Ginsu

There are many interesting parts of a castle. The way these parts were built was because of how the people there lived and what they needed. Most parts of a castle are made for protection from invaders. Castles were constantly being attacked, so they needed to be heavily guarded and armed. Other parts of a castle are for living, eating, entertainment, and storage. This paper will describe some of the more important parts of a castle.

A moat is a body of water surrounding a castle that is used to prevent attackers from digging tunnels under the castle walls. They were usually 5 to 15 feet deep and either filed with water or kept dry. People put dangerous things in moats, such as wooden stakes, alligators, and dangerous fish.

A drawbridge is one of the most important parts of a castle. It is a wooden bridge that crosses the moat and leads to a gateway. Using metal chains, it is capable of being raised or lowered. In early castles, the drawbridge was designed to be broken or taken off during an attack.

A gatehouse was a strengthened structure built over the gateway that was used as the main entrance to the castle. It sometimes has a guard house in it. On the sides there are murder-holes and arrow loops. Sometimes the chapel was put right next to the gatehouse, because if you attacked the chapel you were believed to be attacking God.

The portcullis is a wooden gate with metal spikes at the bottom that was hung from the gatehouse ceiling. When under attack, guards would rapidly drop the door, impaling the attackers with the metal spikes. There were often two portcullises in a castles entrance. Guards would try to trap the attackers in between them, so that the guards could shoot arrows, drop burning wood, and drop hot oil on to the trapped attackers.

The curtain walls are the stone, outer walls surrounding the castle. The purpose of the walls was to protect the castle from invaders. They were usually connected by towers and could be up to 45 feet tall and up to 1,500 feet long.

Arrow loopholes were skinny holes in the castle walls, which were used to shoot arrows out of. These holes were either horizontal or vertical. If it was vertical, you could shoot a bow and arrow, but if it was horizontal, you could use a crossbow.

The great hall is the main room of the castle. It was large, had high ceilings, and was located in the inner courtyard. It had one long table and two long benches, but the king had his own chair.