This site is a historical landmark associated with Margat Castle. It was constructed as a watchtower during the Crusades and dates back to the 11th century AD. Built roughly two centuries after the original fortress, the tower served to reinforce the castle’s defenses, protect the adjacent coastline, and safeguard its small harbor.<\/p>\n
There are two legends surrounding the tower\u2019s name. The first claims that the son of a coastal king, seeking to imitate Margat Castle\u2014then under his father\u2019s rule\u2014built this tower, which was subsequently named after him as \u201cthe Boy.\u201d The second legend suggests that the name symbolizes Margat as the \u201cmother\u201d and the tower as her \u201cson\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the 1990s, the Tartus Department of Antiquities undertook restoration work to repair two major breaches in its walls. Further renovation followed in 2001, including the restoration of its northern and eastern fa\u00e7ades, repair of its arches and roof, and the installation of lightning rods. The tower was attacked and occupied by French forces in 1920. After Syria gained independence, the site became part of the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This site is a historical landmark associated with Margat Castle. It was constructed as a watchtower during the Crusades and dates back to the 11th century AD. Built roughly two centuries after the original fortress, the tower served to reinforce the castle’s defenses, protect the adjacent coastline, and safeguard its small harbor. There are two legends surrounding the tower\u2019s name. The first claims that the son of a coastal king, seeking to imitate Margat Castle\u2014then under his father\u2019s rule\u2014built this tower, which was subsequently named after him as \u201cthe Boy.\u201d The second legend suggests that the name symbolizes Margat as the \u201cmother\u201d and the tower as her \u201cson\u201d. In the 1990s, the Tartus Department of Antiquities undertook restoration work to repair two major breaches in its walls. Further renovation followed in 2001, including the restoration of its northern and eastern fa\u00e7ades, repair of its arches and roof, and the installation of lightning rods. The tower was attacked and occupied by French forces in 1920. After Syria gained independence, the site became part of the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[296,294],"tags":[243],"class_list":["post-3597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-castles-tartus","category-tartus","tag-preserved-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syrian-treasures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}