Anti-Zombie Fortress

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Origin: Reddit

Year: 2011

Added Apr 03, 2011 at 12:27PM EDT by Inspector Javert.

Updated Jun 03, 2020 at 08:57PM EDT by Brad.

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7 Days to Die Minecraft Shime Plants vs. Zombies building landmark tower architecture tower block

About

Anti-Zombie Fortress is the nickname given to an abandoned coal mine in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, mainly due to its unique structural design that can be seen as highly impervious to zombie raids. While the mine shaft has become a popular destination in Japan for haiyakos (廃虚) or "urban excursion of abandoned buildings" since the mid-2000s, photographs of the tower became a subject of "anti-zombie" parodies and online discussions via social news hubsite Reddit in early April 2011.

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Origin

On April 1st, 2011, Reddit user "Mitsjol" submitted a picture of the Shime coal mine to /r/pics, titled "This would make an awesome anti-zombie fortress."^[1] In similar vein to other conceptual jokes like Rocket Propelled Chainsaw and Chinese Gundam, other Reddit users quickly responded with a series of photoshopped images, pointing out structural flaws and sharing their own "anti-zombie" designs, as well as creating replicas of the shaft tower in Minecraft.

ACTIVE ZOMBIES DESTROYED ZOMBIES OVER TIME, THERE WILL BE ENOUGH DESTROYED ZOMBIES TO CREATE A RAMP FOR ACTIVE ZOMBIES TO REACH YOU Shime landmark

So, if we assume that bodies stack in a triangle like shape (first one, then two, then three, etc.) and that the average dimensions of a zombie corpse is 5'x2'x6".. At 6" tall when laid down length-wise, you'd need 130 orpses stacked up to reach the bottom-most window To get to 130 corpses, you'd need stacks of 130, 129, 128... or 8515 bodies per row. Now, of course it's unbelievable that there'd only be one row, so if we figure you'd need 5 rows, that's well over 40,000 zombies. 125px = 4ft Being able to withstand 40,000 zombies makes it a damn good zombie apocalypse stronghold. 405px 65ft The minimum height for an effective pile Obviously, math is a rough estimate. 745px-l-120ft 7 Days to Die Minecraft Japan structure

Background: The Tower

Better known as the "Winding Tower of the Shime coal mine"^[2] in Japan, this 47.65 meter (156.3 ft) tall structure was built from 1941 to 1943, remained in operation over 21 years before it was closed down in 1961. According to various travel blog posts on Shime coal mine, the structure remains easily accessible by public transportation and well-preserved in shape to this day.

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As one of the three remaining "winding tower" mine shafts in existence, the structure was designated by the Japanese government as a site of national cultural heritage in July 2007 and was declared an "important cultural property" in December 2009. Since the mid-to-late 2000s, Shime coal mine has become a popular destination for haiyako (廃虚), a fairly recent trend of urban exploration with a focus in abandoned ruins and photography.

Notable Derivatives

Minecraft Dead Rising Plants vs. Zombies Left 4 Dead Old tighten mining plant intake shaft oar mountainous landforms mountain sky

SAYS IT CAN PROTEC YOU FROM ZOMBIES HAS HUGE LADDER THAT LEADS INSIDE property text

FUC ZOl 7 Days to Die Shime Minecraft Plants vs. Zombies

Challengers

On April 2nd, another Reddit thread titled "I see your zombie fortress and i raise you a zombie fortress"^[3] was posted, and subsequently was voted to the front page. Later on the same, it received its own Minecraft structure replica as well as a mobile anti-zombie fortress, which received over 600 upvotes within hours.