Krak des Chevaliers

Description

Krak des Chevaliers is a castles in Syria, Asia. UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din gives its chronology as “UNESCO dates the Hospitaller construction phase at Krak des Chevaliers to 1142–1271, followed by Mamluk additions in the late thirteenth century.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din also records: “More than one building tradition. The surviving fortress combines Hospitaller construction with later Mamluk additions, recording successive phases of medieval military architecture.”

Krak des Chevaliers is a major medieval fortress in Syria. UNESCO dates the Hospitaller building campaigns to 1142–1271 and records further construction under the Mamluks in the late thirteenth century. Its history is therefore not exclusively European or confined to one military order. The castle is important evidence for the development of fortified architecture in the Near East during the Crusades. Successive rulers adapted defensive forms and construction methods to a strategically important stronghold. Reading those layers reveals exchange and adaptation as well as conflict. Krak forms one half of a UNESCO World Heritage property with Qal'at Salah El-Din, the Fortress of Saladin. They are separate castles: photographs, coordinates, architectural features and reconstruction evidence for one must not be attached to the other simply because they share a listing. The site must also be understood in the context of more recent conflict and conservation needs. Historic photographs are valuable evidence, but cannot alone establish the exact condition of every structure today. A model labelled Today should use current, verified evidence and retain uncertainty where the surviving fabric has not been checked.