The western fortress wall of the inner city of Veliki Preslav in light of contemporary studies

Abstract

This paper is a new attempt to shed more light on the problem posed by the only section of the fortification system of the inner fortress of Veliki Preslav that is still completely unknown. In 2011 a remote survey using aero-LiDAR enabled the team to make digital 3D surface (DSM) and terrain (DTM) models that reliably traced both the route of the unknown sections of the western wall of the inner fortress and revealed the existence of some elements of it, which until now were unknown such as the southwestern corner tower of the fortification and its western gate. The high-contrast images generated show perfectly that the western fortress wall is founded on the periphery of the fourth/underneath the fifth terrace of the Zabui hill. Finally, the absence of any indications of the presence of intermediate towers on the front of the curtina – not only on the early wall, but also in its northern extension (expansion) – should be noted.