Current Events > were there any real life "beacons of minas tirith"?

(+) Yeah! (+)

back before technology existed, beacons like that would have been the fastest possible method of communicating, so long as you wanted to communicate "we are under siege send us reinforcements"
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Probably.
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Yeah, Mulan taught me that the Great Wall did that
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GOATTHlEF posted...

Yeah it was quite common actually. A lot of places in England used such systems to warn of Viking raids and later the Spanish armada. Scots also had a system for when England came knocking. Indeed, while it's use as a fortification was useful, the great Wall of China's main function was to be used as a beacon system to transmit messages and warnings of raids over long distances.

Spain also had a system of beacons to warn of Moorish attacks.

Was it ever used to dramatic effect that the movie showed? Probably not. That's not even how it worked in the books.

did they ever actually send each other reinforcements or was it just a "hey, they are coming, friendly warning" kinda thing?
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