question: During a siege on a castle, why didn't defenders make more stone walls behind the gate?
comment: Because in the vast majority of cases the construction of the gate defenses was sufficient to discourage an attack. Assaults were exceedingly rare. Really for castle defenders the threat was starvation, not the enemy getting in. Most castles were small, local fortifications, and couldn't sustain a long siege anyway - in that case the defenders would usually surrender after a few days of symbolic resistance.
passages: The few surviving stone counter or siege castles generally show evidence of less careful construction. In order to build the fortification quickly, clay was mixed with the lime mortar. These defences are therefore dangerous today in view of their condition and can be made safe through painstaking renovation.
   Medieval-style fortifications were largely made obsolete by the arrival of cannons on the 14th century battlefield. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb and disperse the energy of cannon fire. Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes.
  
  This placed a heavy emphasis on the geometry of the fortification to allow defensive cannonry interlocking fields of fire to cover all approaches to the lower and thus more vulnerable walls.
   Medieval-style fortifications were largely made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb and disperse the energy of cannon fire. Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so the walls were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes to improve protection.
   Shield walls are found on many German and Austrian hill castles, but are not common in Great Britain or Ireland where the terrain of the rocky hills on which castles were built did not favour such constructions. However some British castles built on headlands such as Tantallon do have a similar feature.
  
  Section::::Origin and description.
   However, during the construction of a canal for the municipal sewerage system in 1877, the engineer responsible, István Kováts, may have cut the walls of the presumed castle on the site of the fortress. He attached a sketch to his report:
   Several methods resisted or countered undermining. Often the siting of a castle could make mining difficult. The walls of a castle could be constructed either on solid rock or on sandy or water-logged land, making it difficult to dig mines. A very deep ditch or moat could be constructed in front of the walls, as was done at Pembroke Castle, or even artificial lakes, as was done at Kenilworth Castle. This makes it more difficult to dig a mine, and even if a breach is made, the ditch or moat makes exploiting the breach difficult.
   An exact nature of the walls of a medieval town or city would depend on the resources available for building them, the nature of the terrain, and the perceived threat. In northern Europe, early in the period, walls were likely to have been constructed of wood and proofed against small forces. Especially where stone was readily available for building, the wood will have been replaced by stone to a higher or lower standard of security. This would have been the pattern of events in the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw in England.
   The first key instance of a "trace Italianate" was at the Papal port of Civitavecchia, where the original walls were lowered and thickened because the stone tended to shatter under bombardment.
  
  Section::::Effectiveness.
   The response towards more effective cannons was to build thicker walls and to prefer round towers, as the curving sides were more likely to deflect a shot than a flat surface. While this sufficed for new castles, pre-existing structures had to find a way to cope with being battered by cannon. An earthen bank could be piled behind a castle's curtain wall to absorb some of the shock of impact.
   BULLET::::- There were no sally ports for counter-attacks;
  
  BULLET::::- Most importantly, there was no water well inside the walls.
   The entrance to the fortified town was protected by an outer forecourt that is now hard to discern, a forecourt (VII, measuring 10 x 11.5 m) and a gatehouse (VII, measuring 10 x 7 m) as the final obstacle to attackers. The walls of the gatehouse are noticeably more solid and higher than those of the forecourt.
   At Cooling Castle in Kent, a brass plaque on the outer gatehouse, an engraved charter of 1381, reads, "I am made in the help of the country." In the opinion of archaeologist Matthew Johnson, the castle's defences are a sham, as there was no room for a parapet on top of the walls, and the gunports of the inner gatehouse were impractical. The architecture is effectively a boast of military importance, as is the licence.
   Apart from these, the early Middle Ages also saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only rarely protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches. From the 12th century AD hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe, which very often obtained the right of fortification soon afterwards.
   In the first few months of the First English Civil War although Worcester changed hands three times, only one musket shot was fired, so until the start of the short unsuccessful siege of May 1643 the medieval walls were not subjected to bombardment by an early modern artillery train.
   If any single enemy troop manages to reach a wall segment, they will begin to tear it down. Stronger (that is, thicker or larger) segments last longer under the assault, but eventually they crumble down and have to be constructed again. Special defences on walls (i.e. cauldrons of boiling oil) automatically activate, killing an enemy troop that reaches such a wall segment, but only if they have been placed into the wall in the design phase. Also, if an enemy soldier reaches a moat section, they have to ford it first in order to pass through.
   The finest drafted masonry is that dating from the time of Herod the Great, in the tower of David and the walls of the "Haram" in Jerusalem, and at Hebron. In the castles built by the Crusaders, the adze has been worked in a diagonal direction instead of vertically. In all these examples the size of the stones employed is sometimes enormous, so that the traditional influence of the Phoenician stonemasons seems to have lasted till the twelfth century.
   In Bronze Age Malta, some settlements also began to be fortified. The most notable surviving example is Borġ in-Nadur, where a bastion built in around 1500 BC was found Babylon was one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, especially as a result of the building program of Nebuchadnezzar, who expanded the walls and built the Ishtar Gate. Exceptions were few—notably, ancient Sparta and ancient Rome did not have walls for a long time, choosing to rely on their militaries for defence instead. Initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). In classical era Greece, the city of Athens built two parallel stone walls, called the Long Walls, that reached their fortified seaport at Piraeus a few miles away.
   This perspective was already being doubted by castle researcher, , as "something that could be imagined as practical, but which does not always reflect reality." Piper points out, among other things, that there are no medieval sources that speak about ", but several reports of sieges mentioning that enemy shells were destroying the roofs of a castle, accounts which suggest that the castles had more conventional solid roof structures.
   As an alternative to the time-consuming task of creating a breach, an escalade could be attempted to capture the walls with fighting along the walkways behind the battlements. In this instance, attackers would be vulnerable to arrowfire. A safer option for those assaulting a castle was to use a siege tower, sometimes called a belfry. Once ditches around a castle were partially filled in, these wooden, movable towers could be pushed against the curtain wall. As well as offering some protection for those inside, a siege tower could overlook the interior of a castle, giving bowmen an advantageous position from which to unleash missiles.
   It is a popular myth that so-called murder holes – openings in the ceiling of the gateway passage – were used to pour boiling oil or molten lead on attackers; the price of oil and lead and the distance of the gatehouse from fires meant that this was impractical. This method was, however, a common practice in the MENA region and the Mediterranean castles and fortifications where such resources were abundant. They were most likely used to drop objects on attackers, or to allow water to be poured on fires to extinguish them. Provision was made in the upper storey of the gatehouse for accommodation so the gate was never left undefended, although this arrangement later evolved to become more comfortable at the expense of defence.
   The greatest advantage of cannons over other siege weapons was the ability to fire a heavier projectile, farther, faster, and more often than previous weapons. They could also fire projectiles in a straight line, so that they could destroy the bases of high walls. Thus, 'old fashioned' walls – that is, high and, relatively, thin – were excellent targets, and, over time, easily demolished. In 1453, the great walls of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, were broken through in just six weeks by the 62 cannons of Mehmed II's army.
   for 'repairing the mote and the fosses around ; strengthening and re-dressing the same and the pele and the palisades, and making lodges within the mote, if necessary, for the safety of the men at arms of the garrison.' 
  
  Section::::Capture and destruction of the castle (1346).
   Siege castles are only evident from the period of the Late Middle Ages onwards. They were usually built as a temporary fortifications using wood and earth above the castle to be captured and within sight and the range of their guns. From this location the target would be bombarded.
   At this siege the attackers also made use of "sows" – mobile armoured shelters which were used throughout the medieval period, and allowed workers to fill in moats with protection from the defenders (thus levelling the ground for the siege towers to be moved to the walls). However, the construction of a sloping talus at the base of a castle wall (as was common in Crusader fortification) could have reduced the effectiveness of this tactic to an extent.
   But for the precision and diligence of Lorek the process of building went smooth and fast without any delay. This fact pleased the Cracow’s chapter, who was eager to finalize the project and started to fortify the mansion. In 1570 there was 10horse castle guard, defensive ditches and worth to say is that the minor hasn’t been changed or damaged from that time.
  
presuppositions: The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in. The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in. The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in. The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in.
corrections: The main threat for castle defenders was starvation. The main threat for castle defenders was starvation. The main threat for castle defenders was starvation. The main threat for castle defenders was starvation.
raw_presuppositions: The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in. The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in. The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in. The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in. The main threat for castle defenders was the enemy getting in.
raw_corrections: The main threat for castle defenders was starvation. The main threat for castle defenders was starvation. The main threat for castle defenders was starvation. The main threat for castle defenders was starvation. The main threat for castle defenders was starvation.