For all the damage it has sustained throughout its long history, the Citadel of Damascus remains in a remarkable state of preservation, particularly the fortifications facing south and east, within the walls of the Old City. Its north and west defenses, on the other hand, were not as lucky, exposed as they had been to periodic bombardment from would-be besiegers.
The fortress had retained its military primacy until the eighteenth century, as testified by Chevalier d'Arvieux in 1660 and again by Maundrell in 1698. It suffered bombardment by the troops of the Egyptian Mamlūk Muḥammad Bey abu aḏ-Ḏahab in 1771 and was restored almost immediately afterward.
Starting with the 19th century, neglect and abuse combined to rob the Citadel of its erstwhile glory. Quite a bit of the damage was inflicted near the end of Ottoman rule, as could be verified from the difference between the photos taken by Oppenheim in 1899 and those of Herzfeld in 1914. Not only was the Citadel suffocated with newly constructed marketplaces to the east, south, and west; its venerable stones were also recycled in new projects, the same way its medieval constructors ravaged the building blocks of the Temple of Jupiter. Cathcart King visited the edifice in 1942 and 1943, shortly before it endured fresh damage during the Syrian uprising against the moribund French Mandate.
Attached is a view from the first half of the twentieth century, from west to east, of the topmost part of Tower 4 with the ʾUmayyād Mosque in the background. This is the loftiest of the Citadel's twelve towers and is still in very good condition. It was constructed under the ʾAyyūbid sultan al-Malik al-ʿĀdil in the beginning of the 13th century CE.
D. J. Cathcart King. The Defences of the Citadel of Damascus; a Great Mohammedan Fortress of the Time of the Crusades. Archaeologia, Volume XCIV, 1951 (p 57-96).
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