Monuments of Syria أوابد سورية
A Window on Syria's Past by Ross Burns
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Little remains within the enclosure of this Ismaeli castle taken from the Crusaders by Rashid al-Din Sinan (‘the Old Man of the Mountain’ of Crusader legends) after 1160. Externally, the circuit walls survive in part on the northeast and northwest. For description, Monuments of Syria (third edition, I B Tauris, London 2009), page 231. منشآت […]
While its deep grey basalt stone often conveys a grim and formidable impression, a visit to the castle on its breathtaking site overlooking the Mediterranean can often provide a different experience when the vegetation and wildflowers soften the scene. High on its perch where the mountains descend precipitately into the sea, Marqab occupies a key position […]
Like many of the sites later fortified during the Crusades, this defensive outpost began as a Byzantine fort. Under the Crusades it was a dependency of the Lord of Saone (now the Castle of Saladin) but fell to Saladin in 1188. كانت هذه القلعة حصناً دفاعياً متقدماً للبيزنطيين، وفيما بعد أثناء الحروب الصليبية كانت تابعة […]
This Islamic fortification — largely the work of the twelfth century sponsored by the rulers of Aleppo — lies 102 kms northeast of Aleppo on the Euphrates River. These photos convey some essential features of the Islamic style of fortification namely the tightly-organised structure based on a circular plan with a central corridor. Entrance is […]
This relatively small castle of the Crusader era had an unusual history — it was ‘traded’, i. e. sold to the Ismaelis by the Crusaders in the 1180s. The site was probably originally a Byzantine fortified position surveying the deep gorge of the Nahr Jobar. The castle is discussed on page 238 of Monuments of […]
This isolated outpost on the middle stretch of the Euphrates was intended to protect the desert route from invaders originating in the east. An Ayyubid project, it remained in use in Mamluk and Ottoman times but the ravages of invasions (notably Mongol) and the effect of the harsh climate have left their mark on the […]
Sited in an extraordinarily dramatic location, deep in the inner recesses of the Jebal Ansariye, the Castle known to the Crusaders as the Château de Saône is today labelled the Castle of Saladin. The modern name honours the extraordinary achievement of Saladin in taking the castle in 1188, shortly after his great victory at the […]
