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Anti-terrorist moats: add photo

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{{Short description|Defensive ditch surrounding a fortification or town}}
{{Other uses}}
[[Image:Matsumoto_castle_3.jpg|thumb|The moat surrounding [[Matsumoto Castle]] in Japan]]
A '''moat''' is a deep, broad ditch dug around a [[castle]], [[fortification]], [[building]], or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of [[Defence (military)|defence]]. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, [[dam]]s and [[sluice]]s. In older fortifications, such as [[hillfort]]s, they are usually referred to simply as [[ditch (fortification)|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===
[[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]]).

==Photo gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Muiderslot september 2007.JPG|[[Muiderslot]], [[Netherlands]]
Image:The moat around Fort Pulaski, Savannah, GA IMG 4673.JPG|Moat surrounding [[Fort Pulaski National Monument]] near [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]
Image:Keep of Matsumoto Castle.JPG|[[Matsumoto Castle]], a Japanese Castle in [[Nagano Prefecture]]
Image:Bodiam-castle-10My8-1197.jpg|[[Bodiam Castle]], a 14th-century castle near [[Robertsbridge]] in [[East Sussex]], England
Image:Caerlaverock Castle from the air.jpg|[[Caerlaverock Castle]], a 13th-century castle in southern Scotland
Image:Sunset of the Forbidden City 2006.JPG|[[Forbidden City|The Forbidden City]], [[Beijing]]: North-western angle
Image: Angkor-Wat-from-the-air.JPG|[[Angkor Wat]], [[Cambodia]]
Image:Egeskov Slot 08.jpg|[[Egeskov Castle]], [[Denmark]]
Image:LissingenEugenBracht1880BurgLissingen.jpg| [[Castle of Lissingen]]
Image:Sigiriya moat 2011.jpg|[[Sigiriya]] moat, [[Sri Lanka]]
File:Qufu City Wall - south of the west gate - looking S - P1050985.JPG|Frozen moat of the walled city of [[Qufu]], China
Image:Fortbourtange.jpg|[[Fort Bourtange]], a late 16th-century [[star fort]] in [[Groningen (province)|Groningen]], [[Netherlands]]
Image:Fort Brockhurst 4-Gosport - geograph.org.uk - 693238.jpg|[[Fort Brockhurst]] a mid-19th-century polygonal fort in [[Hampshire]], England

Image:Castello_esterno.jpg|The [[Castello Estense]] of [[Ferrara]], Italy

Image:Fort-Jefferson Dry-Tortugas.jpg|[[Fort Jefferson, Florida|Fort Jefferson]], [[Dry Tortugas]], [[Florida]]
Image:Moat Castle Steinfurt.jpg|Moat with civic houses bordering on it in Steinfurt
Image:Beijing ancient city gate and moat.jpg|[[Beijing]] ancient city gate and moat
Image:Vellorefort.jpg|[[Vellore Fort]] Moat, in [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]
File:Daalsesingel-Utrecht-2020.jpg|The ''Daalsesingel'', a part of the moat that surrounds the city center of [[Utrecht]], Netherlands
File:Hikone-Castle-canal-cherry-blossom-2018-Luka-Peternel.jpg|[[Hikone Castle]] moat
File:Gate-of-Divine-Might-Forbidden-City-2018-Luka-Peternel.jpg|[[Forbidden City]] moat
File:Landskrona citadell från luften.jpg|[[Landskrona Citadel]] with mid 15th-century dual moat construction
</gallery>

==Modern usage==
=== Architectural usage ===
[[Image:Farley dry moat jeh.JPG|thumb|upright|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 (Newport, Rhode Island)|The Elms]], as well as at [[Carolands]], outside of San Francisco, California, and at [[Union Station (Toronto)|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#Construction and design|James Farley Post Office]] in [[New York City]].{{cn|date=January 2025}}

=== Anti-terrorist moats ===
[[File:The American Embassy at Nine Elms - geograph.org.uk - 6945860.jpg|thumb|The moat at the Embassy of the United States in London]]
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 bomb]]s and [[improvised fighting vehicle]]s. For example, the new location of the [[Embassy of the United States, London|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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/us-embassy-america-shows-off-its-thames-fortress-6n2kjmcvq|title=US embassy: America shows off its Thames fortress|last=Morrison|first=Jonathan |date=2017-12-14|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=2018-04-26|language=en|issn=0140-0460}}</ref> Modern moats may also be used for aesthetic or ergonomic purposes.

The [[Catawba Nuclear Station]] has a concrete moat around the sides of the plant [[Neck ditch|not bordering]] a lake. The moat is a part of precautions added to such sites after the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]].<ref>{{cite news|publisher=Nuclear Threat Initiative|url=http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2004/10/13/78e7ff40-6c57-4696-afb7-982106ec6d06.html|title=Nuclear Power Plants to Continue MOX Program|date=October 13, 2004|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901040311/http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2004/10/13/78e7ff40-6c57-4696-afb7-982106ec6d06.html|archive-date=September 1, 2009}}</ref>

=== 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 Hagenbeck|Tierpark]] in [[Hamburg]], Germany.<ref>{{Cite news | publisher = [[National Audubon Society]] | work = Audubon Magazine | title = The New Zoo | url = http://audubonmagazine.org/features0111/newzoo.html | author = Rene S. Ebersole | date = November 2001 | access-date = 2007-12-18 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070906144905/http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features0111/newzoo.html | archive-date = 2007-09-06 }}</ref> 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.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

=== 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]].<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/israel/Story/0,2763,1241836,00.html|title=Two-mile Gaza moat to foil tunnels to Egypt|date=June 18, 2004 | location=London | first=Conal | last=Urquhart | access-date=May 12, 2010}}</ref>

In 2008, city officials in [[Yuma, Arizona]] planned to dig out a two-mile stretch of a {{convert|180|ha|acre|abbr=off|adj=on}} wetland known as Hunters Hole to control immigrants coming from Mexico.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/14/usa.mexico|title=US city plans moat to keep out migrants|date=March 14, 2008|location=London|first=Dan|last=Glaister|access-date=May 12, 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902041602/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/14/usa.mexico|archive-date=September 2, 2013}}</ref>

=== Pest control moats ===
Researchers of [[jumping spider]]s, which have excellent vision and adaptable tactics,<ref name="HarlandJackson2000Cats">{{Cite journal
|author1 = Harland, D.P.
|author2 = Jackson, R.R.
|name-list-style = amp
|year = 2000
|title = "Eight-legged cats" and how they see: a review of recent research on jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae)
|journal = Cimbebasia
|volume = 16
|pages = 231–240
|url = http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/Papers/Downloads/Harland_Cimb2000.pdf
|access-date = 5 May 2011
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060928164131/http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/Papers/Downloads/Harland_Cimb2000.pdf
|archive-date = 28 September 2006
}}</ref> 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.<ref name=JacksonEtc2001ConfinProb>{{cite journal | last=Jackson | first=Robert R.
|author2=Chris M. Carter |author3=Michael S. Tarsitano
| title=Trial-and-error solving of a confinement problem by a jumping spider, ''Portia fimbriata''
| journal=Behaviour | year=2001 | volume=138 | issue=10 | pages=1215–1234
| jstor=4535886| publisher=Koninklijke Brill | location=Leiden|issn=0005-7959 | doi=10.1163/15685390152822184}}</ref> 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.<ref name=JacksonEtc2006ConfineProb>{{cite journal | author1=Robert R. Jackson| author2=Fiona R. Cross | author3=Chris M. Carter | title=Geographic Variation in a Spider's Ability to Solve a Confinement Problem by Trial and Error | journal=International Journal of Comparative Psychology | year=2006 | volume=19 | issue=3 | pages=282–296 | doi=10.46867/IJCP.2006.19.03.06 | url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/53c3x1w9;jsessionid=34833B994B69E2CA4DA97613EA34F531#page-1 | access-date=8 June 2011 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406093528/http://escholarship.org/uc/item/53c3x1w9;jsessionid=34833B994B69E2CA4DA97613EA34F531#page-1 | archive-date=6 April 2012 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

As a basic method of pest control in [[bonsai]], a moat may be used to restrict access of crawling insects to the bonsai.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

==See also==
*[[Drawbridge]]
*''[[Gracht]]''
*[[Ha-ha]] wall
*[[Moated settlements]]
*[[Moot hill]] (sometimes written as Moat Hill)
*[[Neck ditch]]
*[[Bullengraben]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Fortifications}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Engineering barrages]]
[[Category:Castle architecture]]
[[Category:Masonry]]
[[Category:Water]]

Moat - Revision history

imported>Belbury: /* Anti-terrorist moats */ add photo