and in succeeding years they spent upwards of forty thousand. The walls, when finished, were sixty French feet in width, one hundred and seventy in height, and the circuit of them was two thousand two hundred and fifty feet. They were flanked by seven large round towers, sixty feet in diameter, and seventy-two feet higher than the walls. The fosse surrounding the fortress was thirty-six feet wide, and was pierced in the solid rock to a depth of forty-three feet. The garrison in time of peace amounted to one thousand seven hundred men, and to two thousand two hundred in time of war. Twelve thousand mule loads of corn and barley were consumed annually within the walls of the fortress; and in addition to all the ordinary expenses and requirements of the establishment, the Templars maintained a well-furnished table and excellent accommodation for all way-worn pilgrims and travellers. “The generous expenditure of the Templars at this place,” says a cotemporary historian, “renders them truly worthy of the liberality and largesses of the faithful.”[117] The ruins of this famous castle, crowning the summit of a lofty mountain, torn and shattered by earthquakes, still present a stupendous appearance. In Pocock’s time “two particularly fine large round towers” were entire: and Van Egmont and Heyman give the following account of the condition of the fortress at the period of their visit. “The next place that engaged our attention was the citadel, which is the greatest object of curiosity in Saphet, and is generally considered one of the most ancient structures remaining in the country. In order to form some idea of this fortification in its present state, imagine a lofty mountain, and on its summit a round castle, with walls of incredible thickness, and with a _corridor_ or covered passage extending round the walls, and ascended by a winding staircase. The thickness of the walls and corridor together was twenty paces. The whole was of hewn stone, and some of the stones are eight or nine spans in length.... This castle was anciently surrounded with stupendous works, as appears from the remains of two moats lined with free-stone, several fragments of walls, bulwarks, towers, &c., all very solid and strongly built; and below these moats other massive works, having corridors round them in the same manner as the castle; so that any person, on surveying these fortifications, may wonder how so strong a fortress could ever be taken.” Amongst the various interesting remains of this castle, these intelligent travellers describe “a large structure of free-stone in the form of a cupola or dome. The stones, which are almost white, are of astonishing magnitude, some being twelve spans in length and five in thickness. The inside is full of niches for placing statues, and near each niche is a small cell. An open colonnade extends quite round the building, and, like the rest of the structure, is very massive and compact.”[118]