There were several kinds of medieval castle moats including cross ditches which separated different parts of the castle and neck ditches which were dry moats. Imagine how hard it would have been to overcome this medieval Castle moat. A medieval castle moat had supreme importance in the castle parts for preliminary defence. The first requirement to make a castle moat was access to a water source. Due to this reason, it was common to built castles near a water source such as a river, stream, or a lake.
A special dam was constructed in order to channel the flow of water into the medieval castle moat. The depth of a medieval castle moat could be up to 30 feet while it could be as wide as 12 feet. Castle parts reserved for defence were of primary importance during the medieval times and therefore special attention was paid to the construction of effective medieval castle moats.
A medieval castle moat served several defence purposes. The obvious purpose was to make the approach of the heavy weapons difficult. Some weapons such as siege towers needed to be brought near the castle walls to work effectively and a medieval castle moat acted as an effective deterrence against such weapons. Welcome, Victoria BonneCarrere! Castles and moats are very interesting to learn about.
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We sent you SMS, for complete subscription please reply. Follow Twitter Instagram Facebook. Why did castles have moats? Did all moats have water? Did moats have alligators? Wonder What's Next? Try It Out We hope you enjoyed learning about moats today! Be sure to explore the following activities with a friend or family member: Do you love castles?
We do! If you've never been to a castle before, you can visit one right now from the comfort of your own computer. Just jump online to take the Virtual Tour of Prague Castle. What do you think? Does it look like you thought a castle would? Why or why not? Would you ever want to live in a castle? How long do you think it would take to clean a castle? With today's technology, a moat probably wouldn't protect a castle as well as it did in ancient times.
Think of your home as your castle. How do you defend it? What types of technology exist today to protect your home from intruders? Do you use any of these types of technology? Discuss home protection with an adult to learn how home defense has changed over the years. Ready for some fun? You're going to need some sand, so find a nearby place with a beach.
If you live near the ocean, that's not going to be a problem. For the rest of you, you might want to search out the nearest lake that has a beach area. Ask an adult friend or family member to take you for some fun in the sand. Make your own sand castle and be sure to include a moat around it! How tall can your castle go? Keep building until you run out of sand! Did you get it? Test your knowledge.
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Join the Discussion. Person Mar 22, Yes, I did read the article. Mar 25, Wonderopolis launched October 4, Thanks for asking! A dam was built to control the water supply into the moat. Some castle moats were up to 30 feet deep and usually measured at least 12 feet in width.
Moats could be filled with wooden stakes or water. Sometimes it was impractical to fill a moat with water so wooden stakes were embedded in moats. The purpose of filling the Castle Moats with wooden stakes was to:.
Motte and Bailey Castles were built on top of hilltops. A high and extremely steep mound was built called the Motte which had very steep sides and a Tower was built on the top of it. The process of excavating the earth to build the massive mound, which was the motte, created a highly convenient defensive ditch at the base of the motte and surrounding the whole of the bailey!
The ditch later became known as the Moat. These great old castles were built for Medieval warfare and defence and new parts of the castle were designed accordingly!
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