  We review the main algebraic aspects that characterize and determine the
domain wall solutions of maximal gauged supergravity in various spacetime
dimensions by considering consistent truncations that retain a number of
components in the diagonal of the coset space scalar manifold of the theory.
Starting from the algebraic classification of domain walls in D=4 gauged
supergravity, we also derive the corresponding solutions in D=5 and D=7
dimensions. From a higher dimensional point of view, these solutions describe
the gravitatonal field, in the field theory limit, of a large number of M2-,
D3- and M5-branes that are distributed on hypersurfaces in the transverse space
to the branes. As a new result we employ a smearing procedure as well as
various dualities to list the irreducible curves and the symmetry groups of
p-brane distributions for all values of p that are of interest in current
applications of string theory. Some emphasis is placed on the presentation of
new results in the case of NS5-branes.
