Crusader fortresses near Netanya and the Sharon Plain

The Sharon Plain — running from the slopes south of Mount Carmel down to Jaffa — was the busiest stretch of the Crusader coastal road, the Via Maris that carried pilgrims, merchants, and armies between Acre and Jerusalem. To control it the Crusaders maintained a chain of fortified sites visible from one another along the coast and on the inland low ridges.

Modern Netanya sits on top of Umm Khalid, a small Frankish fortified manor first documented in 1135. A few kilometres south, Arsuf — ancient Apollonia — was a walled town with a small port and a substantial coastal castle that Saladin took in 1187 and Richard the Lionheart famously stormed past in 1191. Further south, Caesarea Maritima was the great Roman city refortified as a Crusader stronghold and bishop's seat. Inland on the eastern edge of the Sharon stood Qaqun (Caco / Kakun), a Templar castle on a low mound commanding the road from Caesarea inland to Megiddo. Tantura (Merle) controlled a small natural harbour halfway between Atlit and Caesarea.