Historical Builder › Castles › Krak des Chevaliers
How Long Did It Take to Build Krak des Chevaliers?
Short answer: about 129 years, from 1142 to 1271.
The mighty Krak is said to have surrendered in 1271 because of a forged letter telling the garrison to give up.
What the sources say about the building period
Built by the Hospitallers 1142–1271; further Mamluk construction in the late 13th century. UNESCO text via Smarthistory Secondary source
Stone and crew in numbers
- Country and type
- Syria, castle
- Stone in the walls
- 55,000 to 95,000 m³ Estimate
- For comparison
- about 30 Olympic pools of stone, or 7,500 truckloads
- Average crew
- about 70 workers (model value: the crew that would need exactly this long, working without a break)
Volume basis: 2.5 ha site; outer wall 3 m thick; towers 8–10 m thick. Checked against measurements. Our estimates come from published dimensions and are shown as a range. The result is a simple model, not a measured fact.
Where the stone came from
Limestone, probably with basalt, gathered from quarries near the castle. We found no excavation report naming the quarries. Wikipedia: Krak des Chevaliers, History Skills: Krak des Chevaliers Secondary, provisional
Plan
Legend: tradition, not evidence
Krak did not fall to force but to a forged letter that told the garrison to surrender.
What we know: Mamluk troops first stormed the outer ward. Two Muslim chroniclers report the forged letter. Accounts disagree on whose name it carried: the Grand Master of the Hospitallers or the Count of Tripoli.
HistoryNet, French Ministry of Culture: siege of 1271 Reported by chroniclers
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