Free Republic

'Doomsday prepping' used to be seen as a hobby relegated to the paranoid fringe — but ordinary Americans spent a staggering $11 billion on survival items, just last year, from April 2022 to April 2023. About a third of US citizens admit to prepping, surveys show, but few have the resources today's billionaire bunker-builders have to devote to their own shelters. The world's wealthiest have increasingly spent hundreds of millions on securing underground compounds, private islands and (for the merely rich) 'survival condos.' Late last year it emerged Mark Zuckerberg was building a $100 million hidden fortress buried beneath his...

Medieval Houses of God, or Ancient Fortresses? Volume 57 Number 6, November/December 2004 by David Keys Cambridge archaeologist has redated the church of the archangel Gabriel, previously believed to have been carved from the rock at Lalibela, Ethiopia, around A.D. 1200, to between A.D. 600 and 800. The church may originally have been built as a fortress. (Courtesy Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, Cambridge) Investigations in Lalibela, Ethiopia, are revealing that Africa's most important historical Christian site is much older than previously thought. Up until now, scholars have regarded the spectacular complex of 11 rock-cut churches as dating from around...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE The oldest remaining documentation of military campaigns come from the Middle East where the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, and Persians were the main combatants. Read about the rise of standing armies and how battles were fought 4000 years ago.   Continuation of Part I:Ancient Egyptian MilitaryFortresses Unless an enemy was willing to besiege a stronghold until it surrendered or could surprise its garrison...