The Castle
The site of Ibelin had been occupied since ancient times; the Romans called it Iamnia. The crusader castle was built in 1141 between Jaffa and Ascalon, near Montgisard and Ramla. At that time Ascalon was still controlled by Fatimid Egypt, and Egyptian armies marched out every year from Ascalon to attack the crusader kingdom. Ibelin was constructed in order to contain these attacks to a smaller area. The original castle, built by King Fulk of Jerusalem, had four towers.
Read more about this topic: Ibelin
Famous quotes containing the word castle:
“The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Let me be at the place of the castle.
Let the castle be within me.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)