In ancient times, for the inhabitants of a city defeat and victory in a war was a matter of life and death. No one knew what fate awaited after surrender, because the conquerors were free to do whatever they desired. Throughout history, conquerors can be seen who sieged cities and deceived defenders from defiance and resistance, or defenders slowly gave up because of starvation and famine, and then major massacres were committed following the entrance of troops into the city, and the city was fully devastated. For a city to survive wartime casualties, certain areas of city are deliberately declared to be defenseless for political, economic, military, cultural, esthetic or humanitarian reasons. The number of such declarations is small and the success rate of such proposals varies from one case to the other.