Krak des Chevaliers (Crac des Chevaliers, Fortress of the Knights)
Knights Hospitaller Gallery
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Krak des Chevaliers, also known as Crac des Chevaliers, means "Fortress of the Knights" and is a mixture of French and Arabic. The castle is famous for having served as the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in Syria during the Crusades.
The castle occupies a strategically important position east of Tripoli on a high cliff that is above the only route from Antioch to Beirut. Originally built in 1031 by the emir of Aleppo, Raymond IV of Toulouse captured it in 1099 during the First Crusade but he had to abandon it in order to continue the march to Jerusalem. Tancred of Hauteville occupied it again in 1110 and Raymond II, count of Tripoli, gave it to the Hospitallers in 1142.
Under the Hosptiallers, the Krak des Chevaliers was expanded and rebuilt until it became the largest and most powerful Crusader fortress in the entire Holy Land. Its outer wall was 30 meters thick and its seven guard towers each had walls up to 10 meters thick. Massive storage rooms were carved out of the rock, enough to allow the Hospitallers to withstand a siege as long as five years.
Only around 50 actual knights and 2,000 foot soldiers ever stayed there at any one time, but it was more than enough to prevent the Muslims from capturing it. Nur ad-Din laid siege in 1163 and Saladin tried in 1188. Not until the Mamluk Sultan Baibers arrived in 1271 did the castle fall - but only because he tricked the defenders into thinking that Tripoli had ordered them to surrender to him.
Today the Krak des Chevaliers is an important tourist attraction in Syria. It is also important to scholars because it is contains the best preserved examples of Crusader art anywhere in the world.
