NIHA
HISTORY
The fortress of Niha is an old fortress in Lebanon. It is located in the municipality of Niha Chouf in Lebanon.
It is carved into the rock of a cliff overlooking the Bisri and Aray valley.
The citadel was first mentioned in the year 975 A.D. and again in 1133 when it was occupied by Dahhak Ben Jandel Al-Tamin.
From its strategic location, it monitors the road between Sidon and the Beqaa. The fortress is shaped like a cave and is over a hundred meters deep. Chambers and rooms were dug to shelter the soldiers, and as depots and for domestic work. Rain water is run into cisterns and wells and more water is drawn from the spring of Al-Halqoum. Here we have a citadel secured by fortifications and walls with openings.
As mentioned, the citadel was first mentioned in the year 975 A.D. and then again in 1133 when it was occupied by Dahhak Ben Jandel Al-Tamin. However, in the same year it passed from his hands to those of the authorities in Damascus . In 1165 the crusaders got hold of it, but after the partisans of Mosul entered into the fray in 1282 it was taken by the muslim Amalek Saleh Ismail. In 1241 it came into the possession of the crusaders again.
Subsequently, in 1251 the governor of Sidon led an army to retake the fortress and then in 1257 gave it to the care of the teutonic knights , who kept control of it for only a short time. In 1261 the Tartars invaded Damascus and sent Shehab Ad-Deen Bahta to attack and destroy the fortress. In 1270 Baybar seized Damascus and ordered Niha Castle to be restored. In 1585 Emir Qorqmaz Mann took refuge there shortly before his death and in 1633. His son Emir Fakhereddeen II the great hid in the fortress with his family, only to be seized and finally put to his death in the year 1635.
The place is well worth a visit, for it breathes history and its walls are reminiscent of events in Lebanon’s past.
