The moated manor house of Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire, England
Moats were deep and wide trenches, usually filled with water, to provide a barrier against attack upon castleramparts or other fortifications.
Often streams were diverted in the Middle Ages to fill the ditch. Moats required upkeep. They had to be dredged for debris which could potentially form a traversable bridge from one side to another.
Bridges spanned across moats in the Middle Ages. At first they were only simple wooden bridges that could easily be destroyed if an enemy was about to breach the fortifications. Later flying bridges and drawbridges were used for moat spans.
Moats sometimes had long woden spikes in them, to prevent enemies from swimming across.
While moats are commonly associated with European castles, they were also developed by North American Indians of the Mississippian culture as the outer defense of some fortified villages. The remains of a 16th century moat are still visible at the Parkin Archeological State Park in eastern Arkansas.
Moats (also known as a Fosse) were deep and wide water-filled trenches, excavated to provide a barrier against attack upon castleramparts or other fortifications.
A moat made access to the walls difficult for siege weapons, such as a siege tower or battering ram, that needed to be brought up against a wall to be effective.
A very important feature was that a water-filled moat made very difficult the practice of sapping or undermining, that is to say digging tunnels under the fortifications in order to effect a collapse of the defenses.
The moat of Abomey was - according to the oral tradition - constructed by King Houegbadja (1645-1685), who moved his palace and capital to Abomey and surrounded it in a rectangular (European) manner with ramparts and moat.
In the course of the excavation it was established that the original dimensions of the moat were 12 m in width and 6.6 m in depth.
A part of the moat and rampart in Kétou city (on the Nigerian border), actually in the territory of the main local sanctuary, serves a fine example visualising the original appearance of the Abomey moat.
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