The most complete concentric castle anywhere, held by the Knights Hospitaller for 129 years and taken in 1271 by a forged letter rather than by force.
Can you visit Krak des Chevaliers in 2026?
Yes. The castle is open daily and is on every tour operator's Syria itinerary. Entry rose to 100,000 Syrian pounds on 1 January 2026, paid in cash at the gate. Allow 90 minutes at minimum and two to three hours to do it properly. It is about an hour west of Homs and there is almost no public transport, so come by car.
There are better-known castles in Europe and none of them prepare you for this one. Krak des Chevaliers sits on a spur above the gap between the coastal mountains and the interior, and it is the most complete surviving example of the concentric castle anywhere. Not a ruin with a story attached. A building you can walk through.
It is also the easiest major Syrian site to reach and the one most likely to be on your itinerary whoever you travel with. It sits about an hour west of Homs, at the head of the Valley of the Christians, and every operator working the country includes it.
The name people use is French and recent. The site began in 1031, when the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo settled Kurdish tribesmen here to guard the route to the coast. They called it Hisn al-Akrad, the Fortress of the Kurds, and that name survives in the Arabic one still used locally, Qalaat al-Hosn.
Crusaders occupied it from 1110, and in 1142 the Count of Tripoli handed it to the Knights Hospitaller, who held it for 129 years and turned it into what you see. Earthquakes in 1170 and at the turn of the thirteenth century wrecked and then prompted the rebuilding that produced the great outer wall.
Two rings of wall, one inside the other. The outer circuit stands about nine metres high with heavily projecting round towers and machicolations. The inner wall is higher, and between the two runs a defensive gallery. You enter through a bent passage about 137 metres long that turns at right angles three times, passes four gates and a portcullis, and is lined with murder holes all the way.
The thing people remember is the glacis, an enormous sloping stone apron at the foot of the inner wall on the west and south, built against siege engines and earthquakes both. Four great round towers rise from it, and the southwestern one held the Grand Master’s rooms, with ribbed vaulting and carved capitals still in place.
Inside, the Hall of the Knights runs along the west side of the inner courtyard, its Gothic tracery dating from a remodelling in the 1230s. The chapel at the north end is three bays, 21.5 by 8.5 metres, barrel vaulted, with frescoes that have been conserved by a Syrian and Hungarian team. The Mamluks converted it into a mosque and added two mihrabs, which are still there.
At its height the castle held a garrison of around two thousand, though records from 1255 give as few as sixty brother knights among them. On the east side, where the ground is weakest, an open cistern fed by an aqueduct served as both a moat and the water supply.
Not to force. The Mamluk sultan Baybars arrived in the spring of 1271, bombarded the castle for weeks and mined the south, north and east faces with sappers brought from Aleppo. A tower on the outer ward came down at the end of March and his men took the outer bailey. The inner castle held.
So Baybars forged a letter. It purported to come from the Hospitaller leadership and it ordered the garrison to surrender. On 8 April 1271, after about five weeks, they asked for terms and were granted safe conduct to Tripoli. The castle had never been taken by assault and it never was.
Fighters used the castle as a position, and it was shelled and bombed between 2012 and 2014. A Syrian Air Force strike in July 2013 punched through a tower ceiling. The fighting ended on 20 March 2014 when government forces took the castle and the village of al-Husn below it in a single day.
A technical inspection in May 2014 recorded the damage: partial collapse of the Zahir Bybars towers, the lower stable and its eastern wall, part of the Soldiers’ Hall, vaults over the gallery to the kitchen, the stairs and two carved elements in the Hall of the Knights, and parts of the moat’s eastern wall and the bridge. The earthquake of 6 February 2023 then added fresh cracks and a partial collapse of the upper part of the Bint al-Malik tower.
Restoration has been carried out by Syria’s antiquities directorate with the St Ephrem Patriarchal Development Committee, funded partly by the Syrian government and substantially through the Hungary Helps Agency and ALIPH. A UNESCO and ICOMOS mission visited on 20 October 2025 and concluded that Krak itself is no longer subject to the threats that put it on the Danger List. Two items remain under study: the Hall of the Knights gallery and the inner courtyard staircase.
Krak was inscribed by UNESCO in 2006, not alone but jointly with Qalaat Salah El-Din near Latakia, as a single serial property. All six Syrian World Heritage sites went onto the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2013.
At the Committee’s session in Busan in July 2026, the property was retained on that list. The decision commended significant progress at Krak and found the work at Qalaat Salah El-Din insufficient in scope and method. Because the two castles are listed together, Krak cannot come off on its own. You will find pages predicting its removal in 2026. It did not happen, and the next report is due in February 2027.
A vaulted ramp about 137 metres long that turns at right angles three times, passes four gates and a portcullis, and is lined the whole way with murder holes. Designed so that nobody could charge it.
The vast sloping stone apron at the foot of the inner wall, built against siege engines and earthquakes. Four great round towers rise from it, including the one that held the Grand Master.
A Gothic hall along the west side of the inner courtyard, its tracery dating from a remodelling in the 1230s. The most European-looking room in Syria.
Three bays, barrel vaulted, 21.5 by 8.5 metres. Converted into a mosque by the Mamluks after 1271, with two mihrabs added. Its frescoes have been conserved by a Syrian and Hungarian team.
On the eastern side an open cistern fed by an aqueduct worked as both a moat and the castle's water supply, which is how a garrison of two thousand could sit out a siege.
The whole point of the site. From the top you look down the Homs Gap towards the sea on one side and across the Valley of the Christians on the other, and the castle's position explains itself.
The Mirdasid emir of Aleppo settles Kurdish tribesmen on the spur to guard the route to the coast. The Fortress of the Kurds gives the site its Arabic name.
After a brief occupation in 1099, permanent Crusader control begins under Tancred of Galilee.
Raymond II of Tripoli grants the castle to the Knights Hospitaller, who hold it for the next 129 years and rebuild it entirely.
A major earthquake damages the castle and destroys the chapel, which is rebuilt.
After further earthquakes the Hospitallers build the outer ring, the glacis and the great round towers, producing the fortress that survives.
After about five weeks of siege and mining, a forged letter ordering surrender persuades the garrison to accept terms. They march out to Tripoli.
The Mamluks reface the battered southern wall and convert the chapel into a mosque. Under the Ottomans the castle houses a janissary company and a tax district.
About 500 villagers living inside are moved out and compensated, and a restoration programme runs under the French Mandate. Chapel frescoes are found in 1935.
Used as a fighting position, shelled and bombed. Government forces take the castle and the village of al-Husn on 20 March 2014.
A joint World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS mission visits and concludes that Krak is no longer subject to the threats that placed it on the Danger List.
There is no airport nearby. Most visitors reach the castle by road from Homs, about an hour, or from Tartus on the coast, about forty-five minutes.
Latest on routes and airlines →Land crossings from neighbouring countries are widely used. Border conditions change, so check status close to your travel date.
Plan your trip →Requirements vary by nationality. Since January 2025 most Western passports collect a visa on arrival, paid in cash US dollars. Check the current position before booking anything non-refundable.
Common questions →Restored historic homes inside the old walls
Modern amenities, walkable to the main sights
Simple, affordable, and close to everything
A Greek Orthodox monastery at al-Mishtaya, founded in the Byzantine period and still receiving pilgrims.
The reopened Ottoman covered market and the Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque, a short morning.
The Crusader cathedral at Tartus and a boat out to Syria's only inhabited island.
The white keep of a smaller Templar castle, standing in the middle of a living town.
Photographs are being added.
34.7569° N, 36.2944° E
Western Syria, on a spur commanding the Homs Gap, about 60 km west of Homs and 30 km inland from Tartus.
Open in mapYes, daily, and it is on every tour operator's Syria itinerary. Entry rose to 100,000 Syrian pounds on 1 January 2026, up from 25,000, paid in cash at the gate. Published opening hours differ between sources, so confirm locally or let your guide handle it.
By car. It is roughly 60 km west of Homs and about 30 km from Tartus, at the head of the Valley of the Christians. Public transport is patchy and there are checkpoints on the route, so most visitors come by private car, taxi or on a tour. There is parking at the site.
Ninety minutes is the minimum and two to three hours is comfortable. Surfaces are uneven, there are a lot of steps, and some high edges are unfenced. Sensible shoes matter more here than anywhere else in Syria.
Yes. It was shelled and bombed between 2012 and 2014 while in use as a fighting position, with partial collapses of two towers, damage to the stable, the Soldiers' Hall and the Hall of the Knights stairs, and further cracking from the 2023 earthquake. Most of that has been repaired, and a UNESCO mission in October 2025 found the castle no longer subject to the threats that put it on the Danger List.
Yes, as of the Committee session in July 2026. It is listed jointly with Qalaat Salah El-Din near Latakia as one serial property, and while the Committee commended the progress at Krak it found the work at the other castle insufficient. Neither can be removed separately. The next report is due in February 2027.
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