My thinking is that surely being able to be seen from a distance away isn’t an advantage.
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Its not universally better, but if you are fighting someone anyway, it is better if they have to walk uphill while you only have to walk downhill.
And any ranged weapons have greater range if higher up
It is easier to see things below, than it is to be seen from below. If I lie down on a hill and look down, I’m practically invisible and can see everything below. If you lie down at the bottom of the hill I can still see you from above unless you have some high cover.
Also, gravity is in favour of those that have the high ground. It is easier to poke your spear down than to poke up. It’s easier to fire arrows down than up. You can even just throw anything heavy down on your enemy. A catapult, for example, when in a high position could reach any part of your fortress from above, but if the catapult is lower than the fortress it is much harder to fire in a an arc that doesn’t just hit the walls.
Swinging a sword towards an opponant that’s higher than you is harder than swinging towards one lower than you.
It isn’t/wasn’t always an advantage, there are quite a few examples where holding the high ground is a disadvantage.
1. Easily surrounded or sieged – for example the Siege of Masada (73-74 AD), Battle of Jieting (228 AD), etc.
2. Limits ability to retreat or manoeuvre – for example the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876 AD)
3. Artillery vulnerability – for example in WWI most high ground positions were obvious targets and thus very heavily shelled, making them perilous to hold.
4. Weather – can get very extreme on high ground, for example The Kargil War (1999 AD)
– it’s comparably difficult to swing a sword upwards compared to downwards
– projectiles (arrows, in this case) have a longer flight if the ground conveniently slopes underneath them
– it’s a lot easier to throw things downwards than upwards
– things tend to roll downwards by their own account, but seldom roll upwards by themselves
– it’s easy to pour liquid downwards, impossible to pour it upwards
You pretty much give your opponent a disadvantage, by hiding from them in plain sight. Hence the proverb *fighting an uphill battle* that literally means that your opponent is better prepared than you are and more likely to win.
Before the invention of long-range weapons, conflicts would usually require storming a well defended position.
The ultimate defensive position is a fortress. The next best thing is a literal high ground.
When you are in a well defended position, you won’t leave to fight the enemy. You wait until they attack you. The attacker knows that, and they also don’t want a bunch of angry men behind their backs while they are pillaging. Their best choice is to attack the defended position.
The problem is that attacking a defensive position is hard, very hard. They have the advantage. They are going to throw everything they can at you. Your best chance is to charge at them the fastest you can.
The charge used to be one of the most important parts of a battle. Because it could break a shield wall and also mean less time being shot at… and charging uphill with heavy equipment is going to drain your strength and also make you slower. This is why the higher ground was preferable.
Gravity, vision, and cover.
Gravity: Throw a rock and let physics do the work. Very effective with little effort. Same applies to anything. Spears, arrows, boiling water/oil, etc. Same applies to charging. Trying to run uphill to challenge a point is much harder as oppose to the people running down at you with gravity helping them.
Vision: You mentioned it, just reiterating that it’s harder to hide secret movements on the low ground. People on the high ground see much further and can step back and move to a new/unknown sport.
Cover: People on high ground can fight back with only top half of body showing. Granted, one of those parts is vital, but it’s a much smaller target relative to the body. If you’re shooting up, but aim low you hit dirt. If you shoot down but aim low you can still hit the body or legs, potentially disabling the target.
Star Wars was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
When Anakin lost his notorious battle against the Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi, this was the first known instance of high ground superiority in battle, which set a notable precedent for all future battles/wars fought
Battles, particularly when charges were common, are mostly just walking and running (likely under fire) especially for the attacker, so the defender would choose terrain that is unfavorable for what their opponent wants to do (ie – walk towards them without dying), and stuff that makes this difficult are – rivers, cliffs, a bunch of rocks, etc. and the most common of them all – sloped surfaces with a noticeable incline. Their advantage is really just making the attacker walk slower.
Also, being seen from farther away isn’t much of a disadvantage for the defender. They wouldn’t take the high ground if they don’t wanna fight, and they wouldn’t mind being seen if that’s the case (the parts they’d want hidden will, of course, remain hidden)
You can only see the top of the hill, you cannot see what’s behind it, meaning there could be an ambush waiting for you. Meanwhile those on the high ground can see all around, meaning they can’t get snuck up on. Additionally, anyone who wants to fight them has to walk uphill, or worse, climb. While they’re struggling to do that, the ones with the high ground can shoot them, just keep shooting arrows or bolts or javelins or rocks or burning hot water/tar/sand. Once you actually get to hand-to-hand combat, the high ground advantage stops being as meaningful, and it can go either way depending on other factors.
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