Gabion A gabion ( from Italian " gabbione " meaning " big cage " ; from Italian " gabbia " and Latin " cavea " meaning " cage " ) is a cage , cylinder , or box filled with rocks , concrete , or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering , road building , and military applications . For erosion control , caged riprap is used . For dams or in foundation construction , cylindrical metal structures are used . In a military context , earth - or sand - filled gabions are used to protect artillery crews from enemy fire . Leonardo da Vinci designed a type of gabion called a " Corbeille Leonard " ( " Leonard [ o ] basket " ) for the foundations of the San Marco Castle in Milan . Civil engineering . The most common civil engineering use of gabions is to stabilize shore lines , streambanks or slopes against erosion . Other uses include retaining walls , temporary floodwall s , silt filtration from runoff , for small or temporary / permanent dams , river training , or channel lining . They may be used to direct the force of a flow of flood water around a vulnerable structure . Gabions are also used as fish barrier s on small streams . A gabion wall is a retaining wall made of stacked stone - filled gabions tied together with wire . Gabion walls are usually " battered " ( angled back towards the slope ) , or stepped back with the slope rather than stacked vertically . Gabion baskets have some advantages over loose riprap because of their modularity and ability to be stacked in various shapes ; they are also resistant to being washed away by moving water . Gabions also have advantages over more rigid structures because they can conform to ground movement , dissipate energy from flowing water , and drain freely . Their strength and effectiveness may increase with time in some cases , as silt and vegetation fill the interstitial voids and reinforce the structure . They are sometimes used to keep stones which may fall from a cutting or cliff from endangering traffic on a thoroughfare . The life expectancy of gabions depends on the lifespan of the wire , not on the contents of the basket . The structure will fail when the wire fails . Galvanized steel wire is most common , but PVC - coated and stainless steel wire are also used . PVC - coated galvanized gabions have been estimated to survive for 60 years . Some gabion manufacturers guarantee a structural consistency of 50 years . In the United States , gabion use within streams first began with projects completed from 1957 - 1965 on North River , Virginia and Zealand River , NH . More than 150 grade - control structures , bank revetments and channel deflectors were constructed on the two U . S . Forest Service sites . Eventually , a large portion of the instream structures failed due to undermining and lack of structural integrity of the baskets . In particular , corrosion and abrasion of wires by bedload movement compromised the structures , which then sagged and collapsed into the channels . Other gabions were toppled into channels as trees grew and enlarged on top of gabion revetments leveraging them towards the river channels . Gabions have also been used in building , as in the Dominus Winery in Napa Valley , California . The exterior is formed by modular wire mesh gabions containing locally quarried stone ; this construction creates an environment of moderate temperatures within the building . Variations in design . There are various special designs of gabions to meet particular functional requirements and some special terms for particular forms have come into use . For example : Military use . In the medieval era , gabions were round cages with open tops and bottoms , made from wickerwork and filled with earth for use as military fortification s . These early military gabions were used to protect field artillery gunners . The wickerwork cylinders were light and could be carried relatively conveniently in the ammunition train , particularly if they were made in several diameter s to fit one inside another . At the site of use in the field , they could be stood on end , staked in position , and filled with soil to form an effective wall around the gun . Today , gabions are often used to protect forward operating base s ( FOBs ) against explosive , fragmentary , indirect fires such as mortar or artillery fire . Examples of areas within a FOB that make extensive use of gabions would be sleeping quarters , mess halls , or any place where there will be a large concentration of unprotected soldiers .