KERAK, a town of Syria, situated about 10 miles east of the southern end of the Dead Sea, on the summit of a rocky hill some 3000 feet above sea-level. * It stands upon a platform forming an irregular triangle with sides of 800 to 1000 yards in length, and separated by deep ravines from the higher encircling ranges on all sides except one, where a narrow neck connects it with a neighbouring hill. The whole place was formerly surrounded by a wall with five towers, with only two entrances through tunnels in the side of the cliff. The town is an irregular mass of about six hundred flat mud-roofed houses. The Christian quarter contains the Greek church of St George; and the present mosque still bears marks of its Christian origin. On the north-west is the tower or castle of Bibars (see vol. vii. p. 755), with an inscription bearing his name. The great castle at the southern angle was built as a crusading fortress about 1131. Relics of the Roman occupation of Kerak have been found. The inhabitants are estimated at 8000, of whom about one-fourth are Greek Christians. They are fierce and truculent; and, though they were formerly renowned for hospitality, their rapacious treatment of their European visitors has brought them into very bad repute....