"Crusader Military engineering: The Templar Fortress..." Topic

…of Tartous

"Although largely famous today for its role as a Templar fortress during the time of the Crusades, the site had been equally renowned in antiquity for its strategic and military importance. Tartous was originally founded by the Phoenicians to complement the more secure but the less accessible settlement on the island of Arwad. For a long time it served a secondary role to Arwad, itself a major centre in Seleucid and Roman times. As a matter fact its classical name of Ataradus (meaning ‘anti-Aradus' or ‘the town facing Aradus' or Arwad) reflected this secondary role.

Tartous underwent a major programme of rebuilding in 346 under the Byzantine Emperor Constantine, probably because it housed an important ancient shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was for a while consequently renamed Constantia, although it soon reverted to its ancient name or Tartous. It is under this name – or its Latinized form of Tortosa- that it became famous in Crusader times as one of the main Frankish littoral settlements in Syria, perhaps more importantly as the headquarters of the Templar knights. These warrior monks, known simply as Templars, were a religious military order of knighthood which came into being in the early decades of the twelfth century and rapidly grew into a powerful military force playing a major role in the defence of the Christian conquests in the Latin East and the protection of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. In Christian hands the fortress was a very important and strategic outpost located close to the ‘Gate of Homs' (in Arabic Nahr el-Kebir) a large gap in the formidable mountain ranges that stand behind the coastal strip and which allowed access to the valley of the Orontes River and to important towns of Homs and Hama. For this reason Tortosa was not only an important military foothold on the shores of sea but also a useful commercial centre especially for Genoese and Venetian merchants…"

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