Geography I.

This is coolbert:

Some aspects of military geography I was not so conversant with. From an entry by Robert Cowley as seen in the "The Reader's Companion to Military History".

1. "Armies have always chosen the paths of least resistance, staked out by geological features."

Paths to include [but hardly limited to]:

* Bosporus.
* Northern Italy.
* Israel [Levant].
* Khyber Pass
* Flanders.
* Eurasian steppe land.

For clarification:

* Levant that area directly adjacent to the eastern most coast of the Mediterranean.
* Khyber Pass only one of several passes through the mountains acting as a barrier between Afghanistan and the Indian sub-continent.

2. "Certain areas are combat-intensive, it follows that military actions have converged repeatedly on a handful of places."

Areas to include [but hardly limited to]:

* Vimy Ridge.
* Panipat.
* Jerusalem.
* Adrianople.

WITH REGARD TO THE LATTER: "Adrianopole [now called Edirne] west of the Bosporus" that "most fought-over place" . . . "Adrianople has witnessed no fewer than fifteen major battles and sieges between 323 A.D. and 1913 A.D."

MOST fought over. Hardly a good thing I would think.

Give us this day your daily geography lesson and all devoted readers to the blog are more the better for it too. Yours truly included!

More to follow!

coolbert.