The whole thing is basically a wall-clad hill. heaping one stone onto another is something they managed even thousands of years ago. And the climate (it is an oasis in the desert) is dry enought to keep it from eroding.
So it’s not walls then I suppose. Just the slopes of a flat topped pyramid like thing. I mean, it still provided a height advantage, but it feels like they have lesser cover from arrows than they would have if it was like a conventional wall.
Pure speculation - a typical siege strategy was to dig under walls to cause them to collapse. First, the earthen mound would make the tunneling to collapse a much more labor intensive effort. Second, if an enemy was at the base of the wall it could actually be easier to hit them with projectiles at this angle rather than leaning over and aiming straight down.
Again, I have zero evidence to support these points, just spitballing here.
The tunneling issue makes sense. The wall will be much more stable because of the greater base area, and the sappers will need to dig a much bigger cavity under the wall for all the additional material to fall into - if the holes too small the wall might not collapse well enough for the ground forces to have a good opening to assault.
The second point is less convincing though. Forts and castle walls had mitigation for that extra issue - machicolations are an example. Often, arrows wouldn’t be used for killing the people right at the base of the wall, instead rocks or hot sand would be used to fuck up their day. These also took out armored units - rocks just, well, crushed them, and hot sand got in the gaps and visors and burned the shit out of them. They could also often not get rid of it without taking off the armor, so they just burned till the sand cooled down.
Also arrows were a manufactured commodity. Rocks were just taken from the land, or could be waste from quarries etc, and sand is rough, coarse, and everywhere.
Well clearly it’s because the castle defenders of that era were quite sophisticated, but simply don’t dance they just pull up their pants and do the rockaway.
You’d think there’d be a reason beyond construction requirements, though—otherwise someone in the past 1,500 years would have replaced it with a more conventional wall.
These things are called skinny pigs. They’re sort of like the pugs of the rodent world, in that they were designed like this because some people think they look cute. Like pugs, their life is eternal suffering. They will never know what it feels like to be warm. They will get sick easier since their body is already battling the freezing 70°F air we prefer, and they also are as inbred as a purebred dog. Their life is short and sad and not worth the $300 per hungry scrotum (and you must get at least two or they will get lonely; for reference, a normal piggy cost about $20-$40)
To make matters worse, one of the ways that piggies argue is by tearing out each other’s butt hair. These little bastard children of somebody’s discarded foreskin have no butt hair. Thusly, you will find out that your little scrotumlings had an argument when you see one of them bleeding, which will need immediate medical attention and might get them infected with something.
The best way to allow your little shivering scrotum to temporarily be not miserable to provide a heating pad to warm themselves in (and pee/poop all over) and lots of loose blankets or cloth to burrow in.
That is interesting, I never considered that these would be bred this way, mainly because it’s still such a novelty to see one. Love the “shivering scrotum” description too 🤣
Especially appropriate since every piggy’s goal in life is to become the most rotund specimen. I imagine this one’s fitness goals involve him being the biggest ballsack in existence, with four little legs sticking out of the side and a food hole in the front
Fun fact: Guinea pigs display dominance by shaking their ass menacingly. They have no depth perception, so they make themselves look bigger by waving their ass back and forth while staring their opponent down. I suspect it is only called “rumble strutting” because pet owners don’t want to say their little boys are in a thunder thigh competition.
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.
Yeah, I think I’ll pass and just try to avoid ticks in the first place. One day I was following a trail through some tall grass, and by the time I got home, I found I had 3 ticks latched into my skin in various places.
After I got them all off, I was sick as a dog and running a gnarly fever for the next week. 🤒
They’re disgusting creatures. Takes a lot for me to hate anything more than mosquitos but at least they have the decency to fuck off once they get you.
Literally every time I would say this, on the that other place, that I won’t name, I would get downvoted to oblivion.
Large cats (tigers, lions, jaguars, and leopards only) are part of the panthera genus. Probably where the name came from, but there is no one specific animal that is a panther.
I guess the mountain is sometimes referred to as a panther, but it’s not accurate.
mildlyinteresting
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