The construction of a castle was a monumental task; this required many workers and took many years. When a lord decided to build a castle, he hired a master builder to design and build the castle. He would choose a design for the castle. The castle was supposed to be the lord's fortress, so it had to be strong. Castles had many types of defense to protect the Lord and his family. The many types of castle defense meant that those attacking had to develop ever more strategic and powerful means of attacking the castle. When the king or lord decided to build his castle, he hired a master builder to design the castle and build it. hire workers to build the castle. The construction of the new stone castles took over five years and over a thousand workers (Jarrow 19). The first castle builders chose a location offering a military advantage (Jarrow 11). They used many different natural formations to their advantage. Many castles in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and Wales were built on steep hills and rock crops that were almost impossible to climb (Jarrow 19). Building castles on large hills gave defenders a clear view of advancing attackers, as Jarrow describes in his book: Some castles were built in swamps or marshes or surrounded by water. The soft, damp ground prevented the attackers from using heavy artillery to attack the castle. Castles built on islands could only be attacked if the attackers had boats to take them to the islands (12). This meant that castles built in wetlands were often very well protected even if they could not see the attackers advancing at long range. .Second, the Master Builder and the Lord had to choose...... middle of paper ...... a castle that would give them a military advantage or they would make a mound to give them one. Many improvements were made inside the keep to provide the king and his family with a more comfortable living space. They added more fireplaces to the rooms for warmth and began hanging large tapestries on the walls to reduce drafts. They found many new ways to defend the castle. They built large moats around the outer wall that could reach over thirty feet deep. There were special holes for archers to shoot and observe the battlefield safely. They even built the stairs clockwise to give the defenders an advantage. With improvements in castle design and defense, attackers have developed many attack machines. They built large battering rams to pound walls and powerful trebuchets to throw large rocks long distances...