Krak des Chevaliers is one of the most iconic castles in the world to visit and also one of the most magnificent. Even 800 years later it is still an awe inspiring testament to the skill and power of the Knights Hospitaller architects and engineers.
Visiting Krak des Chevaliers
My visit to Krak des Chevaliers was as part of an organised tour so I can’t comment as to how easy it is to get to independently. It is a major tourist attraction and is distinct from local settlements so you can actually walk around and appreciate it without the usual jumble of houses intruding.
Facilities are limited to being able to buy postcards, guidebooks and water or hiring a guide. The whole concept of on site cafes to generate money doesn’t seem to be part of the culture here. There is a decent sized car park though for the coaches and minibuses.
My Experience
This visit to Krak des Chevaliers was as a break in travelling back to Lebanon after exploring more of Syria, details in my travel blog here. The castle is huge although the loss of crenelations and most of the decorations makes it quite stark.
The stables in the outer castle were alleged to hold 4000 horses but I have no idea how, unless they were tinned. I’m not aware that the forces of Outremer had that many mounted troops anyway but I guess with infantry mounts and supply horses its possible. Either way, the stables were still impressive.
The inner fort is a separate entity with a huge glacis and originally a moat separating the inner and outer castle. There were a few tunnels but I couldn’t investigate too far as my torch batteries had gone flat. There was some nice carving around the window of the commander’s room and some ornate Muslim calligraphy glorifying Baibars victory over the Hospitallers.
The view from the tallest tower was impressive, you could certainly see the castles value as a fortification dominating the north/south valley and the agricultural plain. I left the castle to find the coach gone but luckily they remembered me and came back after a while.
We stopped at a restaurant overlooking the castle and took some group photos. It is only from a distance that you can appreciate the true scale of the castle although it did seem silly to have the water source outside but I guess once the moat was filled that would keep them going for a while.
Krak des Chevaliers Photo Gallery
These next photos were taken in the dim and distant past of 2004 and they were not taken in RAW so these are pretty much unedited jpgs. I’d like to think my own skill in photography has moved on since then too so these may not be ideal pictures. Sorry!
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History
The Krak is a massive Crusader fortress built during the First Crusade on a strategically important spot 40 kilometers from city of Homs or Hims, called l’Chamelle by the Crusaders, in the middle of the Syrian desert. What made this spot so strategic was that only one route led from the city of Antioch south to Beirut and the Mediterranean, and that route passed through Homs Gap. Krak des Chevaliers sits atop the 650-meter hill which dominates the surrounding countryside and overlooks this ancient highway.
The Krak was originally a much smaller fortress, built by the Emir of Aleppo. In 1110, it was captured by Tancred, Prince of Galilee and one of the most famous Crusaders; the fortress later passed into the possession of Knights Hospitaller, the most powerful religious-military orders of the Crusades. The greatly expanded fortress served as their base of operations in the Middle East for centuries.
Built according to the taste of its masters, Krak des Chevaliers is a typical example of Gothic architecture, uprooted from Western Europe and transferred to the Middle East. Even today, it is one of the best-preserved examples of European medieval military architecture.
The fortress could accommodate a garrison of 2000 soldiers. The inner protective wall is over 3 meters thick. The inner castle is protected by seven towers, each 10 meters in diameter. The storeroom is 120 meters long and could hold supplies that would permit the defenders to survive a siege for about five years, with stables that could accommodate up to one thousand horses.
Krak des Chevaliers withstood numerous attacks by Muslim forces, even a siege by the mighty Saladin in 1188. Legend has it that Saladin managed to capture the commander of the fortress and ordered him to make the defenders open the gates. Allegedly he did as he asked, speaking in Arabic, but then commanded in French that his men defend the castle to the last warrior.
In the end, sheer force-of-arms was not enough to conquer these mighty walls. The castle fell to a cunning trick. In 1271, Baibars Mamluk, Sultan of Egypt, managed to take the fortress after sending a forged letter to the defenders in the name of their master and commander in Tripoli ordering them to surrender the castle.
References
There is a very good guide to the structure and history of the castle on the World History Encylopedia here.
The history above is copied from the Atlas Obscura page here.
The BBC has a report on damage to the castle from the civil war here and the Middle Eastern Eye has a more detailed report here.
There is a nice guide to visiting the castle on Wiki Voyage here.
There is a comprehensive history on the Wikipedia page here.