Marqab Castle

We (my language institute) visited Qal’at Marqab – or Margat Castle, as the Crusaders knew it – in early July on a daytrip out of Damascus. Like most of the Latin castles in the Levant, Marqab was built to protect the coastal route from Asia Minor to the Holy Land. It was also built just above the ancient Phoenician town of Baniyas (founded by Arwad near Tartus and mentioned in Strabo’s geography), known to the Latins as Valenie. Indeed, the castle is only a mile or two from the Mediterranean Sea, but in an extremely dominant position up on an extinct volcanic peak. Margat is one of the top three castles to visit in Syria, including Le Krak des Chevaliers and Saone (Qal’at Salah-ad-Din), and one of the largest.

It would appear that a local Arab chieften was the first to build on this site in 1062, although probably only a fort and certainly nothing at all like we see today. The Crusaders swept through on their way to Jerusalem in 1098, but Baniyas and the castle site reverted to the Arabs and then to the Byzantines before eventually falling under the authority of the Prince of Antioch in 1117. He, in turn, enfiefed Marqab to the Mansoer family, who held it until 1186, when they sold it to the Knights Hospitaller. Saladin passed through in 1188, but bypassed Marqab as he was probing for weak points in the Latin defences. Even so, the Hospitaller building program – creating what we see today – lasted from roughly 1186-1203. As T.E. Lawrence noted in his thesis “The Impact of the Crusades on European Architecture,” while the rival Knights Templar were inspired in their building campaigns by traditional Byzantine military architecture, the Knights Hospitaller employed innovative and even experimental French concepts only just being explored back in the Latin West. Thus he calls Margat “the best of the Latin fortifications of the Middle Ages in the East.”

The Hospitallers resisted several attacks in the next century, but eventually succumbed to the Mameluke Sultan Qalaun on 17 April 1285. Once again, the Latins simply did not have the manpower to resist. Thus Qalaun’s massive army utilized sappers to dig a mine and collapse the enormous south tower, precipitating the Hospitaller surrender. Qalaun rebuilt the south tower (note the white-on-black scheme, plus an Arabic inscription), and Margat was utilized as a Mameluke fortress until the 15th century.

Today, the authorities are renovating the castle, so it is in an in-between stage and one can hope that the future will be brighter. Qal’at Marqab is still most impressive from near and far, but outside of the southern battlements, the area is overgrown with undergrowth and inhabited by snakes and other varmints. Below the castle near to Baniyas is a tower associated with the castle called Burj as-Sabi. Baniyas itself is a nice enough coastal town with nice seaside cafes. The medieval ruins mentioned by 19th century travelers, however, no longer exist.

[P.S. -- I am still working on the photo issue; hopefully I will be successful at one of these Internet cafes...]