Let me tell you a tale about our escape from a Crusaders castle in Jordan.
It all started when Renee and I spent a week adventuring through Jordan. We spent two days exploring the city of Petra. Then we were lucky enough to stop at the Crusaders Castle of Shobak, on our way to Wadi Rum.
This castle sits on top of a hill in a very remote location mainly desert, rolling hills with some caves here and there. You might see a Bedouin shepherd (the Bedouin is a grouping of nomadic Arab peoples who live in the desert) with his sheep and goats walking through the hills.
As we walked up the hill to the ruins of the once mighty Shobak castle, we could see the original silk road in the distance. We entered the castle and there was still some stone structures standing from all those years ago.
We explored around the castle as our tour guide told us stories from days gone by.
He told us that the last stand of the crusaders in this castle was an 18 month siege.
That is crazy to think that an army was attacking for 18 months straight and these guys held shit down. By shooting arrows, throwing boulders down the mountain and pouring vats of boiling oil on the attackers.
Imagine coping boiling oil all over you……. that’s a brutal way to go!
This Crusaders castle in Jordan was a lot of fun to explore.
Now like every good castle design back in the day, you needed that plan B escape tunnel, and Shobak was no different.
This tunnel runs straight to the bottom of mountain that the castle sits on. It is 375 steps dug out of the ground straight down. Now if you are claustrophobic, no good with heights or scared of the dark, I would not recommend exiting out of the castle this way. Just walk back down the hill. But if you’re up for a bit of an adventure this is for you 🙂
There is no light in the tunnel. So make sure you have a torch on your phone to light up your way down. Tread carefully as the steps are all uneven and it gets a bit slippery from sand at some parts.
Now I’m not the best with heights and get a bit dizzy. So I found myself shimmying down the steep stairs on my butt haha. But it did help with the dizziness at the very steep parts.
The whole descent takes about 20 minutes. Until you get to the bottom where a steel ladder leads up to the exit on the side of the mountain.
This was something I had no idea about until we stopped here on our way to Wadi Rum. I am so grateful I got to experience this castle and adventure down the escape tunnel. It was a highlight of Jordan that’s for sure 🙂
So if you’re ever roaming the deserts of Jordan and you find yourself in Shobak, make sure you check out this dope castle! You will not be disappointed.
For more blogs about Jordan check these out –