Old-fashioned hygiene habits that are anything but clean

People Threw Their Waste into the Moats

Castles might look majestic, but their moats often concealed a dirty secret. Instead of clear water, they were filled with sewage and garbage – human and otherwise. They essentially served as open waste pits.

Without modern sewage disposal, servants dumped everything – from food scraps to the contents of chamber pots – straight into the moat. It’s hard to imagine anything less regal than a stinky moat full of trash.