting can foil nighttime attacks, visibility from the outside, etc.

There’s no end to ideas for good looking home security. Every little change in elevation, smoothness and decoration can make a difference.

Don’t build anything monstrous, or the security feature will become the talk of the community and might even make the place more of a target. Keep it humble.