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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.
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