TOK KXIOHTS TBHPLAHS. 85 1. PALESTINE.—Some account has already been given of the Temple at Jerusalem, the chief house of the order, and the residence of the Master. In addition to the strong garrison there maintained, the Templars possessed numerous forces, distributed in Tarions fortresses and strongholds, for the preservation and protection of the holy territory. The following castles and cities of Palestine are enumerated by the historians of the Latin kingdom, as having belonged to the order of the Temple. The fortified city of Gaza, the key of the kingdom of Jerusalem on the side next Egypt, anciently one of the five satrapies of the Lords of the Philistines, and the stronghold of Cambyses when he invaded Egypt. " Placed where Judea's utmost bounds extend, Towards fair Felusium, Gaza'a towers ascend. Fast by the breezy shore the city stands Amid unbounded plains of barren sands. Which high in air the furious whirlwinds sweep. Like mountain billows on the stormy deep, That scarce the affrighted traveller, spent with toil, Escapes the tempest of the unstable soil." It was granted to the Templars, in perpetual sovereignty, by Baldwin king of Jerusalem.* The Castle of Saphet, in the territory of the ancient tribe of Naphtali ; the great bulwark of the northern frontier of the Latin kingdom on the side next Damascus. The Castle of the Pilgrims, in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel. The Castle of Assur near Jaffa, and the House of the Temple at Jaffa. The fortress of Faba, or La Fene, the ancient Aphek, not far from a Dominas Bsldwinus illustrie memoria», Hierosolymommrexquartus, Gazam munitissimam fratribus militi») Templi donavit, WUi. 7r. lib. xx. cap. 21. Milites Templi Gazato antlquam Palestina» civitatem resdincant, et turribus earn muniunt, Rob. de Monte, appen. ad ehron. Sig. p- 631.