BEUFORT CASTLE

Impregnable Beufort, Betrayed

Of the dozen-odd Crusander castles in Lebanon none can compare in size, scenic grandeur, or close connection with Lebanese histroy down to modern times, with isolated Beufort, perched on its cliff a thousand feet above the rushing Litani.

It is a pity that Beufort's historic significanse to Lebanon was so great, for the castle's continued importance down to the 17th Century brought about its systematic destruction at the hands of an expert wrecking and demolition crew in the year 1615.

What we see today is not so much a picturesque medieval ruin as a cast rock pile obscuring broken towers and battlements - a perfectly defensless mass of buildings, mostly underground, scientifically destroyed by gunpower and wrecking bars over a period of 40 days by Turkish Pasha of Damascus.

This was end of an impregnable fortress, a castle too strong to be taken by force of arms, a stronghold betrayed by its Turkomen mercenary defenders for Turkish gold, a nail in the coffin of Lebanon's Prince Fakhreddin II el-Maani, in whose hands it had formed the key to the defences of his supra-national Maanid principality of Lebanon, Western Syria, Galilee and western Palestine.

This text is from Bruce Condès "See Lebanon - Over 100 Selected Trips, With History and Pictures". Harab Bijjani Press, Beirut, Lebanon 1960