Burj Zara, a Crusader Tower near Talkalakh

Burj Zara is a small Crusader tower in the village of al-Zarah, west of Homs and north of Talkalakh. Its plan is a square with 11 m sides. It was probably built in the first half of the 12th century, on the platform of a small ancient temple. Forteresses d’Orient, a French survey of Crusader fortifications, visited it between 2006 and 2008 and described it as one of the best preserved towers in the region. Its condition since then has not been documented.

Where it is

Al-Zarah is a village in Talkalakh District; the district town of Talkalakh lies to its south and al-Husn to its northeast. The village had 4336 inhabitants in the 2004 census. The tower stands less than 20 km southeast of Chastel Blanc at Safita, on a hill covered in olive trees, and barely rises above the green. There are no published exact coordinates, so you need to ask for it in the village by its Arabic name. The Lebanese border is close.

What the tower was for

Burj Zara is one of the isolated towers the Franks built in the fertile valleys of the Homs Gap. These towers displayed the power of small lordships and served as points of passive defence against raids. Its fate was tied to the castles that defended the County of Tripoli: Krak des Chevaliers, Safita, Arima, Arqa and Tartus. Neither Latin nor Arab chroniclers ever mention it.

What to see

The building is almost entirely basalt. The outer corners and the edges of the door and arrow slits are dressed white limestone, probably reused from the temple beneath. Remains of the temple break the surface here and there around it. Two building phases can be told apart: the lower level is rough and irregular, while the first floor uses smaller, regular, carefully cut stones. The difference may come from repairs after fighting or an earthquake.

A single door leads inside. A small box machicolation, worked from the upper floor, protected it. Today the door opens halfway up the partly broken barrel vault of the ground floor, and directly opposite, just under the top of the vault, is a small light opening. A staircase set into the thickness of the wall turns at a right angle and climbs to the first floor. The groin vault of that floor has collapsed, but its springers survive in all four corners. The arrow slits were arranged in pairs; the ones still in place are on the north wall, and traces can be made out on the east and west walls. The south wall is the most ruined.

How long it takes

Half an hour. That is enough to walk round the outside, compare the two phases of masonry and look at the vault on the ground floor. There is no information on visiting arrangements or entry; the tower stands in open country.

Do not miss

The paired arrow slits on the north wall. Some summaries say only the north wall of the tower still stands; the 2006 description says the walls survive up to roof level, and what remains in place on the north wall is its arrow slits. Despite the Krak des Chevaliers being close by, the only building visible from the tower was the Templar keep at Safita.