Belvoir - The castle

The Belvoir castle, which covers an area of 100m/110yds by 140m/155yds, is surrounded on three sides by a moat 25m/80ft wide and up to 12m/40ft deep. The outer walls, in the form of a pentagon, are reinforced by seven towers, four at the corners and one in the middle of three of the sides. The east side, where the hill falls steeply down to the Jordan valley, was protected by a large projecting tower, which was destroyed in the last siege of the castle. The castle walls enclose a fortress within a fortress. The square inner stronghold, measuring 40m/130ft each way, could still hold out even if the outer works were taken (though this situation never actually arose). On the ground floor of this inner castle were store-rooms, the kitchen and a dining room. The inner courtyard is thought to have been roofed over.

The main entrance to the castle was in the tower at the southeast corner of the complex. On the west side there was an entrance approached over a drawbridge (now replaced by a footbridge).