Editing Moat (section)

==Historical use==

===Ancient===
[[Image:Buhen3.jpg|thumb|North view of the fortress of [[Buhen]] in [[Ancient Egypt]].]]

Some of the earliest evidence of moats has been uncovered around [[ancient Egypt]]ian fortresses. One example is at [[Buhen]], a settlement 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sabi-abyad.nl/tellsabiabyad/resultaten/index/0_38/0_38/?language=en |title=Archaeology in Syria Tell Sabi Abyad|publisher=[[Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070321122827/http://www.sabi-abyad.nl/tellsabiabyad/resultaten/index/0_38/0_38/?language=en |archive-date=March 21, 2007 }} article on Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities website</ref><ref>{{cite web| last = Oredsson| first = Dag| title = Moats in Ancient Palestine| publisher = Almqvist & Wiksell International| date = November 2000| url = http://www.coronetbooks.com/books/m/moat8921.htm| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923210534/http://www.coronetbooks.com/books/m/moat8921.htm| archive-date = 2015-09-23}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=McGrath|first1=R.|last2=Boyd|first2=W.|date=June 2001|title=The chronology of the Iron Age 'moats' of Northeast Thailand|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/chronology-of-the-iron-age-moats-of-northeast-thailand/44CCFD383CC58BACE0439BB5643E4086|journal=Antiquity|volume=75|issue=288|pages=349–360 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00061007|url-access=subscription}}{{page needed|date=January 2025}}</ref>

===Medieval===
[[File:Castle moat and watermill Steinfurt.jpg|thumb|A medieval moat castle in [[Steinfurt]], Germany]]

Moats were excavated around [[castle]]s and other fortifications as part of the defensive system as an obstacle immediately outside the [[Defensive wall|walls]]. In suitable locations, they might be filled with water. A moat made access to the walls difficult for siege weapons such as [[siege tower]]s and [[battering ram]]s, which needed to be brought up against a wall to be effective. A water-filled moat made the practice of [[Mining (military)|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 ditch]]es''. Moats separating different elements of a castle, such as the inner and outer wards, are ''cross ditches''.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

The word was adapted in [[Middle English]] from the [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Friar |first=Stephen |year=2003 |title=The Sutton Companion to Castles |page=214 |publisher=Sutton Publishing |location=Stroud |isbn=978-0-7509-3994-2}}</ref> The term ''moat'' is also applied to natural formations reminiscent of the artificial structure and to similar modern architectural features.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

===Later western fortification===
[[Image:NIMH - 2011 - 3706 - Aerial photograph of Naarden, The Netherlands.jpg|thumb|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 [[bastion]]s, which was known as the ''[[trace italienne]]''. The walls were further protected from infantry attack by wet or dry moats, sometimes in elaborate systems.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeVAPShsbTMC&pg=PA46|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103015935/https://books.google.com/books?id=aeVAPShsbTMC&pg=PA46|url-status=dead|title=French Fortifications, 1715-1815: An Illustrated History|first=Jean-Denis G. G.|last=Lepage|date=December 21, 2009|archivedate=January 3, 2016|publisher=McFarland| isbn=9780786458073 |via=Google Books|page=46}}</ref> When this style of fortification was superseded by lines of [[polygonal fort]]s in the mid-19th century, moats continued to be used for close protection.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fsgfort.com/uploads/pdfs/Public/Introduction%20to%20Fortifications%20P.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025235/http://www.fsgfort.com/uploads/pdfs/Public/Introduction%20to%20Fortifications%20P.pdf|url-status=dead|title=An Introduction to Artillery Fortification|publisher=Fortress Study Group|first=Simon|last=Barrass|date=2011|archivedate=March 4, 2016}}{{page needed|date=January 2025}}</ref>

===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  {{Convert|6,500|km2|abbr=on}} of community lands. Its length was over {{Convert|16,000|km|abbr=on}} of earth boundaries. It was estimated that earliest construction began in 800 and continued into the mid-15th century.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

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.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

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.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

The Walls of Benin City were the world's largest man-made structure. [[Fred Pearce]] wrote in ''[[New Scientist]]'':<blockquote>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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16322035-100-the-african-queen/|title=The African queen|last=Pearce|first=Fred|date=1999-09-11|newspaper=New Scientist}}</ref></blockquote>

===Asia===
[[Image:Imperial Palace Tokyo Map.png|thumb|upright|Map of the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace]] and surrounding Gardens showing the elaborate moat system]][[Japanese castle]]s 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.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

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 [[Kōkyo|Tokyo Imperial Palace]] consists of a very active body of water, hosting everything from rental boats and fishing ponds to restaurants.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Japan Today|url=http://www.japantoday.com/jp/shukan/358|title=Imperial Palace moats illegally occupied by businesses|date=August 25, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061028001234/http://www.japantoday.com/jp/shukan/358|archive-date=October 28, 2006}}</ref>

Most modern Japanese castles have moats filled with water, but castles in the feudal period more commonly had 'dry moats' {{nihongo3||空堀|karabori|{{lit|empty moat}}}}, a [[trench]]. A {{nihongo3||竪堀|tatebori|{{lit|vertical moat}}}} is a dry moat dug into a slope. A {{nihongo3||畝状竪堀|unejo tatebori|{{lit|furrowed shape empty moat}}}} is a series of parallel trenches running up the sides of the excavated mountain, and the earthen wall, which was also called {{nihongo3||土居|doi|{{lit|earth mount}}}}, was an outer wall made of earth dug out from a moat. Even today it is common for mountain Japanese castles to have dry moats. A {{nihongo3||水堀|mizubori|{{lit|water moat}}}} is a moat filled with water.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

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]]; [[Chiang Mai]] in [[Thailand]] and [[Huế]] in [[Vietnam]].{{cn|date=January 2025}}

===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.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

===North America===
{{unreferenced section|date=January 2025}}
Moats were developed independently by [[North America]]n [[Native Americans in the United States|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]]).