Syria · 7th century
Qal'at Najm (Arabic: قلعة نجم) is a castle located on the right bank of the Euphrates, near the town of Manbij in north Syria. The castle probably stood on the site of an earlier Roman site and is known from Arabic texts since the 7th century CE. Reconstruction works were carried out in the castle by Nur ad-Din Zangi and Az-Zahir Ghazi during the 12th and early 13th centuries. The castle sits on a mound that is protected by a glacis and houses a palace-bath complex and a mosque.
Text adapted from “Qal'at Najm” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Qal'at Najm ranks #3,852 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #23 of the 38 mapped in Syria. Founded c. 650, it is older than 96% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 39 atlas entries founded in the 7th century. The nearest day-trip guide is Gaziantep, 97 km away. It is one of the 105 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Levant. See how Syria compares in the castle statistics.
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