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Marqab Castle lies at 45 minutes (30 km) drive from Tartous via the city of Baniyas. Located at the point where the coastal plain narrows to a precarious passage between the sea and the mountains, Marqab controls the access connecting Asia Minor with the Holy Land. Taken from the Arabs by the Byzantine in 1104 but passed to the Principality of Antioch and was maintained on their behalf by a local prominent family. Sold by the family to the Knights Hospitallers in 1186, it was avoided by Saladin in his sweep up the coast in 1188 after his victory over the Crusaders in Hattin in 1187, consistent with his strategy of probing only weak points of the crusaders fortresses. Finally, the Sultan Qualaun took it in 1285.
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