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The magnificent Crusader fortress of
Kerak - Crak des Moabites, or Le
Pierre du Desert to Crusaders -
soars above its valleys and hills
like a great ship riding waves of
rock. But Kerak's origins go back
long before the Crusaders; the
earliest remains are
Iron Age,
shortly after the Exodus, when this
was a part of Moab. It was known as
Kir-haraseth,
Kir-heres, or Kir, and its doom was
prophesied by Isaiah (16:7), who
mentions its 'raisin-cakes',
presumably a local specialty. Then
it falls out of history until the
Byzantine period, when it was
important enough to have an
archbishop.
 It was the Crusaders who made
Kerak (biblical Charach Mouba)
famous. The
fortress, located 124 km
south of
Amman, was built in 1142 by
Payen le Bouteiller, lord of
Montreal and of the province of
Oultre Jourdain, on the remains of
earlier citadels, which date back to
Nabataean times. He made Kerak the
new capital of the province, for it
was superbly situated on
the King's Highway, where it
could control all traffic from north
and south and grow rich by the
imposition of road-tolls.
There were -as there are today-
two parts of Kerak, both contained
within stout walls, but the citadel
and its fortress are separated from
the town by a deep dry moat. The
fortress is typically Crusader, with
dimly lit stone-vaulted rooms and
corridors leading into each other
through heavy arches and doorways.
The best preserved are underground,
and to be reached through a massive
door (ask at the ticket office).
 The castle in itself is more
imposing than beautiful, though it
is all the more impressive as an
example of the Crusaders'
architectural
military genius. Each
stronghold was built to be a day's
journey from its neighbor. At night,
a beacon was lit at each castle to
signal to
Jerusalem that it was safe.
As the visitor enters the modern
gate, one path leads down to the
stairs to the lower courtyard and
lower vaults, and a second path
leads to the upper level. The ruins
of the upper level are attributed to
the Crusader period, and the
staircases leading to the
underground level of the upper
courtyard provide access to Mamluk
architecture complexes, most of
which were probably associated with
a palace. Among these ruins are a
well-preserved school with an
adjoining mosque.
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