What Are Crusader Castles?

The Levant is not a small geographic blip on the map, spanning thousands of kilometers north to south, and stretching hundreds of miles from the west coast of the Mediterranean, to the North Arabian Desert and Mesopotamian in the east. As such, the diverse landscapes and cultures inhibit the ability to generalize the construction of crusader castles under a single rule or theory, even during the same period of time. Crusaders came from all over the European continent, a landmass that had been heavy laden with castles and warfare for centuries. Each group of people brought forth with them different castle building techniques and styles that would be implemented and integrated into the Levant, similar circumstances to when Norman castles flooded
It is left for the historians to interpret the small scraps of information gathered throughout the years in order draw out reasonable conclusions to the events that had occurred. There is one such document existing that pertains to one of the earliest crusader castles during the first generation of castle building (1099-1114). Saphet castle or sometimes referred to as Safad castle is located in Galilee, is unusual in the world of archeology and history. It is a rare occurrence when we can learn more about a castle, a structure made of solid stone that can stand the test of time, from the documentation and written evidence. There has been difficulty determining if Saphet castle was either an existing Muslim fortification or a newly constructed Frankish one. Attempts to understand its exact appearance have been hindered by the numerous times it has been destroyed and rebuilt, often by different groups of people with unique architectural style. The crusader reincarnation of the castle in the 1240’s was replaced by a later Mamluk structure before being flatted by a nineteenth century