Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean was the artery of the Latin East. Ships from Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Marseille and the Sicilian ports carried pilgrims, knights, grain and bullion to the Crusader coast, and returned with spices, silks, sugar and relics. Without the sea-lane the Kingdom of Jerusalem could not have survived a single season.

The Levantine shore between the Nile delta and the mouth of the Orontes was lined with walled harbours — Jaffa, Ascalon, Caesarea, Acre, Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Jubayl, Tripoli, and St Symeon of Antioch. Acre was the greatest of them and, after 1191, the de facto capital of the kingdom.

Shipping was seasonal: the passagium ran roughly from Easter to October, with winter storms largely emptying the harbours. Two great pilgrim routes reached the coast — a northern lane from Italy via Cyprus to Acre, and a southern lane from Provence via Sicily and the Egyptian coast to Jaffa.