Muslim Fortresses in the Levant: Between Crusaders and Mongols (35 page)

Figure 1.20
, solid towers belonging to the first Ayyubid phase (1228)

before it was his turn to move into the front, thus the rate of fire could continue without interruption.

Every stage at
represents an important advance and improvement in the tower structure. The height increased and the number of floors grew. The towers projected further and were armed with a greater number of arrow slits. Arrow slits were better planned, more spacious and provided a wider angle of fire.

The first Ayyubid building phase at
in 1228,
¹⁸⁶
is somewhat similar to the first fortress built at
.
¹⁸⁷
It was relatively small, with five solid-based, towers tightly fitted into a neat rectangular frame around a central hall (
Figure 1.20
).

The second phase (1230) presents a line of important developments. While the fortress of
was to a certain degree confined to the great moat that surrounded it, at
the terrain presented fewer limitations. During the second building phase at
the fortress almost doubled in size, making the most of the terrain and stretching along the whole length of the spur. Not only the scale of the fortress changed, but the design and layout were completely different from the initial symmetrical fort perched on the highest point of the spur. The rectangular fortress that represented the first stage may now be described as a donjon, even though it was not designed as one.

The number of towers grew significantly, from five to twelve; three were built on the west and eight on the south. Towers were built only where the natural terrain did not provide sufficient protection. Along the south there were now eight towers. The northern curtain wall, which was well protected by the vertical cliff of
Govta, is completely bare of towers.

The towers were connected to one another by galleries, narrow vaulted corridors that run along the inner side of the curtain wall and are pierced with arrow slits (
Figure 1.21
).
¹⁸⁸
The fortress towers had three levels of fire, while the galleries along the curtain walls probably had two levels of fire, the lower manned by archers and roof tops by teams operating siege machines.

In contrast to
,
and
, Mount Tabor had one phase of construction. Though it was built only seventeen years earlier than
the two fortresses have very few features in common. Its twelve towers are small and sparsely scattered.
¹⁸⁹
This is a relatively small number in view of the extremely impressive circumference of the curtain wall.