How Were Castles Made?

   How castles were made…an interesting question. Crusaders, while on their way to the holy land, were some of the first to build castles. They built them for protection. Castles do vary in building materials though. They can be made of wood, planks, iron, or stone. All sorts of materials were used, but one thing is for sure; they needed a lot of whatever they were using!

   The lord hired craftsmen and laborers after he told them how he wanted the castle to be constructed. The castles were usually built on hard-to-get-to land masses like steep hills, mountains or on the middle of a lake. The reason for this was to make it harder for foreign invaders to attack it. They also wanted to intimidate their enemies with its looks. Castles did make a huge dent in the lord’s budget though. A lord had to be rich to afford one of their miniature towns. Also, to afford the people and equipment needed to build it. There was a lot of large equipment they had to use to construct such a large structure. They needed these machines to lift heavy materials, dig etc. Technology wasn’t as advanced back then though, so they needed a lot of workers to construct it while today, it would take half of the length of time with all of our technology.