NIMROD FORTRESS NATIONAL PARK

Overlooking road no. 989, the ruins of Nimrod's fortress dominate the entire region. Also known as Qal'at Namrud in Arabic. It's an isolated spot, battered by the winds and offering superb views over the valley. Its name derives from the biblical character Nimrod, who, according to tradition, lived on the summit.

Built in the ^13th century by Al-Aziz Uthman, nephew of Saladin, the fortress dominated the road linking Galilee to Damascus. Its purpose was to prevent any attack from Damascus by soldiers of the Sixth Crusade. Near the west gate, inside the fortress, you can admire the most important inscription to the glory of the Mamluk Baybars ever discovered in the country: these four lines, engraved on a six-meter-long stone, glorify the sultan and military leader Baybars, under whose reign a large part of the fortress was built. The inscription also mentions other Mamluk commanders, and is dated 674 A.H. (1275 A.D.).

The fortress changed hands in 1517, after the Ottoman conquest, when the Ottomans converted it into a prison. But it was soon abandoned during the ^16th century, and used by local shepherds as a shelter. It was then largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1759, and only served as a short-lived military post in the 1920s by the French army, then by the Syrian army during the Six-Day War.