Lion Tower

The Lion Tower is located three kilometres from Tripoli center, on the coast, in the suburb of Al-Mina (the port). It was part of a set of seven guard towers built by the Mamluk in the fourteenth – fifteenth centuries to protect the city against the sea. Although their date is not specified, an Arab source mentions that Emir Aytmish Al-Bajasi was responsible for the construction of one of them, under the reign of Sultan Barquq (1382-1399). J. Sauvaget proposes a later date for the Tower, that of Qa’it Bay (1468-1496).

According to J. Sauvaget, the Lion Tower is one of the most beautiful works of Muslim military architecture that can be seen in Syria. It is a massive rectangular structure with two upper floor, on the façade of which is offset a front building with a lancet-arched door. This opens onto a huge room with six bays covered by ribbed vaults. At the centre of the room, between two large pillars, there is the opening of a cistern into which the rain water collected on the terrace channelled via ceramic conduits. On the first floor, the staircase is set inside the façade wall. It leads to the second floor, to a small room with a mihrab that must have been used as an oratory, and a large room whose walls are inset with eight deep and spacious niches with barrel vaults. The defences of the terrace only left insignificant vestiges, and the crenulated parapet that ran along its entire perimeter has in large part disappeared. With its imposing volume, this fort could receive a large garrison, and repel violent attacks.

None of the other towers on the coast compare to this structure, which is unique not only by its mass, the extent of its defences, its monumental appearance, but also by many decorative elements distributed throughout with a sense of rhythm and symmetry. This intended symmetry can also be observed in the layout and distribution of the bays on the second floor, as well as the arrangement of the many Antique granite column shafts included in the masonry. The façade presents a harmonious composition where the bays and column drums balance each other on either side of the central area, marked by the door and a window on the first floor, each decorated with ablaq. The lintel over the door is made of the enormous shaft of a pink granite column sawed in two lengthwise, covered by a matching band moulding with crossettes and a small decorative niche. Columns of bond stones and a bossage device are also used on the façade.

The foundation inscription has disappeared, but several traces of paint were found on the inside walls of the tower, namely traces of an epigraphed band and five medallions with coats of arms, some in black, others in colours, on the ground floor. These are composite coats of arms, where the most visible element is the stemmed bowl of the cup-bearer (saqi). An embellishment of lions sculpted on the façade, of which no trace has survived, would, according to J. Sauvaget, have given the building its name.

The Lion Tower presents close affinities with the courtyard built by Sultan Qa’it Bay above the entrance of the citadel of Alep in 1475. These constructions fall in line with the defence program of the Mamluk sultan against the Ottoman. According to J. Sauvaget, the Lion Tower, by its imposing mass and its layout, is less similar to the other towers on the Lebanese coast than to the country's large fortresses, endowed with imposing defences and capable of supporting a siege. Its monumental appearance and its many decorative elements, arranged with a sense of symmetry and proportions, make this construction comparable to the religious or civil buildings, rather that to the exclusively utilitarian military structures.