What were the defensive features of a medieval castle?

What were the defensive features of a medieval castle?

The typical features of a medieval castle were: Moat – a perimeter ditch with or without water. Barbican – a fortification to protect a gate. Curtain Walls & Towers – the perimeter defensive wall.

What is a defensive castle wall called?

A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two fortified towers or bastions of a castle, fortress, or town.

What were medieval city walls made of?

During the early medieval times, the most popular form of castle walls was made of wood and timbers. However, this changed after the Norman Conquest of England which gave rise to stone walls. Stone walls had obvious advantages that they were not susceptible to fire unlike wooden walls.

What are the protective bits of wall on the battlements called?

Sometimes crenels are also called embrasures. Between the crenels were solid upright forms called merlons. These sections of the battlement provided protection while soldiers were firing arrows or other weapons out from the crenels.

What castle has best defense?

1. Murud-Janjira – Murud, Maharashtra, India. The Murud-Janjira is a massive island fortress located off the coast of India. The fort is completely surrounded by 40′ high walls and 19 rounded bastions.

What are medieval walls called?

Half-timber – The common form of medieval construction in which walls were made of a wooden frame structure filled with wattle and daub.

What are fortress walls called?

These gaps are termed “crenels” (also known as carnels, or embrasures), and a wall or building with them is called crenellated; alternative (older) terms are castellated and embattled. The act of adding crenels to a previously unbroken parapet is termed crenellation.

How thick are medieval walls?

The height of walls varied widely by castle, but were often 2.5–6 m (8.2–19.7 ft) thick. They were usually topped with crenellation or parapets that offered protection to defenders.

What did castles used for defenses?

The defenders could fire missiles through gaps (crenels). The raised sections between, called merlons, helped to shelter the defenders during an enemy attack. These were stone boxes that projected from the walls of castles and had holes in the floors for dropping stones or boiling oil on attackers.

What is the top of a defensive wall called?

Wall tower
Wall tower: a tower built on top of a segment of the wall, which usually extended outwards slightly, so as to be able to observe the exterior of the walls on either side.

Did they use boiling oil to defend castles?

The idea of buckets of hot oil being dropped on attackers is common in TV and film, but hot oil was rarely used as a weapon. Those defending the castle would sometimes pour hot sand, boiling water or quicklime on attackers who were using scaling ladders to climb the walls.

What defenses did castles have?

The top of the castle walls were the battlements, a protective, tooth shaped parapet often with a wall walk behind it for the soldiers to stand on. The defenders could fire missiles through gaps (crenels). The raised sections between, called merlons, helped to shelter the defenders during an enemy attack.

How were castles defended and attacked?

Machicolations. Machicolations were overhanging holes, or platforms, built into castles. People defending a castle could hurl items – like rocks, arrows or even animal dung – through these holes at an attacker below.

What was within castle walls?

Inside the Walls. The outer wall of a castle was called the Bailey. Inside the Bailey were buildings where the lord of the castle’s cattle, horses and servants lived. Some of the soldiers needed to defend the castle might live in part of the gatehouse (known as the Barbican).

How are castles defended?

What is the strongest wall in the world?

5 of the world’s strongest fortifications ever

• Masada, Israel. On a rocky plateau situated on a hill in southern Israel near the edge of the Judean desert, one can find the fortress of Masada.
• Great Wall of Gorgan, Parthian/Sassanid Empire.
• Hadrian’s Wall, England/Scotland.
• Walls of Constantinople.
• Great Wall of China.

What is a siege wall?

Wooden siege towers were tall constructions that could fit many men inside. They could provide crossbowmen and archers with a higher (and therefore better) position to shoot from, or could be wheeled up against castle walls to allow attacking soldiers to climb onto the battlements and storm the fortress.