T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 182

for more than 80 feet to the thick greenish mud and water of the moat. Below tower E it runs out in an enormous spur and then at right angles it turns along the whole Western front until it is lost in the rectangular tower P. (a) The reason for making the wall with so great a batter and such thickness - nearly 80 feet - is a little hard to find. Against an earthquake it would be useful perhaps, though no part of Crac has been damaged by one : the castle stands on rock, so mining was not greatly to be feared and half the thickness would have been secure against any ram that ever was imagined. It had however one advantage against or- dinary attacks in the absence of machicoulis : assailants could never get underneath the fire of the defenders on the fighting platform : and this after all may have been the real purpose of the construction. On the other hand it had ... the drawback of making easy escalade. (b) In the matter of machicoulis Crac is most comprehensive. The ordinary pattern as used generally from the thirteenth century in France is employed in the outer line of wall from tower S to tower E,and elsewhere on the outer line. Then from tower S northwards the wall contains near the top a -------------------------------------------------------------- (l) I was able, barefoot, to climb up more than half-way though with some little difficulty.