T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 84

keep : and like it was usually on the wall of the building, and at one end : only while the Frank donjon was usually put in the strongest defensive position, the Byzantine one was some- times put in the weakest. The more common position, however, was just as in the West, though of course nothing so defence- less as the Norman keep was employed. ( ?Pln. 14. ) The gates of their castles were the chief concern of the Byzantine architects. They had no appreciation of the port- cullis or herse : and so their gates are more complicated than the Latin ones : also the Arabs seem to have attacked, to some extent, the gates in particular. At any rate they were made extremely narrow (quite a large one is only 4 feet wide at one point) and whenever possible were flanked by towers at the sides. Sometimes they were set in towers, and defended by being forced around at right angles in a trap as at Ain Tounga. ( Pln. 15 ) At Mdacurouch ( Plan. 16 . ) they were of a different form : the double gate here may have been intended to surprise a small attacking party. A force might be hidden in the side chambers, and overlooked by a party battering the inner gate but more probably it was only for the convenience of guards in the time of peace. It could be arranged that one gate (i) Diehl, p. 159.