T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 124

this very small square of walls however is a Latin keep, of very considerable dimensions, and most solidly built. It fills up nearly all the space with the containing wall and therefore to this extent looks like an after thought. Further the entrance to the keep is on the first floor, which proves that some building in front was understood when the keep was planned. There is now a kind of terrace on the Western side of the keep, but not enough of it is visible to determine exactly whether it is the original arrangement or not. ... Otherwise the keep is not unlike Saone. The battlements are (or were) similar and the scheme of vaulting also corresponds. The stairs up are straight, but begin in the open air on the terrace. The plan ( ... ... ) will give all these features better than any description. The gate ( ... ... ) is interesting, from the close resemblance between it and the Northern gate of Tortosa, in the placing of the machicoulis. ... Those of the latter sort in this gate are comparable with those of Tortosa. Otherwise one can make nothing of it, and the fore-works beyond are amazing in their inefficiency: probably they are an addition of Arab times, and date from the period when the moat was -------------------------------------------------- (1) The rest is now filled with a warren of Arab huts, lived in by Arabs most squalid, and yet most suspicious. They refused to let me examine the keep at all closely. (2) "Machicoulis" are always used in two senses, the stone substitute for boards, on a wall top, and the square traps pierced in the floor of the room above an entry.