Syria

Crac des Chevaliers

WHS Score 3.75
rate
Votes 34 Average 4.12
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Votes for Crac des Chevaliers

2.5

  • Dimitrios Polychronopoulos
  • Thomas Buechler

3.0

  • Jonas Hagung
  • Jose

3.5

  • Adrian Turtschi
  • Jon Opol
  • Joyce van Soest
  • Lucio
  • Philipp Leu
  • Solivagant

4.0

  • Ammon Watkins
  • Argo
  • Dutchnick
  • Eric Lurio
  • Evgenii
  • Mikko
  • Riomussafer
  • Squiffy
  • Szucs Tamas

4.5

  • Alexander Lehmann
  • Hanming
  • Juropa
  • Milan Jirasek
  • SaoDies
  • triath

5.0

  • Alexander Barabanov
  • bergecn
  • Fmaiolo@yahoo.com
  • Krijn
  • Lameduck99
  • liverpool1023
  • Malgorzata Kopczynska
  • Persian Globetrotter
  • Roman Raab

Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din are the most significant remaining Crusader fortresses.

Crac des Chevaliers ("fortress of the knights") was the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in Syria during the Crusades and is seen as an archetype of a medieval castle as the military orders built them. Both castles are located on high ridges, which are key defensive positions. The castles also retain features of earlier Byzantine and later Islamic periods, thus showing the evolution of fortified architecture in this region.

Community Perspective: Squiffy stated: “Lawrence of Arabia called Crac des Chevaliers ‘the finest castle in the world’. I have yet to see a castle to convince me otherwise.” Solivagant found its skyline and isolated location incomparable. Triath has described its condition after the Syrian Civil War, in 2023.

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din (ID: 1229)
Country
Syria
Status
Inscribed 2006 Site history
History of Crac des Chevaliers
2013: In Danger
Together with all 5 other Syrian WHS, due to Civil War
2006: Inscribed
Inscribed
In Danger
Together with all 5 other Syrian WHS, due to Civil War Since 2013
WHS Type
Cultural
Criteria
  • ii
  • iv
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
Related Resources
News Article

Community Information

  • Community Category
  • Secular structure: Military and Fortifications
Travel Information
News
inkstickmedia.com 04/08/2025
A Crusader Castle in Syria Tells i…
france24.com 03/16/2023
Syrian castle among quake-hit anci…
washingtonpost.com 09/23/2022
A new role for Syria’s heritage si…

Community Reviews

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First published: 25/10/24.

triath

Crac des Chevaliers

Crac des Chevaliers (Inscribed)

Crac des Chevaliers by triath

Visited on a group tour to Syria in April 2023.

Perhaps the most famous castle of the Crusaders, built by the Order of Hospitallers to protect the pilgrims' routes to the Holy Land. The line of fortifications was so serious that even Saladin's troops could not take it by force.
Only in the Mamluk time Baybars managed to capture the castle by deception, when the power of the order was already in decline.
The castle was restored during the French mandate, but during the civil war Jihadists settled here, who had to be driven out of the castle with the help of Russian aircraft. The destroyed tower has already been restored by Hungarian historians, and only in the inner courtyard, at the foot of the dungeon, by tower of the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, is a gaping hole from a Russian bomb.
For the first time I saw a plaque with the UNESCO logo riddled with bullets.

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First published: 03/08/19.

Squiffy

Crac des Chevaliers

Crac des Chevaliers (Inscribed)

Crac des Chevaliers by Squiffy

I squeezed my way out of the tiny van. The last section of the cramped ride had been the worst, with the van straining in first gear up a seemingly never-ending hill. I was glad to escape the airless interior and stretch my legs. A cooling breeze blew up from the lowlands below, bringing the scent of dry herbs and the clonking of goat bells. And across the valley, ruddy in the evening sun, the most magnificent castle I had ever seen stood.

Of the two castles named in this inscription (Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din) I have only visited the first. I’m not sure how much I can add to the understanding of this place. Lawrence of Arabia called Crac des Chavaliers “the finest castle in the world”. I have yet to see a castle to convince me otherwise.

First, the historical basics. It’s a great spot on a tongue of land protruding from the southern end of the Jebel Ansariyya hills. Below lies the traversable Homs Gap. And across that rises the Anti-Lebanon range. A perfect spot for a chokepoint. The Crusaders seized the area at the start of the 12th century during the First Crusade. Raymond II, Count of the Crusander County of Tripoli, granted the area to the Knights Hospitaller in 1142. They then spent the next 30 years perfecting the very embodiment of a classic medieval castle. It was known as ‘Crac de l’Ospital’, after this particular order of knights …

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First published: 16/12/10.

Jarek Pokrzywnicki

Crac des Chevaliers

Crac des Chevaliers (Inscribed)

Crac des Chevaliers by Jarek Pokrzywnicki

Some practical up-to-dated additions:

I have visited also both places in October 2010. The easiest way to get to Crac is by minibus from Homs (check the latest but they should depart from main city bus station, normal place costs 50 SYP (but this counts when car is full), we paid (ad hoc group) 150 SYP each which is still not bad (around 3-4 usd). On a way back - just take any of awaitng buses - they gather just outside the main gate. If you wait for a while you should pay around normal price (50 SYP per person). The best view of the castle itself is from the nearby hill just follow the road from the main gate. There is a possibility to leave the luggage by the ticket office at the castle's entrance.

To get to Saladin's Castle: it is good to arrange a normal minibus from Lattakia (from the place close to main bus station), if you are with a group after some negotiations the driver should take you directly to the castle (price for both way should be around 1000-1200 SYP), if you are a good negotiator it may be less. Saladin's Castle (Kalat Salah ad-Din) looks to be less touristic (photo attached were taken from the upper part of fortress to the courtyard and Master Tower).

For both places there is also a possibility to arrange a taxi, prices are much bigger (but still acceptable I guess) or a package tour …

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First published: 26/07/06.

Solivagant

Crac des Chevaliers

Crac des Chevaliers (Inscribed)

Crac des Chevaliers by Solivagant

Crac des Chevaliers meets my idealised vision of “Medieval Castle” more than any other I know of. Its skyline and isolated location are incomparable and it is a worthy addition to a list which is already overfull of (often more average!) military structures.

The inscription also includes another of Syria’s many castles left over from the period of the Crusades - Qal’at Salah El-Din (Saladin’s Castle). In fact it was only given this name in 1957 to honour the sultan who conquered it in 1188 (Previously it was the “Fortress of Sayun” or “Chateau de Saône”). This perhaps highlights the tensions in how Arabs view Crusader castles – even the names are often associated with the European invaders! In fact the history of their design and use is rather more complicated. To get over the problem the ICOMOS evaluation rather piously states “The stones of these castles, which testify to the confrontation of two different conceptions, two different religious traditions, are now testimony to coexistence, exchange and interaction, a place for peace and culture, a monument for human genius”. Well – possibly/hopefully!!

We visited both castles in 1999. Crac is the better preserved and has plenty of dark rooms and corridors to explore. However to a non-specialist in military fortifications the outside views of the castle are the more impressive – though the views of the surrounding mountains from the ramparts are also very fine and emphasise its wonderful defensive location. The walls of Saladin’s Citadel spread further but there …

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