This is a term for the gap in a castle's parapet, or battlement, where the knights pop up with vats of boiling oil — the CRENEL.
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The space between two merlons is called a crenel, and a succession of merlons and crenels is a crenellation. Crenels designed in later eras for use by cannons were also called embrasures.
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The base, which contains the ground floor, has battered (sloped) outer surfaces that pass without break into the vertical walls of the tower's main body. The base and the main body are square in plan and comprise a round stair tower that projects from the northeastern corner. The tower's flat turreted roof, or roof-bastion, forms a viewing platform that is surrounded by four corbelled corner turrets linked by parapets. The parapets on the southern, western and northern sides are each incised by one central crenel.
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Battlements of the Tower of David in Jerusalem, dating from the Mamluk and Ottoman eras in Palestine. In the European battlements of the Middle Ages the crenel comprised one-third of the width of the merlon: the latter, in addition, could be provided with arrow-loops of various shapes (from simply round to cruciform), depending on the weapon being utilized. Late merlons permitted fire from the first firearms. From the 13th century, the merlons could be connected with wooden shutters that provided added protection when closed.
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The smaller cell, like all the other dervish cells on the qibla wing, has a crenel window, fireplace and cabinet niche and has the dimensions of . In contrast, the qibla cells are smaller than the cells on the west side and have a square plan (). Courtyard At the east wing, except the ones at the corner, the cells have the same width with the cells on the south wing. Like the others, the cells are covered with cradle vaults from inside and with grooved bricks outside.
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Parker's glossary says that double-embattled may be the same as this. The arms of Schellenberg in Liechtenstein provide an example of embattled "with three battlements". The bordure in the arms of Boissy l'Aillerie, in Val d'Oise, France, has nine battlements (the bordure is also masoned and contains door- like openings). A very unusual occurrence of embattled occurs in the arms of the 136th Military Police Battalion of the United States Army: Sable, a fesse enhanced and embattled Or, overall a magnifying glass palewise rim Argent (Silver Gray), the glass surmounting and enlarging the middle crenel between two merlons, the handle Gules edged of the second bearing a mullet Argent.
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A loophole or inverted keyhole embrasure, allowing both arrow fire (through the arrowslit at the top) and small cannon fire through the circular openings, Fort-la-Latte, France Pillbox stepped embrasure, Taunton Stop Line, England Embrasure of Chinese wall Mdina, Malta An embrasure is the opening in a battlement between the two raised solid portions, referred to as crenel or crenelle in a space hollowed out throughout the thickness of a wall by the establishment of a bay. This term designates the internal part of this space, relative to the closing device, door or window. In fortification this refers to the outward splay of a window or arrowslit on the inside. In ancient military engineering, embrasures were practised in the towers and the walls, in particular between the merlons and the battle.
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