They arrived to the citadel in the late afternoon. It stood in a perfect location, on a hill about 200 feet above the road leading to the east. The citadel was made of stone with ten foot thick and forty foot high walls. It covered about 16,000 feet of the summit of the hill with a 360 degree view of the area below. The place was empty but for a few nuns that tended the small church less than half a mile to the northwest. The Count didn’t allow any rest
A bird's eye view of the Citadel. It is located above the ancient town of Sepphoris, the Capital of the Galilee during Roman occupation of the Judean province. Notice the church off St. Ann and St. Yoachim on the far right of the photo.
The Count knew almost nothing about the area except that he had been to the small church nearby. At least he would die in the presence of the divine. The Mamluk scout had shared with the Count that this fortress served as the departure point to the Battle of Hattin. It was 41 years ago that Guy De Lusignan and many of his fellow Templar knights went to their last battle against Saladin. They were all killed. Those who survived the battle were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam.(Author's note - The ancient town of Nazareth would be on the upper left hand of the photo.)
It was noon. Grey skies warned of rain and filled the air with the sweet scent of moisture. Miriam Ben Yair and Jack McLeod stood together at the bottom of a hill on the banks of a river known as Kziv. It was one of the few rivers in Israel that flowed year round. Above them on a precipitous rock crest were the ruins of what had once been the splendid Montfort Crusader’s Castle. Built in the early 12th century but destroyed by Saladin following the battle of Hittin, it was recaptured five years later and restored in 1220 AD only to be sold to the order of the Teutonic Knights. With the sale it had lost the name Montfort Castle and been renamed by the Germans “Starkenberg,” the strong mountain.
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