Image Details

Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

Crusaders weren’t the only ones building castles. The imposing medieval castle on Jezirat Faraun (Pharaoh’s Island, also known as Isle de Graye and Coral Island) in the Gulf of Eilat/Aqabah, was possibly built by Saladin about 1170 A.D. The medieval fortifications were built upon an already existing structure. The 20,000-square-foot-granite outcropping that holds the remains of the Ayyubid castle and which has been identified as the possible site of Ezion-Geber, the seaport of King Solomon, is now part of Egypt.