How they worked

Ridges, round towers and a way in that bends

How a Crusader castle was built to keep attackers out, from the ditch to the great towers.

Jump to: Ridges, spurs and harbours | Two rings of walls | Keeping attackers out | When guns arrived | Ideas that travelled | Inside the walls

Ridges, spurs and harbours

Both castles stand on high ridges that were key defensive positions. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din It sits on a rocky spur at 440 metres, so steep that it can only really be reached from the east. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

Karak, an old Crusader stronghold, stands 900 metres above sea level. Jordan Tourism Board: Karak Karak can be reached from the ancient King’s Highway to the east or from the Dead Sea to the west. Jordan Tourism Board: Karak

Byblos is on a sandstone cliff 40 km north of Beirut. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Byblos

Acre was the Crusaders’ main port in the Holy Land. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Old City of Acre Old manuscripts describe an outer port and a smaller inner one. Old Akko & Nazareth Development Company: Timeline

Two rings of walls

Inside, the castle had two concentric lines of defence around the inner courtyard. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006) The outer wall has eight round towers on its north and west sides. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

At the south end of the inner castle, three great round towers held the finest rooms and were a last refuge. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

ICOMOS says its outline and plan may be the most perfect expression of the fortified castle. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006) UNESCO calls Crac an archetype of a medieval castle, especially for the military orders. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din

Keeping attackers out

The towers have carefully placed loops: narrow openings for shooting at an enemy. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

On the west and south sides is a sloping glacis, over 25 metres wide at the base, called the Mountain. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006) The slope made it hard for attackers to set up equipment for climbing the walls. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

The main gate is on the east side. It leads to a long, bent, vaulted ramp, defended by a moat and drawbridge. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

A ditch separates the upper court from the lower court, whose walls have four square towers. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

Its plan is a narrow triangle pointing west, 720 metres long and 120 metres wide at the base. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

When guns arrived

At the Amboise Gate, built in 1512, the wall was 12 metres thick, with a 4-metre parapet pierced with gun holes. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Medieval City of Rhodes Firing posts for artillery were the last features added to the walls. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Medieval City of Rhodes

The Knights added artillery platforms, bringing the bastioned system of defence to Malta. Heritage Malta: Fort St Angelo In 1689 the engineer Carlos Grunenbergh added four gun platforms for some fifty guns. Heritage Malta: Fort St Angelo

The fortifications of Rhodes influenced the whole eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Middle Ages. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Medieval City of Rhodes

The medieval city sits inside a wall 4 kilometres long. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Medieval City of Rhodes

Ideas that travelled

UNESCO says the Crusader castles show influences passing between peoples, and how fortification developed in the Byzantine, Crusader and Islamic periods. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din UNESCO says these castles differed from the more passive defence systems of European castles. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din

ICOMOS says Crac and Saladin’s castle together are a sort of catalogue of military inventions from centuries of war between Christian and Muslim armies. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006) The new kinds of castle building spread both East and West in the centuries afterwards. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din (2006)

Inside the walls

The Jordan Tourism Board calls Karak Castle a dark maze of stone-vaulted halls and endless passages. Jordan Tourism Board: Karak The best-preserved parts are underground. Jordan Tourism Board: Karak

Its main hall is a vault that housed soldiers in the Mamluk period. Jordan Tourism Board: Karak

The citadel was built over the Hospitallers’ citadel, which includes the Knights’ Halls, the Crypt and the “Beautiful Hall”. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Old City of Acre (2001) Below ground are walls, streets, drainage tunnels and hidden passages. ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO: Old City of Acre (2001)

In the Hospitaller complex, a 10-metre-tall vaulted toilet room had rows of eight seats draining into a collection room below. Old Akko & Nazareth Development Company: The Knights Halls A main sewer, 1 metre wide and 1.5 metres tall, crossed the city from north to south and emptied into the sea at the port. Old Akko & Nazareth Development Company: The Knights Halls

The Great Hospital was built between 1440 and 1489. UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Medieval City of Rhodes

The hall is a two-storey flint and stone building, with a first-floor chamber over a vaulted cellar called an undercroft. English Heritage: History of Temple Manor

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