Krak des ChevaliersPersonal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Krak des Chevaliers, Syria. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Krak des Chevaliers and navigate the world using Google Earth Show on mapLocate Krak des Chevaliers on map
N 34° 46.692
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On our way to the castle mid-March, we drove through snowy slopes and I started to add a layer of snow to the image of the castle in my head. However, once we had passed the city of Homs, the snow had given way to vibrant green fields with flowers. Soon, we discovered the castle, sitting high above us on a hilltop, defiantly overlooking the plains of Syria. Its location was chosen well, for it guards the only passage through the mountainrange between the Mediterranean coast and the hinterland. With every curve in the road, the castle seemed to get closer, until we parked right in front of the entrance.
Once through the main gate, we walked around, marvelled at the enormous thick and high walls, and imagined how easy it must have been for defenders to keep this castle in their possession. In its heyday, the castle housed some 4000 soldiers and knights, and with their horses it must have been a lively place indeed. It was attacked, but never conquered. Only after the Crusades were over and Jerusalem was lost, did the last inhabitants give up after a short siege by Muslim warlord Baibar. This explains why the castle is still largely intact.
After walking up through the inner ramp, we reached a gate through which we saw some of the majestic towers reflected in the moat. Here were also the baths of the castle, fed by water in the moat, nowadays largely overgrown by moss. We went up the towers, up the outer wall, we saw Syrian youths partying at the foot of one of the towers before we went inside. There, we visited the dining hall, the chapel, the oven, the Long Room and up again to the Warden's Tower from where there is a splendid view both towards the Mediterranean and the inside of Syria. Walking outside from the castle, up to a restaurant offered us a great view over the castle in all its glory.
