Bin Laden's Medieval Hideout

Osama Bin Laden's violent, terrorist, anti-modern brand of Islam has little to do with the Middle Ages (medieval Muslims were, mostly, more tolerant than their Christian counterparts) but a glance at his hideout's floor plan reveals some real similarities to a western European medieval siege castle.

Take a look: Here's the Washington Post map of Bin Laden's hideout.

And here's a map of Richard the Lionheart's famous Chateau Gaillard in France.

Although the building techniques were a lot different, the hideout had all the basic features of the medieval castle:  There's a central "keep," outer, middle and inner wards for defense and even a "curtain wall" (which the Washington Post labels a "privacy wall") around the "keep." Whoever designed it likely absorbed some of the ideas of medieval castle building.

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