Jaabar Citadel (Jaabar Castle):

north eastern shore of Lake Assad, at 3.5 km from dam wall; Jaabar Citedel uses a central core of high ground, tightly circumscribed by defensive walls and a ditch. However, the entrance gateway and ramp and much of the largely brick walls are worth inspection.

It goes back in time to the Zengid, Ayyubid and Mameluke periods in northern Syria and to the build-up of Arab resistance to the Crusaders. In an earlier attempt to dislodge the Crusaders, Zengi was killed before its walls after a quarrel with a Frankish eunuch.

The remains which are seen today date from the rule of Zengi's son Nur al-Din who, as his father's successor in Aleppo, fulfilled his vision of bringing Syria under united Muslim rule by 1154. His rebuilding of the castle began in 1168.