T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 212

interesting to note the generosity of the architect, in pro- viding four entrances for a tower 46 feet square. They are on the first-floor level. With Provins may be compared a little tower in Syria (...) one of the links in the chain of defences that bound together Tripoli and its seaport ( El Mina. ... It is almost the only attempt at variation on the square tower plan still surviving in the East: one can only conclude that the Latins were unfavourable to fancy designs. The keep of Etampes (...) is perhaps the most astonishing production of the late twelfth century. The square tower had been found wanting, and so the imagination of its architect conceived the idea of a quatre-foil tower which should be equally commodious, and a little less helpless before an at- tack. He kept the massive base of the Norman keep, and the entrance high in the air, but above that the shallow pro- jection of the leaves was turned to account most ingeniously inside and out. When the tower stood complete (...) with its hourdage of oak, not far short of 100 feet in height, it must have been no mean fortress: though it was commanded rather badly from the hill-side at the back. With Niort and Provins it will show the extraordinary life and vigour in the military architecture of the lat(er twelfth century, an age which had outgrown the keep and was casting about for something more efficient to fulfil its purpose.