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A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects space. Most commonly, a wall separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air. There are three principal types of structural walls: building walls, exterior boundary walls, and retaining walls.


Building walls have two main purposes: to support roofs and ceilings, and to divide space, providing security against intrusion and weather. Such walls most often have three or more separate components. In today's construction, a building wall will usually have the structural elements (such as 2×4 studs in a house wall), insulation, and finish elements, or surface (such as drywall or paneling ). In addition, the wall may house various types of electrical wiring or plumbing. Electrical outlets are usually mounted in walls. Building walls frequently become works of art, such as when murals are painted on them.

On a ship, the walls separating compartments are termed ' Bulkheads', whilst the thinner walls separating cabins are termed ' Partition's'.

Boundary walls include privacy walls, boundary-marking walls, and city walls. These intergrade into fences; the conventional differentiation is that a fence is of minimal thickness and often is open in nature, while a wall is usually more than a nominal thickness and is completely closed, or opaque. More to the point, if an exterior structure is made of wood or wire, it is generally referred to as a fence, while if it is made of masonry, it is considered a wall. A common term for both is barrier, convenient if it is partly a wall and partly a fence, e.g. the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Before the invention of artillery, many European cities had protective walls. Since they are no longer relevant for defense, the cities have grown beyond their walls, and many of the walls have been torn down. Extreme examples of boundary walls include the Great Wall of China and Hadrian's WallHadrian's Wall was a stone and turf fortification, built by the Romans across the width of Great Britain to prevent military raids by the Pictish tribes of Scotland to the north. The name is also sometimes used as a euphemism for the border between Scotla.

In areas of rocky soils around the world, farmers (and their slaves, as in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in before slavery was abolished) have often pulled large quantities of stone out of their fields to make farming easier, and have stacked those stones to make walls that either mark the field boundary, or the property boundary, or both.

Retaining wallA retaining wall is a structure to provide a barrier to downslope movement of soil, rock, or water. Retaining walls are generally made of masonry: stone, brick, concrete or steel sheet piles. In recent years, railroad ties have been a popular material fors are a special type of wall, that may be either external to a building or part of a building, that serves to provide a barrier to the movement of earth, stone or water. The ground surface or water on one side of a retaining wall will be noticeably higher than on the other side. A dike (construction)A dyke (or dike is a stone or earthen wall constructed as a defence or as a boundary. The best known form of dyke is a construction built along the edge of a body of water to prevent it from flooding onto an adjacent lowland. However dykes have also been is one type of retaining wall, as is a leveeThis article is about the type of dam. See also Levee (event A levee (from the French for "raised") is a natural or artificial embankment, usually earthen, which parallels the course of a river. It functions to prevent flooding of the adjoining countrysid.

The term "the Wall" frequently referred to the Berlin WallNovember 16 1989 The Berlin Wall ( German: Berliner Mauer was a long barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the surrounding territory of East Germany. Its intent was to restrict access between West Berlin and East Germany. It existed from 196, erected during the Cold WarThe Cold War (c. 1945- 1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. On one side was the Soviet Union and its allies, often referred to as the E, which fell in 19891989 is a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). Events January January 7 Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan following the death of Hirohito. The Heisei period begins January 8 the Kegworth Air Disaster A British Midland Boeing 737 cra.



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