KRAK DES CHEVALIERS

The Krak is a massive Crusader fortress built during the First Crusade on a strategically important spot 40 kilometers from the city of 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 the Hims 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 one of the most famous Crusaders. It was later passed into the possession of Knights Hospitaller, the most powerful religious-military orders of the Crusades. They greatly expanded the fortress and it served as their base of operations in the Middle East for centuries.
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 Salah al-Din in 1188.
In the end, the castle fell to a cunning trick. In 1271, Sultan Baibars 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.

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