Of all the castles constructed by Western Europeans during the Middle Ages, none have caught the public imagination so much as Crusader castles. These structures, ranging from the very simple to the huge and elaborate, also encompass almost all aspects of Western European military architecture during the golden age of castle building from the 12th to the 13th centuries. This first volume in a series of three will focus on 12th century castles in the regions now known as Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and south-eastern Turkey. Later volumes will focus on 13th century castles in Greece, Cyprus and the Aegean.