Labyrinth of Castle Walls

Exterior walls lining the moats at Odawara Castle follow an often-used construction found at many Japanese castles with a stone foundation and earthen upper portion topped of with clay roof tiles. The moats, walls, and gates are designed to create a labyrinth some gates leading to dead ends as a means to hinder invaders. If you look closely, you can see rectangular ya-zama　(矢狭間) holes (arrow slits) that were used for shooting arrows, and triangular teppo-zama (鉄砲狭間) holes (gun ports) for shooting with muskets.