We find these fascinating and beautiful in a very industrial way. Gabions are cages, metal baskets or boxes — usually stacked in rectangular shapes — that are filled with stones, aggregate and/or sand and earth for civil engineering and architectural applications. They used to be very important in military applications, protecting soldiers from enemy fire, but today we see them more and more used in decorative ways, even though they may still possess a highly functional use, such as supporting, damming, protecting, and stabilizing.