English
ajlun castle
jordan tours - route map
Here you will find the Castle of Ajloun or Qalaat Errabadh (Arabic for "Hilltop
Castle"), from which there is a splendid view westwards into the Jordan Valley.
It looks like a Crusader fortress, but it was built by Muslims in 1184-85 as a
military fort and buffer to protect the region from invading Crusader forces. It
was built on the orders of the local governor, Ezz Eddin Osama bin Munqethe, a
nephew of the Ayyubid leader Salahuddin Al-Ayyoubi (Saladin), as a direct retort
to the new Latin castle of Belvoir (Kawkab El-Hawa) on the opposite side of the
valley between the Tiberias and Besan, and as a base to develop and control the
iron mines of Ajloun. This superb example of Arab and Islamic architecture was
built as a rectangle with four square towers and an entrance on the southern
side dominating a wide stretch of the north Jordan Valley and passages to it.
From its hilltop position, the Castle of Ajloun protected the communication
routes between south Jordan and Syria, and was one of a chain of forts, which
lit beacons at night to pass signals from the Euphrates as far as Cairo. Two
years after it was completed the fortress's original purpose had already been
outlived, for Salahuddin defeated the Crusaders at the battle of the Horns of
Hattin in 1187, which marked the beginning of the end of their occupation of the
Holy Land.