Sigiriya
Sigiriya, Sri Lanka
Sigiriya is a granite rock about 180 metres high in central Sri Lanka, crowned by the ruins of a palace that King…
525 tickets & tours
By type
Best fortresses & citadels to visit worldwide
Fortresses were built to be hard to reach, and that is still their appeal. What survives is usually the defences themselves: ramparts, gates, towers and ditches, sometimes with barracks, cisterns, granaries and a commander’s house inside. Inca strongholds such as Sacsayhuaman show walls of huge fitted stones; the Roman forts on Hadrian’s Wall keep barracks, baths and latrines; Masada adds a palace on the cliff edge and the siege works below; Iron Age forts such as Dún Aonghasa are rings of drystone walls on a hilltop or cliff.
Sacsayhuaman
Cusco, Peru
Sacsayhuaman is the Inca stronghold on the hill above Cusco, famous for zigzag terrace walls of polished limestone…
41 tickets & tours
Waqrapukara
Cusco, Peru
Waqrapukara is a remote fortress-sanctuary in Acomayo Province, south of Cusco, built around a rock outcrop with two…
39 tickets & tours
Masada
Jerusalem, Israel
Masada is the desert fortress that Herod the Great built on a flat-topped rock above the Dead Sea, and the place where…
20 tickets & tours
Co Loa Citadel
Hanoi, Vietnam
Co Loa Citadel, about 17 km north of central Hanoi, is the spiral earthwork capital that tradition credits to King An…
15 tickets & tours
Hadrian’s Wall
Hexham, United Kingdom
Hadrian's Wall is the Roman frontier that ran 117 km across northern England from the Tyne to the Solway Firth,…
12 tickets & tours
Kuelap
Chachapoyas, Peru
Kuelap is the walled mountain-top city of the Chachapoya people, set at about 3,000 metres above the Utcubamba Valley…
11 tickets & tours
Yapahuwa Rock Fortress
Maho, Sri Lanka
Yapahuwa is a 13th-century royal citadel built around a granite rock that rises almost 100 metres above the plains of…
4 tickets & tours
Babylon Fortress
Cairo, Egypt
Babylon Fortress is the Roman stronghold at the heart of Coptic Cairo, built around AD 300 under Diocletian to guard…
1 ticket or tour
Old Sarum
Salisbury, United Kingdom
Old Sarum is the great earthwork hill 3 km north of Salisbury where an Iron Age fort of about 400 BC later held a…
1 ticket or tour
Sarmizegetusa Regia
Orăștioara de Sus, Romania
Sarmizegetusa Regia was the capital of the Dacian kings, a walled citadel and sacred precinct on a forested ridge of…
1 ticket or tour
Citania de Briteiros
Guimarães, Portugal
Citania de Briteiros is one of the largest Iron Age hill forts in north-west Iberia, a walled town of round stone…
No online ticket
Dún Aonghasa (Dun Aengus)
Inishmore, Ireland
Dún Aonghasa is a prehistoric stone fort on Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands, built on the edge of a sheer…
No online ticket
Great Zimbabwe
Masvingo, Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe is the ruined capital of a medieval African kingdom near Masvingo and the largest stone structure built…
No online ticket
Nebet Tepe
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Nebet Tepe is the rocky hill at the northern edge of Plovdiv Old Town where the city began, settled since about 4000…
No online ticket
Pukara de Quitor
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Pukara de Quitor is a stone fortress built by the Atacameno people on a steep hillside above the San Pedro river, 3 km…
No online ticket
Vindolanda
Henshaw, United Kingdom
Vindolanda is a Roman fort and civilian settlement on the Stanegate road, just south of Hadrian's Wall in…
No online ticket
Expect climbing. Sigiriya means a long stair and exposed metal steps up a rock, Masada a steep path or a cable car, Kuelap a cable car and walkways in cloud forest. Start early, before the heat and queues build, carry water and a warm layer at height, and wear shoes with grip. Walk beside walls rather than on them, and keep away from unfenced drops. In the Andes, give yourself a day or two to adjust to the altitude first.
The best in the catalogue are Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, with its frescoes and lion-paw stairway; Sacsayhuaman above Cusco in Peru; Masada in Israel, above the Dead Sea; Hadrian’s Wall and its forts in northern England; Kuelap in the mountains of northern Peru; and the stone enclosures of Great Zimbabwe.