Crusader Castle: Crak Des Chevaliers
UNESCO World Heritage Site
We visited the Crak Des Chevaliers (also spelled Krak Des Chevaliers) in 1993 while on a northern Syria tour. We were told it was one of the largest and best preserved of the Crusader castles. It was an amazing site to visit.
I marveled at what they had accomplished as I climbed to the top of the towers. Can you imagine being a Crusader, walking from somewhere in Europe to what is now Syria, and then deciding you needed to build a castle for defense? Where to build it? How big and how should it be organized? Where can you get the stones? What tools do you use to cut the stones? How do you move them to the site and then lift them into place? Who did the planning and who did the work?
My memory of the castle is that it was much larger and roomier than I expected it to be. There were beautiful arches holding up the pathways, large rooms for eating, small chapels, stables, etc. inside. It had to be roomy since it housed over 2000 people.
According to the UNESCO Heritage Site, Crak des Chevaliers represents one of the most significant examples illustrating the exchange of influences and documenting…
