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This hill occupies a strategic position overlooking the only pass through the coastal mountain ranges between Antakya in Turkey and Beirut in Lebanon. Naturally it has been fortified since several centuries before our era.
In 1011, the Emir of Homs took over a small fortress called the "Castle on the slope" and garrisoned it with Kurdish soldiers to protect the Syrian interior from invasions from the Mediterranean coast.
In June 1110 the small fortress then called Hosn el-Akrad (Castle of Kurds) was occupied by the Crusaders who expanded it before ceding it to the Order of Hospitaler Knights in 1180 Damage by several earthquakes in 1157, 1170, 1201 and 1202 provided as many occasions to further develop and improve the fortifications and accommodations for a powerful 2000 man garrison.
Nur ed-Din Sultan of Damascus tried to attack it in 1163. The great Saladin (Salah ad-Din Yusuf) examined its defences in 1188, but renounced taking it and walked away. The Crac was thought impregnable but in 1271 king al-Zaher Baybars besieged it for a month with huge mangonels throwing 600 kg stones before breaking into the fortress' outer perimeter. The 300 defenders had supplies for 5 years but they capitulated in exchange for safe conduit after being tricked by a forged letter from the count of Tripoli ordering them to do so.
Trickery and lies were a part of war in those days as they are now in 2003. The only difference is that in those days leaders would lie to the enemy, not to their own people!
The entrance is on the eastern side. This sloped corridor leads to vast stables for the knight's horses, to the moat and to the entrance of the inner fortress
Here is the moat fed by the delicate aqueduct seen on the first picture of this page. The glacis on the right is part of the inner fortress and the structure on the left houses the great hall shown next.
This great 27 by 8 metre assembly hall is part of the southern outer defences, it leads out to a dry moat on the western side.
Below on the left, the Southwest bastion and central keep.
Below on the right, the Northwest tower called "The King's Daughter's Tower"
Here is the dry moat leading from the SW bastion to the "King's Daughter's Tower" on the western side.
This corridor is the entrance to the inner fortress.
The fortress contained enough rooms to accommodate a garrison of 2000 and to store the supplies needed to withstand a five year siege.
Passages in the walls led to embrasures like these from which the defenders could shoot their crossbows.
This corridor leads to the inner courtyard.
Behind the gothic loggia is a vaulted hall reserved for the meetings of the Knight's Chapter. The square building on the right is the chapel.
Here is the vaulted Knight's Hall.
And here is the chapel with the mihrab Beybars added to transform it into a mosque in 1272.
This panoramic view over the north wall shows the inner dry moat, the outer defences, the village of Hosn and the fertile valley in the Homs gap.
