What are the things on top of castle walls?

Battlements were the square-shaped part of the walls around the top of the castle. They usually had a walkway behind them so that soldiers could stand there when looking out for potential threats. They were also useful for soldiers who were defending the castle during an attack.



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Battlements were most often found surmounting curtain walls and the tops of gatehouses, and comprised several elements: crenellations, hoardings, machicolations, and loopholes. Crenellation is the collective name for alternating crenels and merlons: gaps and solid blocks on top of a wall.

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Hoardings. Wooden structures added to the top of walls and towers to provide a covered walkway and a secure place for defensive fire. Sometimes they could be removed during peacetime.

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The notches themselves are called crenels or embrasures, and the process of installing them is crenellating. The word stems from the Latin cren (also the root of cranny), which means notch. Definitions of crenellate. verb. supply with battlements.

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Batter (Plinth) The angled lower part of a tower or wall. Missiles dropped from the top of the towers or wall onto the plinth cause them to richochet horizontally into the attackers doing more damage. Plinths also strengthened the bases of the towers or walls and also made it harder to undermine them.

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In architecture, the talus is a feature of some late medieval castles, especially prevalent in crusader constructions. It consists of a battered (sloping) face at the base of a fortified wall.

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Dongjon or keep - The inner stronghold of a castle, usually found in one of the towers. Drawbridge - A heavy timber platform built to span a moat between a gate house and surrounding land that could be raised when required to block an entrance.

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A parapet originally meant a defensive mini-wall made of earth or stone that was built to protect soldiers on the roof of a fort or a castle.

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A portcullis is a heavy castle door or gate made of metal strips that form a grid. A castle guardian might lower the portcullis to protect the people inside from an invading army. It was common during medieval times for castles to be protected by a portcullis or two.

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In fortification architecture, a bank or rampart is a length of embankment or wall forming part of the defensive boundary of a castle, hillfort, settlement or other fortified site. It is usually broad-topped and made of excavated earth and/or masonry.

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