Design

Faux Paris and Other Sham Cities

For centuries, luring enemies to destroy decoy cities was a legitimate military defense strategy.
A map of fake Paris in an early 20th-century copy of Illustrated London News magazine. Courtesy of John Ptak

Before radar was widely used, before the iron dome missile defense system came into existence, before any of the scary-cool Star Wars-type military stuff was invented, decoy towns were constructed to throw off enemies. A map from the early 20th century shows a plan for fake Paris, designed to get the Germans to bomb the wrong area if they were looking to launch an air raid on (real) Paris.

John Ptak found the map in a copy of Illustrated London News magazine in his book store, where he keeps several vintage journals.