Revisiting the Knight’s Castle
Krak De Chevalier, Syria
October 24, 2008
Krak De Chevalier, Syria
October 24, 2008
“Perhaps the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world” – T.E. Lawrence
It’s hard to argue with Mr. Lawrence’s assessment. I’d visited Krak des Chevaliers on my last trip to Syria but couldn’t resist a second gawp.
The Amir of Aleppo originally built a fortress on the same site which was captured during the First Crusade but later abandoned. It changed hands a few times before the Knights Hospitallers moved in around 1142. They set to work expanding it into the largest crusader castle in the Holy Land. Their efforts paid off when they were able to repel successive sieges by first Nur ad-Din followed by the infamous Salah-ad-Din. Eventually the castle fell to the Marmaluke Sultan Beibars who’d armed himself with some heavy duty catapults that must have finally penetrated the infamous 3-meter thick walls.
You can still walk down those walls and marvel at them up close. You can also visit the Gothic chapel that was later converted to a Mosque or explore the massive storerooms that let the defenders outlast years of siege. However the most striking scene is from any of the nearby hills which allow an uninterrupted view of this magnificently solid structure.
