History of moats

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Historical use
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Ancient
Medieval
Later western fortification
Africa
Asia
Australia
North America
Photo gallery
Modern usage
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Architectural usage
Anti-terrorist moats
Safety moats
Border defence moats
Pest control moats
See also
References
External links
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Moat (disambiguation).

The moat surrounding Matsumoto Castle

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification,
building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved
into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices. In older
fortifications, such as hillforts, they are usually referred to simply as ditches, although the function is similar. In
later periods, moats or water defences may be largely ornamental. They could also act as a sewer.

Historical use
Ancient

North view of the fortress of Buhen in Ancient Egypt.

Some of the earliest evidence of moats has been uncovered around ancient Egyptian castles. One example is at
Buhen, a castle excavated in Nubia. Other evidence of ancient moats is found in the ruins of Babylon, and in
reliefs from ancient Egypt, Assyria, and other cultures in the region.[1][2]

Evidence of early moats around settlements has been discovered in many archaeological sites throughout
Southeast Asia, including Noen U-Loke, Ban Non Khrua Chut, Ban Makham Thae and Ban Non Wat. The use
of the moats could have been either for defensive or agriculture purposes.[3]

Medieval

A medieval moat castle in Steinfurt, Germany

Moats were excavated around castles and other fortifications as part of the defensive system as an obstacle
immediately outside the walls. In suitable locations they might be filled with water. A moat made access to the
walls difficult for siege weapons such as siege towers and battering rams, which needed to be brought up
against a wall to be effective. A water-filled moat made the practice of mining - digging tunnels under the
castles in order to effect a collapse of the defences - very difficult as well. Segmented moats have one dry
section and one section filled with water. Dry moats that cut across the narrow part of a spur or peninsula are
called neck ditches. Moats separating different elements of a castle, such as the inner and outer wards, are cross
ditches.

þÿThe word was adapted in Middle English from the Old French motte (lit. 'mound, hillock') and was first
applied to the central mound on which a castle was erected (see Motte and bailey) and then came to be applied
to the excavated ring, a 'dry moat'. The shared derivation implies that the two features were closely related and
possibly constructed at the same time.[4] The term moat is also applied to natural formations reminiscent of the
artificial structure and to similar modern architectural features.

Later western fortification

The 17th-century fortified town of Naarden, Netherlands, showing bastions projecting into the wet moat
With the introduction of siege artillery, a new style of fortification emerged in the 16th century using low walls
and projecting strong points called bastions, which was known as the trace italienne. The walls were further
protected from infantry attack by wet or dry moats, sometimes in elaborate systems.[5] When this style of
fortification was superseded by lines of polygonal forts in the mid-19th century, moats continued to be used for
close protection.[6]

Africa
The Walls of Benin were a combination of ramparts and moats, called Iya, used as a defence of the capital
Benin City in present-day Edo State of Nigeria. It was considered the largest man-made structure lengthwise,
second only to the Great Wall of China and the largest earthwork in the world. Recent work by Patrick Darling
has established it as the largest man-made structure in the world, larger than Sungbo's Eredo, also in Nigeria. It
enclosed 6,500 km2 of community lands. Its length was over 16,000 km of earth boundaries. It was estimated
that earliest construction began in 800 and continued into the mid-15th century.

The walls are built of a ditch and dike structure, the ditch dug to form an inner moat with the excavated earth
used to form the exterior rampart.

The Benin Walls were ravaged by the British in 1897. Scattered pieces of the walls remain in Edo, with material
being used by the locals for building purposes. The walls continue to be torn down for real-estate developments.

The Walls of Benin City were the world's largest man-made structure. Fred Pearce wrote in New Scientist:

"They extend for some 16,000 kilometres in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement
boundaries. They cover 6,500 square kilometres and were all dug by the Edo people. In all, they are four times
longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of
Cheops. They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single
archaeological phenomenon on the planet."

Asia

Map of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and surrounding Gardens showing the elaborate moat system
Japanese castles often have very elaborate moats, with up to three moats laid out in concentric circles around
the castle and a host of different patterns engineered around the landscape. The outer moat of a Japanese castle
typically protects other support buildings in addition to the castle.

As many Japanese castles have historically been a very central part of their cities, the moats have provided a
vital waterway to the city. Even in modern times the moat system of the Tokyo Imperial Palace consists of a
very active body of water, hosting everything from rental boats and fishing ponds to restaurants.[7]

Most modern Japanese castles have moats filled with water, but castles in the feudal period more commonly
þÿhad 'dry moats' karabori (zzX, 00K0‰0|0Š0, lit. "empty moat"), a trench. A tatebori (zêX, 00_0f0|0Š0, lit. "vertical
þÿis a dry moat dug into a slope. A unejo tatebori (u]r¶zêX, lit. "furrowed shape empty moat") is a series of parallel
þÿtrenches running up the sides of the excavated mountain, and the earthen wall, which was also called doi (W\E,
þÿ00i0D0, lit. "earth mount"), was an outer wall made of earth dug out from a moat. Even today it is common for
þÿmountain Japanese castles to have dry moats. A mizubori (l4X, 00•0Z0|0Š0, lit. "water moat") is a moat filled with
water.

Moats were also used in the Forbidden City and Xi'an in China; in Vellore Fort in India; Hsinchu in Taiwan; and
in Southeast Asia, such as at Angkor Wat in Cambodia; Mandalay in Myanmar and Chiang Mai in Thailand.

Australia
The only moated fort ever built in Australia was Fort Lytton in Brisbane. As Brisbane was much more
vulnerable to attack than either Sydney or Melbourne a series of coastal defences was built throughout Moreton
Bay, Fort Lytton being the largest. Built between 1880 and 1881 in response to fear of a Russian invasion, it is a
pentagonal fortress concealed behind grassy embankments and surrounded by a water-filled moat.

North America
Moats were developed independently by North American indigenous people of the Mississippian culture as the
outer defence of some fortified villages. The remains of a 16th-century moat are still visible at the Parkin
Archeological State Park in eastern Arkansas.

The Maya people also used moats, for example in the city of Becan.
European colonists in the Americas often built dry ditches surrounding forts built to protect important
landmarks, harbours or cities (e.g. Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York Harbor).

Photo gallery
Muiderslot, Netherlands
Muiderslot, Netherlands

Moat surrounding Fort Pulaski National Monument near Savannah, Georgia

Moat surrounding Fort Pulaski National Monument near Savannah, Georgia

Matsumoto Castle, a Japanese Castle in Nagano Prefecture

Matsumoto Castle, a Japanese Castle in Nagano Prefecture

Bodiam Castle, a 14th-century castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England

Bodiam Castle, a 14th-century castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England

Caerlaverock Castle, a 13th-century castle in southern Scotland

Caerlaverock Castle, a 13th-century castle in southern Scotland

The Forbidden City, Beijing: North-western angle

The Forbidden City, Beijing: North-western angle

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Egeskov Castle, Denmark

Egeskov Castle, Denmark

Castle of Lissingen
Castle of Lissingen

Sigiriya moat, Sri Lanka

Sigiriya moat, Sri Lanka

Frozen moat of the walled city of Qufu, China

Frozen moat of the walled city of Qufu, China
Fort Bourtange, a late 16th-century star fort in Groningen, Netherlands
Fort Bourtange, a late 16th-century star fort in Groningen, Netherlands

Fort Brockhurst a mid-19th-century polygonal fort in Hampshire, England

Fort Brockhurst a mid-19th-century polygonal fort in Hampshire, England

The Castello Estense of Ferrara, Italy

The Castello Estense of Ferrara, Italy

Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida

Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida

Moat with civic houses bordering on it in Steinfurt

Moat with civic houses bordering on it in Steinfurt

Beijing ancient city gate and moat

Beijing ancient city gate and moat

Vellore Fort Moat, in Tamil Nadu, India

Vellore Fort Moat, in Tamil Nadu, India

The Daalsesingel, a part of the moat that surrounds the city center of Utrecht, Netherlands
The Daalsesingel, a part of the moat that surrounds the city center of Utrecht, Netherlands

Hikone Castle moat

Hikone Castle moat

Forbidden City moat

Forbidden City moat

Landskrona Citadel with mid 15th-century dual moat construction

Landskrona Citadel with mid 15th-century dual moat construction
Modern usage
Architectural usage

Dry moat at the James Farley Post Office in New York City.
Dry moats were a key element used in French Classicism and Beaux-Arts architecture dwellings, both as
decorative designs and to provide discreet access for service. Excellent examples of these can be found in
Newport, Rhode Island at Miramar (mansion) and The Elms, as well as at Carolands, outside of San Francisco,
California, and at Union Station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Additionally, a dry moat can allow light and fresh
air to reach basement workspaces, as for example at the James Farley Post Office in New York City.

Anti-terrorist moats
Whilst moats are no longer a significant tool of warfare, modern architectural building design continues to use
them as a defence against certain modern threats, such as terrorist attacks from car bombs and improvised
fighting vehicles. For example, the new location of the Embassy of the United States in London, opened in
2018, includes a moat among its security features - the first moat built in England for more than a century.[8]
Modern moats may also be used for aesthetic or ergonomic purposes.

The Catawba Nuclear Station has a concrete moat around some of the plant. (Other sides of the plant are
bordering a lake.) The moat is a part of precautions added to such sites after the September 11, 2001 attacks.[9]

Safety moats
Moats, rather than fences, separate animals from spectators in many modern zoo installations. Moats were first
used in this way by Carl Hagenbeck at his Tierpark in Hamburg, Germany.[10] The structure, with a vertical
outer retaining wall rising direct from the moat, is an extended usage of the ha-ha of English landscape
gardening.

Border defence moats

In 2004 plans were suggested for a two-mile moat across the southern border of the Gaza Strip to prevent
tunnelling from Egyptian territory to the border town of Rafah.[11]

In 2008 city officials in Yuma, Arizona planned to dig out a two-mile stretch of a 180-hectare (440-acre)
wetland known as Hunters Hole to control immigrants coming from Mexico.[12]

Pest control moats

Researchers of jumping spiders, which have excellent vision and adaptable tactics,[13] built water-filled
miniature moats, too wide for the spiders to jump across. Some specimens were rewarded for jumping then
swimming and others for swimming only. Portia fimbriata from Queensland generally succeeded, for whichever
method they were rewarded.[14] When specimens from two different populations of Portia labiata were set the
same task, members of one population determined which method earned them a reward, whilst members of the
other continued to use whichever method they tried first and did not try to adapt.[15]
As a basic method of pest control in bonsai, a moat may be used to restrict access of crawling insects to the
bonsai.

See also
Drawbridge
Gracht
Ha-ha wall
Moated settlements
Moot hill (sometimes written as Moat Hill)
Neck ditch
Bullengraben
References
Archaeology in Syria Tell Sabi Abyad, archived from the original on March 21, 2007 article on Netherlands
National Museum of Antiquities website
Oredsson, Dag (November 2000). "Moats in Ancient Palestine". Almqvist & Wiksell International. Archived
from the original on 2015-09-23.
McGrath, R., & Boyd, W. (2001). The chronology of the Iron Age'moats' of Northeast Thailand. Antiquity,
75(288)
Friar, Stephen (2003), The Sutton Companion to Castles, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, p. 214, ISBN
978-0-7509-3994-2
Lepage, Jean-Denis G. G. (December 21, 2009). French Fortifications, 1715-1815: An Illustrated History.
þÿMcFarland. ISBN 9780786458073. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016 via Google Books.
"Fortress Study Group: Simon Barrass, An Introduction to Artillery Fortification, 2011" (PDF). Archived from
the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.
"Imperial Palace moats illegally occupied by businesses". Japan Today. August 25, 2006. Archived from the
original on October 28, 2006.
Architecture Correspondent, Jonathan Morrison (2017-12-14). "US embassy: America shows off its Thames
fortress". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
"Nuclear Power Plants to Continue MOX Program". Nuclear Threat Initiative. October 13, 2004. Archived
from the original on September 1, 2009.
Rene S. Ebersole (November 2001). "The New Zoo". Audubon Magazine. National Audubon Society.
Archived from the original on 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
Urquhart, Conal (June 18, 2004). "Two-mile Gaza moat to foil tunnels to Egypt". The Guardian. London.
Retrieved May 12, 2010.
Glaister, Dan (March 14, 2008). "US city plans moat to keep out migrants". The Guardian. London. Archived
from the original on September 2, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
Harland, D.P. & Jackson, R.R. (2000). ""Eight-legged cats" and how they see: a review of recent research on
þÿjumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae)" (PDF). Cimbebasia. 16: 231 240. Archived from the original (PDF) on
28 September 2006. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
Jackson, Robert R.; Chris M. Carter; Michael S. Tarsitano (2001). "Trial-and-error solving of a confinement
þÿproblem by a jumping spider, Portia fimbriata". Behaviour. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. 138 (10): 1215 1234.
doi:10.1163/15685390152822184. ISSN 0005-7959. JSTOR 4535886.
Jackson, Robert R.; Fiona R. Cross; Chris M. Carter (2006). "Geographic Variation in a Spider's Ability to
Solve a Confinement Problem by Trial and Error". International Journal of Comparative Psychology. 19 (3):
þÿ282 296. doi:10.46867/IJCP.2006.19.03.06. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 8 June
2011.
External links
Media related to Moats at Wikimedia Commons

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