- Type
- Castle
- Built
- c. 1229 · 13th century
- Location
- Western al-Samadania, Syria
- Style
- Ayyubid architecture
- Commissioned by
- Al-Aziz Uthman
- Coordinates
- 33.2528°, 35.7147°
History
The fortress, known in Arabic as Qal'at al-Subeiba, was built around 1229 by al-Aziz Uthman, Saladin's nephew and lord of Banias, to guard the road from Galilee to Damascus against the expected Sixth Crusade of Frederick II. In the 1260s, after the Mamluk victories, Sultan Baybars greatly enlarged and strengthened it, as surviving inscriptions record. Once the Crusaders had been driven from the Levant in 1291 it lost its strategic value, and in the Ottoman period it was abandoned. The walls suffered further damage, among other things in the earthquake of 1759. The ruins are now open to visitors as a national park.
What to see
The walls run for more than 400 metres along a narrow ridge, with over a dozen towers and a massive keep at the highest, eastern end. Visitors can go down into vaulted halls and cisterns, walk through a secret passage and climb the towers. The ramparts look out over the Hula valley, the Banias springs and the snow-capped Hermon massif.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q1404704
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