Tebnin Castle

Lebanon, Lebanon

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Tebnin Castle, also known as Toron, Qalaat Tibnin, or Tibnine Castle, is a major historic fortress in the town of Tebnine (Tibnine) in Nabatieh Governorate, southern Lebanon, situated on a steep hill about 713–725 meters above sea level along the old road between Tyre and Damascus.

The site originated as a Bronze Age tell, later developed into a Phoenician and Hellenistic‑Roman fortified settlement, and then became a key Crusader castle in the 12th century, serving as the center of the Lordship of Toron, a seigneury within the Kingdom of Jerusalem and a rear‑vassalage of the Principality of Galilee. The Crusader fort was oval in shape, following the hill’s contours, and originally had twelve rectangular towers with a southern donjon, but it was razed by the Mamluks in 1266.

About 500 years later, in the mid‑18th century, the Shiite sheikh Nasif al‑Nassar rebuilt the castle using the medieval walls as a foundation during his struggle against Ottoman rule, so the current structure largely appears as an Ottoman fortress that served as the home and base of the House of El‑Assaad, and by 1881 it was noted as the residence of the local governor with about twenty Muslim inhabitants living there.