 The Citadel of Damascus Damascus Citadel, locally known as “Qalaat Dimashq”. It is located in the center of the city of Damascus in Syria. The citadel is located in the northwest corner of the old walled city of Damascus, between the Bab al-Faradis and the Bab al-Jabiyah. this citadel of Damascus was built on flat ground at the same level as the rest of the city, a feature it shares with the Citadel of Bosra. The location of the citadel ensured that it could control the Barada River, which flows north of the citadel.
Today, the citadel has 12 towers. There is one tower on each corner, three in between along the north and south walls and two facing east. All towers are crowned by a double parapet equipped with machicolations and numerous arrowslits. These parapets surrounded and thereby protected the large platforms from which trebuchets were operated The curtain walls of the citadel connect the towers with each other. Given that during the design of the citadel so much emphasis was placed on the massive towers, the curtain walls are relatively short. They range between 10 metres (33 ft) in length for the curtain wall that connects the two central towers of the east wall to 43 metres (141 ft) for the curtain wall connecting the northwest corner tower with the next tower east of it.
The citadel's three gates are located on the north, east and west sides of the citadel.In the southwest corner of the courtyard, built parallel to the southern wall, is a two-story building measuring 90 by 10 metres (295 by 33 ft) and reaching a height of 16 metres (52 ft). |
