Turfs cover the surface of the map. They are derived from /turf which derives from /atom.
This example defines the turf prototype /turf/floor and /turf/wall.
turf
floor
desc = "A wood plank floor."
wall
desc = "A stone wall."
density = 1Turfs cannot be moved. They can only be created or destroyed by changing world.maxx, world.maxy, or world.maxz. When you create a new turf with new(), it always replaces the old one.
// replace old_turf with a wall
var/turf/wall/T = new(old_turf)