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. What are you wondering? Wonder Words dam moat circular pool eel dip defense climb noble relax ditch spring majestic parapets mechanism depicted medieval marauder Take the Wonder Word Challenge.
Join the Discussion. Person Mar 22, Yes, I did read the article. Mar 25, Wonderopolis launched October 4, Thanks for asking! I love medieval things and this article helped me on how the moat is but I already knew so wonderopolis I would LOVE if you guys would make a wonder on how castles are built and made or how they defended them or what the people were like. I would really enjoy that and I am sure other people would like it too.
Oct 2, Taylor Martin Mar 27, This is a cool wonder that I have always been curious about!! Mar 27, That's great, Taylor! We are so glad we helped find the answer to this one! NovaSpartan07 Jul 31, This is very interesting, I just thought moats where a reason to have a draw brige. Aug 3, I really like the reasoning of why we have moats. It really helped me understand why. Jun 22, It is interesting to learn about! Caleb elmer May 28, Finally my school is done with Europe for a subject.
May 28, Salts May 26, We are learning about Medieval Europe in school, and have discussed lords and their manors as well as the moats around them. I found this article interesting and informative.
Thank you!!! So did anyone ever actually do this? To begin with, moats have been around seemingly as long as humans have had need of protecting a structure or area, with documented instances of them appearing everywhere from Ancient Egypt to slightly more modern times around certain Native American settlements. And, of course, there are countless examples of moats being used throughout European history. In many cases, however, these moats were little more than empty pits dug around a particular piece of land or property- water filled moats were something of a rarity.
You see, unless a natural source of water was around, maintaining an artificial moat filled with water required a lot of resources to avoid the whole thing just turning into a stinking cesspool of algae and biting bugs, as is wont to happen in standing water.
Of course, if one had a natural flowing water source nearby, some of these problems could be avoided. And as for putting crocodiles or alligators in them, introducing such animals to a region, beyond being quite expensive if not their native habitat, is also potentially dangerous if the animals got out. Again, all this while not really making the act of conquering a fortress that much more difficult- so little payoff for the extra cost of maintaining crocodiles. It should also be mentioned here that while at first glance it would appear that the key purpose of a moat is to defend against soldiers attacking at the walls, they were often actually constructed with the idea of stopping soldiers under the ground.
You see, a technique favoured since ancient times for breaching cities, fortresses and fortified positions was to simply dig tunnels below any walls surrounding the position and then intentionally let them collapse, bringing part of the wall above that section tumbling down. Preliminary forms of ditches surrounding castles and towns were found in ancient civilisations of Assyria and Egypt.
However, more elaborate forms of ditches known as medieval castle moats became increasingly common during the middle and late medieval times. The most important purpose of a medieval castle was defence. A moat around the castle made it difficult to approach the castle walls for siege weapons including siege towers and battering rams. Further, medieval castle moats also served as an important deterrent against the practice of digging tunnels under the castle walls to penetrate the castle.
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. It also made it impossible for enemies to dig underneath the castle walls, which was a common method of attack.
It also prevented fires from destroying the castle. The word moat comes from the French word motte , which means hill. Moats were first used in the Medieval period , from to Castles were built on the top of high hills. The area at the bottom of the hill was eventually called the moat.
Castle moats were usually between 5 and 40 feet deep, and they were not always filled with water. Not all moats contained water, as a simple dry, wide ditch could prove an obstacle. These were called dry moats.
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