Krak des Chevaliers

Krak des Chevaliers is a Crusader-era castle in Syria's Homs Governorate, set on a 650-meter hill in the Homs Gap that commands the route between Homs and Tripoli. An earlier fort on the site, garrisoned by Kurdish troops for the Mirdasid emir Shibl al-Dawla Nasr, was established in 1031, but the castle known today took shape after the Knights Hospitaller acquired it between 1142 and 1144 and rebuilt it as a concentric fortress over the following century, eventually able to garrison about 2,000 soldiers as an administrative and military center for the County of Tripoli. The Mamluk sultan Baibars besieged the castle beginning March 3, 1271, and its garrison surrendered after 36 days, reportedly after receiving a forged letter purporting to be from the Hospitaller grand master granting permission to capitulate. UNESCO inscribed Krak des Chevaliers as a World Heritage Site in 2006, jointly with the nearby Qal'at Salah El-Din, and it has since been listed as a site in danger following damage sustained during the Syrian Civil War.