What siege engines were used during the Medieval Era?
The most common siege engines used were battering rams, siege towers, different types of catapults and the trebuchet. Battering Rams These were large mechanical objects, often on wheels that were used to ram the walls and doors of a castle in an attempt to break them down. Sometimes battering rams were part of a siege tower. The image below shows a simple covered battering ram. They often had wooden structures around them to protect the soldiers using the ram. Siege Tower Attackers sometimes built a siege tower to scale castle walls. Soldiers lay in wait inside the structure as others wheeled it to the castle. Once there, the soldiers lowered a drawbridge at the top of the tower onto the castle wall. Some towers were almost 100 feet high, and many archers and catapults could be crowded into a single tower. Siege towers were difficult and time-consuming to build, however, and castle defenders could burn them down with fire arrows or firepots (launched pots filled with flaming liquids su
