T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 144

(Kaukab el Hawa (...) ) built about 1180, taken from the Latins in 1188 and rebuilt since and Tiberias, restored and rebuilt most frequently, till the last century. The great castle at Banias (Subeibeh) stands on a different plane from the others and must be considered with the rest of the Hospitaller fortresses. Of the others Toron and Tiberias are both hopeless, since the present buildings are not even on the foundations of the old. The first salient feature of all these fortresses, however, is their very close imitation of Byzantine models. Hunin (46) and Belvoir (47) with their broad, though shallow rock moats, and their very flat rectangular curtain towers, are quite unlike any work of the period in Europe. They are rather fore-runners of the later buildings of the Order of the Temple. It is quite reasonable to suppose that all the original masonry has been replaced at one time or other: but things that can never be destroyed are the rock-moats, and only the little depth that these possess proves them to have been by other hands than the Greeks. (1) The plans show practically everything that can be traced above ground, but this, though Greek in style, is all the more likely to be the work of Balbars. -------------------------------- (1) At Belvoir Rey declares that there are traces of a square keep inside the ditch and wall, and this of course if true would be somewhat puzzling: neither Mr. Pirie-Gordon nor myself however could find the slightest trace of its existence. Rey was probably deceived by the wall of some Arab house.