Hungary

"Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle is on the Dordogne I assume that this is the Medievial castle they talk about in Timeline. It sounds about right although I am not 100%."

Actually, Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, is a town. The castle that it accompanies is Castlenaud. In the book it references a town, La Roque. It is near, but not as depicted in the movie. There is also some research that shows that it wasn't even founded until after the 100 Year War(not for sure).

Castelnaud is geographically accurate to suit Creighton's book, as it was on the English side of the river. The Dordogne was a divisive line through much of the "100 Year War". To put the book in to accurate terms, the castle that would have made more sense is Beynac, however it was under French rule, due to its location on the south side of the river. It is located high above the town. That is another point of interest. The castle in "Timeline" is high on a cliff, as is Beynac. Glaring similarity.

Rambling, sorry. a quick synopsis and points:

-La Roque is maybe 7-10km up the valley and there for not a likely area for the town in the book. It does not have a Castle in its proximity.

-Beynac is actually across the river from Castlenaud and more a representation of what Creighton was explaining.

-Ultimately, this is a story of fiction and it would make sense to scramble and piece lots of real places and not have a conflict with real historical happenings.

I hope this helps, but I'm sure it will most likely confuse anyone who reads this.

This is a cool area in France, with lots of large Chateaus and castles. Most of the big ones are public, but there are a large number of private ones as well(some are still open to the public)

Some links:

http://www.castelnaud.com/uk

and a picture of Beynac-

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/13/8c/b0/beynac-castle.jpg

All of these invasions occurred due to very different aspects of Europe's geography and each of these invaders was well suited to this type of invasion.

Vikings: The Vikings were a sea-faring people who only looted and plundered towns on the European mainland (as opposed to annexing them or proclaiming over them). They were helped by the short distances between the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Germanic regions. Additionally, the proliferation of fishes along the long coast of Germanic regions prompted many villages to be built along the water's edge. This made the pillaging far easier since Vikings no longer had to penetrate miles of unknown forests to acquire wealth.

Magyar: The Magyar were known for their skills as light cavalry, which means that they are most effective on plains or relatively flat land away from city walls and mountains. The area that the Magyar invaded, Imperial Hungary, is just such a "flat-land" between the Carpathians, the Alps, and the Transylvanian Mountains. The geography of this region made their control of it relatively easy and this is why their empire roughly mirrored the topographical map for many centuries.

Muslim: As concerns Muslims, there are two Muslim invasions of Europe.

Muslim-Amazigh: While the Amazigh (also known as Berbers or Moors) were terrible at sea-faring (which would have made the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco a difficult crossing), they had an invitation and protection from the Visigothic pretender to the throne, Akhila, to support his claim against King Roderic. Many of the leaders of King Roderic's army were opposed to his rule and therefor provided little resistance to this army which had experience on long-distance conquest.

Muslim-Ottoman: The Bosporus and the walls of Constantinople made it so that the Byzantine Empire in that city was able to hold out for nearly a hundred years after the Ottoman Empire had encircled them in Southern Europe. Outside of Constantinople, geography was less important than the modern warfare techniques that the Ottoman used against the Europeans.