Images in this gallery highlights two of the world's great crusader castles, Krak des Chevaliers and Qalaat Marqab.
Krak des Chevaliers - Largely built by the Christian Knights Hospitaller who occupied it around the 12th century, the strategically positioned castle lays on a volcanic crater with a view of Homs gap which gave access to the Mediterranean coast and interior of Syria. The castle eventually fell to the armies of Islam who occupied the building for hundreds of years and...
more »Images in this gallery highlights two of the world's great crusader castles, Krak des Chevaliers and Qalaat Marqab.
Krak des Chevaliers - Largely built by the Christian Knights Hospitaller who occupied it around the 12th century, the strategically positioned castle lays on a volcanic crater with a view of Homs gap which gave access to the Mediterranean coast and interior of Syria. The castle eventually fell to the armies of Islam who occupied the building for hundreds of years and strengthened the defences further. Gothic, Romanesque and Arabic architectural elements and legacies are found throughout the well preserved castle which is one of the greatest masterpieces of military architecture found anywhere in the world.
Qalaat Marqab or Marqab citadel is a formidable black basalt Crusader castle that is sits upon an extinct volcano peak with commanding views over the Syrian coastal plain and the Mediterranean. The site was originally built upon by the Muslims in 1062 and eventually fell into the hands of the Crusaders and then the Knights Hospitaller around the twelfth century. The Hospitaller knights converted the fortress in to one of the Crusader strongpoints using fortification concepts that were unique for their time. The impregnable castle only fell into the enemy hands due to the Crusaders dwindling manpower resources in the thirteenth century.
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