Nimrod fortress from lower Banias
Riva and I visited Nimrod Fortress―known in Arabic as Qal'at al-Subeiba (Castle of the Large Cliff) and later as Qal'at Namrud (Nimrod's Castle)―on a hot August day, yet the temperature there―on its ridge rising about 760 metres above sea level―was a comfortable 25 degrees Celcius with a cool breeze, some 12 degrees cooler than in the Hula valley below. Nimrod is a medieval Ayyubid castle situated on the southern slopes of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights. Surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides, it was built―according to the historian of the ruler of Damascus at that time―by Al-Aziz Uthman, son of a nephew of Salah a-Din (Saladin), after he assumed control of the region in 1218-1232. The fortress was built hastily―with the purpose of guarding the main access route to Damascus―since in 1227 the army of the German Kaiser, Friedrich II, arrived in the Holy Land and renewed the Crusader threat over the Ayyubids. The location of the fortress was given a lot of thought, with the aim of setting it on one of the most strategic points on the road leading from the Hula Valley and the slopes of the Golan in the direction of Damascus. Due to pressure of time, an economical method of building was used enabling construction within only three years between 1227 and 1230 CE. At first a small fortress―the Dunjon or keep―was built on the eastern, higher part of the slope, and subsequently the castle was expanded and built also on the western part, covering the whole ridge by 1230. The inscription above the Gate at the western end of the ridge reads:
In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Has ordered the construction of this divinely protected frontier fortress, the sinning erring servant, the needy of Allāh’s mercy, al-Malik al-Aziz Uthman son of our lord the great Sultan al-Malik al-Adil, the scholar, the doer of good deeds, the warrior in the holy war, the fighter on the border, the raider, the martyr, Abu Bakr b. Ayyub, may Allāh shelter him with his grace. The beginning [of the building] of this felicitous tower was in the fourth month Al-Awwal in 627 (February-March 1230). Its building was supervised by the servant, the needy for Allāh’s mercy, Abu Bakr b. Nasrallah b. Abu Suraqah (?) al-Hamdani al-Azizi.
View of the Donjon or keep―the first part of the fortress to be built―from the Southwestern Tower, looking east along the southern wall of the fortress. The tower in the mid-ground is the so-called 'Beautiful Tower,' built by Baybars, a masterpiece of military architecture and quality masonry
In addition to Nimrod Castle, new fortresses were also built in this period at Ba'al Bek in the Lebanon Valley, at Batsra in the Bashan region, and at Ajlun in Gil'ad. In 1253 CE the Crusader forces, commanded by Louis IX, King of France, made a failed attempt to conquer the Banias, together with Nimrod Castle. Ayyubid control came to an end in 1260 CE, when the Mongols conquered the region, capturing the castle, dismantling some of its defences, and leaving their ally, the son of Al-Aziz 'Uthman, in charge of it and nearby Banias. But the Mongols’ rule did not last long: in the same year, their rule came to an end at the decisive En Jalud battle (at En Harod), in which the Mameluk general, Sultan Baybars (Sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars ibn ʿAbd Allāh alṢāliḥī al-Bunduqdārī), overpowered them and routed them from the entire region.
Up to his death in 1277, Baybars expanded his kingdom while destroying the coastal cities and renovating the fortresses inside the country, including Nimrod Castle. In this period Nimrod Castle was renovated and expanded and rebuilt with first rate building materials and impressive architecture. Baybars transferred control of the entire area, including the fortress, to his loyal second-in-command, Bīlīk, who―as governor―continued with the renovation of the fortress and added more towers. Bīlīk memorialised his work in the largest and most imposing inscription ever found in Israel to date. Four lines, engraved on a stone six meters long, glorify Sultan Baybars, with the date inscribed as 674 after the Hegira (1275 CE).
The Baybars inscription (left, detail right). It was apparently placed on the front of the second storey of the Northwestern Tower (from which it collapsed and was lost for centuries), where the palace of Bīlīk is thought to have been located.
The Baybars inscription―which was apparently placed on the front of the second storey (from which it collapsed and was lost for centuries), where the palace of Bilik is thought to have been located―is immensely superlative in its praise of Baybars, reading (line by line):
In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This blessed tower was renewed by the grace of our lord, the Sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, the most splendid master, the scholar, the just, the fighter of the holy war, the warrior on the border, the heavenly assisted, the victorious, Rukn al-Dunyā wa’l-Dīn,
sultan of Islam and of the Muslims, killer of rebellious deviators, renewer of justice in the whole world, Abū ‘l-Fath Baybars al-Ṣāliḥī, the partner of the Commander of the Faithful. Ordered its work, our lord, the honourable sir, the lord, the great officer, al-Ẓāhir al-Ṣa’īd, the most glorious,
the most felicitous, lofty, the well served, al-Badrī Badr al-Dunyā wa’l-Dīn, the splendour of Islam and the Muslims, leader of the armies of the monotheists, king of the commanders in the whole world, Bīlīk, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir al-Ṣa’īd, may Allāh perpetuate his days. This was during the governorship of the great commander Badr
al-Dīn Baktūt, and under the command of the great commander ‘Alam al-Dīn Sanjar al-Mujāhidī, and under the supervision of the master ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-muhandis, and with the authorisation of ‘Abd al-Wahhāb al-mi‘mār. This was on the date of the twentieth [?] of Muharram of the year 674 (17? July 1275). This inscription was according to the design of Yūsuf.
After the death of Baybars, his son arranged for Bīlīk to be murdered, apparently because he feared his power. Thus, by the end of the 13th century, following the Muslim conquest of the port city of Akko (Acre) and the end of Crusader rule in the Holy Land, the fortress lost its strategic value and fell into disrepair. The Ottoman Turks conquered the land in 1517 and used the fortress as a luxury prison for Ottoman nobles. The fortress was abandoned later in the 16th century to shepherds and their flocks, and was further ruined by an earthquake, in October 1759, which affected the entire region, severely damaging the cities of Tzfat (Safed) and Ba'al Bek. Despite the force of the earthquake, the majority of the castle's towers did not suffer any serious damage, but the castle was abandoned until modern times. It was the Druze, who came to the region in the 1860s, who popularised its name as Nimrod's Castle, because of the Arab legends which attributed the fortress to Nimrod, the ‘mighty hunter’ of the Bible, who would sit on the ridge and stretch his hand out to grab the pure waters of Banias, located six kilometres away. For his acts of pride, he was imprisoned in the castle of his own making.
In the 1920s, the French army used Nimrod Castle while suppressing the Arab and the Druze revolts. In this period the French placed a battery of cannon at the Castle, and for that purpose they broke a hole in the western wall that serves as a visitor entrance to the castle today. During the Six Day War in 1967, the castle was used by the Syrians as an artillery observation point, receiving damage as a result from Israeli planes. However since then there have been no further battles in the region, and the fortress have been renovated and studied. It was during this time that the ancient Arabic inscriptions were rediscovered, shedding light on the fortress’ history.
Nimrod from the western end of the ridge, where the modern access road ends. The breach in the wall between the Western (left) and Southwestern (right) Towers was created by the French when they placed a battery of cannon in the castle in the 1920s
The walled fortress complex is 420 metres long and 150 metres wide, built of large ashlars. Along the walls are twenty-one rectangular and semi-circular vaulted towers. Overlooking the high, eastern edge of the fortress stood a large keep, measuring 65 by 45 metres, protected by massive rectangular towers. The fortress overlooks the deep, narrow valley that separates Mount Hermon from the rest of the Golan Heights. Today the site is administered by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Enjoy the pictures below, whose captions can be found by hovering or clicking your cursor over them.
The original gate, the Northwestern Tower and postern:
The southern wall of the fortress, the reservoir, and the 'Beautiful Tower':
The Donjon or keep―the first part of the fortress to be built―is an independently-fortified building, square in plan with four corner towers, halls and a water cistern; troops could retreat there if the rest of the fortress were over-run:
