Krak des Chevaliers, located in present-day Syria, was expanded by the Knights Hospitaller into what became one of the greatest Crusader castles in the world. Its concentric walls, towers, and elaborate water systems allowed a garrison of a few hundred knights to hold off vast armies. The castle stood as a symbol of Latin Christendom's aspirations in the Holy Land and was admired even by Muslim commanders for its military ingenuity and grandeur.

The Crusader castles of the Levant fired the imagination of Western poets and travellers for centuries, feeding into the tradition of Orientalism in Romantic poetry. T. E. Lawrence visited Krak des Chevaliers in 1909 and wrote admiringly of it in letters that informed his later prose poetry of the desert campaign. The castle inspired medieval chansons de geste and later Victorian verse romances celebrating the chivalric ideal.