Maiden Castle (4)
Maiden Castle is a prehistoric fortification with origins in the Neolithic. In the Iron Age, with the threat of a Roman invasion looming, the earthworks were enlarged and made much more elaborate, so that the place was considered to be invincible.
The castle walls were steep, and there were four of them, one inside the other; the gateways were designed in such a way that any arrival had to wend his way between the walls. Nevertheless, the army of Vespasian was able to discover a weak point. The Romans fought their way into the castle and the inhabitants - several thousand Celtic men, women and children - were all either burnt or put to the sword.
This photo shows the series of encircling banks and ditches. In the course of the past 2,000 years the banks have been very much eroded and the ditches have silted. In ancient times the walls would not have been covered with grass; they would have consisted of bare, white chalk. Thus they would have looked even more impressive and would have been even harder to climb.
Maiden Castle is near Dorchester, in Dorset, England. This is one of several photos in this library which show the earthworks.