The Castle of The Knights (Crac des Chevaliers)

The Castle of The Knights (Crac des Chevaliers):
situated west Homs 60km . on a volcanic hill at 750m above sea level its not definite who built it first , what is known about it is that it was built many centuries B.C. and was called (The Kurds Citadel) in the year 1099-1110 A.D. it was occupied by Crusaders. in 1142 the Crusader Prince of Tripoli handed it over to the Knights of the hospital, until the arab Sultan Bebars conquered it with a skillful military plan in 1271. Then it was evicted from the soldiers in 1934 to become a tourist site known as the (Crac des Chevaliers) French name. (AL-Hassan) Arabic name. (The Castle of The Knights) English name.


* trip by car with my russian cousin :
the trip start spring 2008 from hama city center syria by car me and my cousin who come from russia and my brother and his friend from syria , we start 6:00AM morning from hama to homs then damascus then back to homs and from there to AL-Hosan castle after that to tartus city at sea and from there to island arwad and the castle there at 5:00 pm we back from there to homs then to hama city at 8:00 we back home , we drive by small car 206 max speed was 170km/h and u even dont need map or help the way clear and mark everywhere same with food and drink and the oil for car u can get it easy.


more photo here >>>
from the first meeting in syria Me and Edwardo

http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/32596/The-Castle-of-The-Knights-Krak-Des-Chevaliers-Crac-des-Chevaliers-3