Tower 11 is by far the smallest in the Citadel (1), albeit in a less remarkable fortress it might well be reckoned large. Its small size, curious plan, thin walls, indifferent masonry, and most of all, perhaps, the absence of any stairs in its two surviving stories all mark it off from al-ʿĀdil's work. The basement is cut off from the Citadel, as there is no access to it except by the gallery, which can now only be entered from outside; it is used as a pickle-merchant store (2). There are two cross-vaulted bays springing from a rectangular pier built against the south wall. There are two small loopholes in the face. and one in each flank. The first floor is almost exactly similar, but there is a small latrine in the southwest corner, and the entrance is differently placed.
Externally, the tower presents an appearance different from anything so far described. The masonry is bad; it has neither the rugged grandeur of al-ʿĀdil's work nor the tidiness of the ashlar repairs to it; it is a mere open-jointed agglomeration of reused materials. A good many of al-ʿĀdil's rusticated facing stones appear in it, generally cut down in size, as if they had been damaged and recut.
Tower 11 displays across its face a big florid inscription of Qānṣū al-Ġūrī (3) dated A.H. 914 (4), claiming for that sultan the rebuilding of the tower after its destruction. Comparing the workmanship with Qānṣū's alleged works on Towers 5 and 8 and Nawrūz al-Ḥāfiẓī's inscription of Tower 10, King concluded that al-Ġūrī's contribution was likely confined to the vanished upper part of Tower 11.
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1. About 10.7 by 13.5 m.
2. In the early 1940's when King effected his inspection.
3. Sobernheim number 23.
4. A.D. 1508.
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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