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ginnygrrl · Guest

help! if i dont get info on moats, i'll be in a crappy situation! Shocked

History Buff · Guest

It would help if I knew exactly what you were looking for, but is this enough?

Moats were kept full by a nearby water supply: a spring, lake, stream, or river. The builders would put a dam on the outlet side of the water supply, and control the water level in the moat. Some moats had stone casings, but most were left with earthen banks. Most castles, however, had dry moats, known simply as ditches.

The purpose of water defenses was to prevent the castle from being besieged. Sappers found it difficult to tunnel under a moat; attackers could not wade across, for fear of drowning in the deep waters; attackers would not dare swim across the moat, as it presented too big of a target for the castle guards and made them very vulnerable. Attackers were known to use portable bridges, or barges, to span the moat and besiege a castle.

There is a myth that alligators or crocodiles were placed in the moats. This is not true. Some moats did have eels and other kinds of fish in them for food. Sometimes, sharpened sticks (bungy sticks) were placed in the moat to prevent attackers from safely entering it. Burning liquids may also have been poured in the moats, but references to this are not proven.

Some castles, like Caerphilly Castle in Wales, sit in the middle of artificial lakes, but most had simple moats. Some moats only surrounded parts of the castle. Sometimes, water defenses were used along with other natural defenses, such as a cliff or river. Moats often ranged between 3 and 30 feet in depth, and were typically well over 12 feet in width. They reached the peak of their development in the 13th century, and went out of fashion in the late 16th century. Moats are large ditches dug around the castle and filled with water. They add another important defensive element to the overall castle fortifications. Moats need not be especially deep to be effective. The inner wall of the moat is always considerably higher than the water level. An enemy would have to attempt to scale this wall directly from the water which is sure to be a difficult task. Moats often served as an important waterway around the castle and a link to nearby rivers as well. The pictures above and below are both of moats at Edo Castle in Tokyo.

Moats where the bottom is lined with rock in the same manner as the walls are called yagenbori. The bottom of these moats is often curved. Moats with a flat unlined bottom are called hakobori. Sometimes there were also moats which were not filled with water. These are called karabori.