Krak Des Chevaliers Castle, Syria

Krak Des Chevaliers is a medieval castle located on top of a 650-meter-high hill at Qal'at al-Hisn 65 kilometres of the city of Homs in Syria, close to the border of Lebanon. The castle was built by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem from 1142 to 1271 on the site of an earlier Muslim stronghold.



In the 12th and 13th century the castle served as a part of the defensive network along the border of the Crusader states and besides that also controlled the road to the Mediterranean. In 1271 was Krak Des Chevaliers captured by Baibars, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria who refortified it and used it as a base against Tripoli. For being one the best-preserved examples of the Crusade castles was Krak des Chevaliers in 2006 along with the Qal’at Salah El-Din (Saladin's Castle) also inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage sites.