The Enfeh peninsula was once a mighty fortress area, the Crusader castle of Nephin (enfeh), fief of the Counts of Tripoli. The Crusader Lords of Nephin, triply safe behind the walls of Enfeh, the vast rock-cut moat which severed the peninsula from the town.
In 1289 Sultan Qalawun suddenly attacked, captured and destroyed Tripoli. The knights who escaped from the burning city to the two remaining coastal castles of Batroun and Nephin (enfeh) were unable to withstand the full fury of the Mamluk army and beat a further retreat to the island kingdom of Cyprus.
Sultan Qalawun destroyed both castles so thoroughly that even the site of Batroun’s citadel is lost from history. With Nephin (Enfeh) it was a different story, for here the Crusaders had performed one of the great engineering feats of the Middle Ages.
They had cut off the peninsular fortress from Enfe proper by cutting a great moat, at sea level, all the way across the peninsula, for over 100 yards, through the living rock, leaving only a small spur in the center at the south end to support the castle’s drawbridge.
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