Leonardo da Vinci’s pyramid-shaped armored vehicle is commonly called a tank.
Leonardo designed the fighting vehicle around 1485. Its sloping, conical cover was intended to deflect enemy fire, while a circular platform carried light cannons around the vehicle. The vehicle was to move using cranks connected to wheels and gears operated by people inside.
The design is often called an early tank, but it was never built or used in battle during Leonardo’s lifetime. A frequently repeated story says that Leonardo deliberately inserted a gear error to sabotage the project; surviving evidence does not establish that explanation. The vehicle would also have been extremely difficult to propel with its proposed mechanism.
Modern tanks developed more than four centuries later and use engines, tracks, armor, and turrets. Leonardo’s drawing is therefore best understood as a Renaissance armored fighting-vehicle concept rather than a working modern tank.