Travel Guide Massyaf

Massyaf Castle, the heart of a small town as hot as Brittany, deserves special attention. It is located at the foot of Jebel Ansarié in the extension of the Ghab plain, 35 km from Machta al-Helou. His fame owes it to his occupants, ismaili, a sect persecuted by Orthodox Sunni regimes in the th century, also called «Killers».The famous «Old of the mountain», Sinan, made Massyaf the lair from where he sent his Killers to «suicide commandos», after the crusaders temporarily occupied him (1103-1140) (see box «Les Assassins, the sect that invented terrorism»). The site's location appears to have served very early for defensive purposes. Moreover, the fortress uses material to reuse the seleucid, Roman and Arabic periods. In 1176, Saladin championed Sunni orthodoxy and attacked the castle, but suddenly abandoned his company when he felt that the threat of a deadly vengeance was ready to fall on him. Massyaf was part of a network of fortresses in the hands of ismaili. Qadmous, Qal Allaiqa, Khariba, Hadid, Al-Khaf defined the territory of the sect of the Assassins, a 25 km-long quadrilateral in the heart of Jebel Ansarié.After three years of struggle, the Mameluk end up subjecting the Killers in 1273, who became a minority among others. The followers seek refuge in the mountains; In the th century, many of them settled around the town of Salamiyé in the steppe.