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can still be seen today. The castle passed to the ruler of Aleppo and Damascus, who promptly began restoration of the north-eastern tower.

However, the work was halted by an invasion, this time from the east. Mongol warriors captured and destroyed the castle, but were almost immediately repulsed by the Mameluke general, Sultan Baybars.

The Mamelukes were originally Egyptian slaves of the Turks, but grew into an influential military power; indeed , they held the sultanate of the Holy Land from 1250 till 1517, retaining considerable powers afterwards, until overthrown by the Ottomans.

Under Mameluke rule, the castle was rebuilt in the form we see today. It was, in addition to defence of the trade routes, used as a storehouse for crops and provisions.
And, it also became part of a network of signalling stations and pigeon posts maybe the reason for the pigeon reliefs in the bridge over the moat that, it was said, could transmit a message from Damascus to Cairo in only 12 hours.

In the 16th Century, the Mamelukes were replaced by the Ottoman Empire. Founded in Turkey in the early 14th Century, the Empire spread outwards till, at the height of its power, it encompassed the Mediterranean Sea from the western border of Algeria right around to the frontier of Austria. It did not completely disappear till 1922, although the Ottomans had been driven from the Holy Land by the British in World War I.

The fort at Ajloun was occupied by a garrison of 50 Ottoman soldiers many of whom would have been Christians, recruited from the Empire's Balkan provinces.

Despite the long Ottoman occupation, things were by no means peaceful. Prince Fakhr ad-Din al Mani II used the castle in his battle with Ahmed ibn Taraby in the 17th Century.

But, when the Swiss explorer J.L.Burkhardt, the discoverer for the western world of the Egyptian temple of Abu Simbel, and the Jordanian rock city of Petra, arrived at Ajloun, he found the place peacefully occupied by 40 members of the same family.

Earthquakes in 1837 and 1927 damaged the castle, but the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, to whom the stewardship has passed, restored the walls and the bridge to the condition we see today.

Like all good castles, Ajloun stands on top of a hill, and can be seen for miles around. That's also an indicator of a good view, on a clear day. From the castle walls, you can see the Jordan valley, and the northern highlands the jury is still out on whether or not you can see the Dead Sea, for, on the occasion of our visit,

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