Lying only 6 km south-east of the coastal town of Banyas and 500 m above sea-level Marqab castle is enormous: there are not less than fourteen square and round towers jutting from the curtain wall that encircles the hilltop to form an imposing triangular bastion. The black basalt from which it is constructed adds to the brooding menace of the fortification, its southern corner, sharper than the others and bristling with defences, has a keep rising above it like the prow of a ship.

This was one of the most impregnable Crusader castles along the entire coast and it was not until 1285 that the troops of Sultan Qalaun defeated the last of the European Knights at Marqab when the defences were undermined, propped and then brought down by firing of the props: the Hospitalier Knights were allowed to withdraw under safe conduct to Tartus and Tripoli. There is an Arabic inscription commemorating this great victory, carved on a band of white limestone at the top of the "tour de L'Eperon" under the keep.