the fortress as it now exists was built in the eighteenth century by zahir al-umar, the bedouin ruler who became ottoman governor of the galilee. it was zahir al-umar who had the enclosure walls and towers constructed and the moat hewn out of the bedrock, together with an angled entrance gatehouse, vaulted in a manner faithful to the crusader style. the vaulted hall on the lower level of the castle was the basement of a palatial residence that included a small mosque and a bathhouse. the hall's roof rested on a series of square pillars on the hillside. the walls featured well shafts and gun-slits. the mosque was a small square building originally roofed with four cross-vaults resting on a central pillar. the bathhouse was a small building supplied with water from the wells below.