Patent ID: 8708608

Claim:
A mortarless retaining wall constructed of a plurality of segmental retaining wall (SRW) blocks stacked in an array of superimposed rows, each SRW block comprising: a face unit having a front face and a rear face, the front face defining at least part of the exposed surface of the retaining wall, the rear face being located opposite the front face, the face unit having connectors; one or more anchor units each having connectors, the anchor unit connectors being of complementary shape to interlock with respective face unit connectors, the face unit and the one or more anchor units forming the SRW block when interlocked, each anchor unit for confronting soil being retained by the retaining wall, the face unit and each anchor unit each having upper and lower load bearing surfaces, the upper load bearing surfaces shaped to mate with the lower load bearing surfaces of a super-imposed stacked SRW block and resisting shear forces between surrounding SRW blocks, the shear forces generated by the soil retained by the retaining wall against the SRW blocks; a portion of the rear face including a generally planar rear surface; and a portion of the front face including one or more generally flat stacking surfaces, the one or more stacking surfaces each being coplanar with each other and oriented in parallel to the generally planar rear surface, the maximum depth of the face unit being the distance between the stacking surfaces and the rear surface, the one or more stacking surfaces, when stacked on or under another face unit, providing stability to a stack of face units when stacked for shipment, the front face including an irregularly patterned surface simulating natural stone, the irregularly patterned surface extending from one or more of the stacking surfaces about at least a portion of the perimeter thereof in a direction toward the rear face.