Kerak Castle

Also known as Al-Karak, Crac des Moabites, Karak

Perched dramatically on a long Jordanian plateau south of the Dead Sea, Kerak is one of the Levant's most formidable surviving medieval fortresses. Pagan the Butler began building it in the 1140s to anchor the Lordship of Oultrejordain and tax caravans on the King's Highway between Damascus and Egypt. The notorious Raynald of Châtillon made Kerak his base for raids on Muslim pilgrimage traffic, provoking Saladin's 1183 siege — interrupted, according to legend, only so that a noble wedding inside the fortress could finish. Kerak fell in 1188 after Hattin, but its glacis, vaulted halls, and concentric walls remain remarkably intact and form the core of the modern town's old quarter.

Coordinates: 31.1811°, 35.7014°

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