In many people's imaginations, walled cities are associated with medieval Europe, but such cities exist all over the world. In this post we look at walled cities from around the Caribbean, most (but not all) of which are legacies of Spanish colonisation. We begin in Mexico with the city of Campeche. From its founding by the Spanish in 1540, the city was constantly attacked by English and Dutch pirates and privateers; enough so to warrant the fortification of the city beginning in the 1680s with a 2.6 km (1.6 mi)-long wall containing eight small defensive forts, or bastions , along with numerous other bastions constructed at various points along the city's shoreline facing the Gulf of Mexico. Today, much of the wall remains intact and defines the centre of Campeche, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. Here, we see the Puerto del Tierra (Land Gate) , the main portal through the wall from the south.…