It was the Crusaders who made Al Karak (biblical Charach Mouba) famous. The fortress, located 124 km south of Amman, was built in 1152 by Payen le Bouteiller, lord of Montreal and of the province of Oultre Jourdain, on the remains of earlier citadels, which date back to Nabataean times. He made Al Karak the new capital of the province, for it was superbly situated on the King’s Highway, where it could control all traffic from north and south and grow rich by the imposition of road-tolls.
The fortress is typically Crusader, with dimly lit stone-vaulted rooms and corridors leading into each other through heavy arches and doorways. The best preserved are underground, and to be reached through a massive door.
There were -as there are today- two parts of Al Karak, both contained within stout walls, but the citadel and its fortress are separated from the town by a deep dry moat.
In Al Karak (Kerak) the castle in itself is more imposing than beautiful, though it is all the more impressive as an example of the Crusaders’ architectural military genius. Each stronghold was built to be a day’s journey from its neighbor. At night, a beacon was lit at each castle to signal to Jerusalem that it was safe..
All the inhabitants of the town of AL Karak could gather for protection within the citadel in times of danger – as they did in 1173 when the Zengid ruler Nureddin attacked the castle. His siege was unsuccessful, as were later attempts by Saladin in 1183 (when the marriage of the heir of Kerak was taking place inside, and Saladin chivalrously kept his siege-engines off the bridal tower), and again in 1184. It was not until the end of 1188, after a siege of more than a year, that Kerak finally surrendered to the Muslims.
So that we may be able to achieve the pleasures and new adventures.
