A brick wall

A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air. A room, in Architecture, is any distinguishable space within a structure 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's 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 panelling). The term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of Heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer For the musical group "Drywall" see Drywall (musical project Drywall is a common manufactured Building material In addition, the wall may house various types of electrical wiring or plumbing. Electrical wiring in general refers to insulated conductors used to carry Electricity, and associated devices Plumbing, from the Latin plumbum for Lead, is the skilled trade of working with pipes, tubing and Plumbing fixtures for Electrical outlets are usually mounted in walls. Building walls frequently become works of art, such as when murals are painted on them. A mural is a Painting on a wall ceiling or other large permanent surface

On a ship, the walls separating compartments are termed 'Bulkheads', whilst the thinner walls separating cabins are termed 'Partitions'. A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a Ship. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and Deckheads Etymology

Stone wall of an English barn

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. A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary 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. Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar, and the term "masonry" can also refer to the units themselves A common term for both is barrier, convenient if it is partly a wall and partly a fence, e. The term separation barrier is a Euphemism for walls or fences constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or Border, or to separate two populations g. the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer was a physical barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic (GDR ( East Germany) including

An old Italian wall surrounded by flowers.

Before the invention of artillery, many European cities had protective walls. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status See also List of cities with defensive walls A defensive wall is a Fortification used to defend a city or settlement from potential aggressors In fact, the English word "wall" is derived from Latin vallum, which was a type of fortification wall. For the more specific feature of Hadrian's Wall, see Vallum (Hadrian's Wall, and for the anatomical feature see Vallum (anatomy. 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 Wall. The Great Wall of China ( or ( is a series of stone and earthen Fortifications in China, built rebuilt and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th Hadrian's Wall ( Latin: perhaps Vallum Aelium, "the Aelian wall" is a stone and turf Fortification built by the Roman A modern functional example was the Berlin Wall, which divided Germany. The Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer was a physical barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic (GDR ( East Germany) including

Dry-stone wall - Grendon

In areas of rocky soils around the world, farmers 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. Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together

Ashlar wall - Inca wall at Machu Picchu

Retaining walls 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. Ashlar is dressed stone work of any type of stone Ashlar blocks are large rectangular blocks of Masonry sculpted to have square edges and even faces Machu Picchu (Machu Pikchu "Old Peak" 'mɑtʃu 'piktʃu is a Pre-Columbian Inca site located 2400 meters (7875 ft above sea level A retaining wall is a structure that holds back Soil or rock from a Building, structure or area The ground surface or water on one side of a retaining wall will be noticeably higher than on the other side. A dike is one type of retaining wall, as is a levee. LeveeEmbankmentDitch A dike (or dyke) levee, levée, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial Dike (constructionEmbankmentA levee, levée, dike (or dyke) embankment, floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial

Special laws often govern walls shared by neighbouring properties. Typically, one neighbour cannot alter the common wall if it is likely to affect the building or property on the other side.

It is notable that English uses the same word to refer to an external wall, and the sides of a room. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States This is by no means universal, and many languages distinguish between the two. In German, some of this distinction can be seen between Wand and Mauer.

See also

• List of walls
• Dry-stone wall
• Stone wall
• Fence
• Wallpaper
• Load-bearing wall
• Sleeper wall
• Ashlar

The wall is also an album by music band Pink Floyd. This is a list of famous Walls. Classical Biblical Byzantine Antiquity & feudal era Anastasian Wall in Turkey Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together Stone walls are a kind of Masonry construction which have been made by man for thousands of years A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary This page refers to the material used for Interior decoration. A load-bearing wall or bearing wall, is one in which a wall of a structure bears the weight and force resting upon it conducting the vertical load from the upper A Sleeper Wall is a short Wall used to support Floor Joists of a Ground floor. Ashlar is dressed stone work of any type of stone Ashlar blocks are large rectangular blocks of Masonry sculpted to have square edges and even faces The Wall is a Rock opera presented as a Double album by the English Progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in late Pink Floyd are