entered Chastelet. By 30 August 1179, the Muslim invaders had pillaged the castle at Jacob's Ford and killed most of its residents. On the same day, less than one week after reinforcements were called, Baldwin and his supporting army set out from Tiberias, only to discover smoke permeating the horizon directly above Chastelet. Obviously, they were too late to save the 700 knights, architects, and construction workers who were killed and the other 800 who were taken captive. Baldwin and his reinforcements turned back towards Tiberias and Saladin ordered the remains of the fortification to be torn down. Aftermath Although Saladin claimed a military victory at Chastelet, his troops fell victim to another enemy. Directly after the siege, the bodies of the 700 Crusaders killed at Jacob's Ford were placed into a pit. The corpses in the pit began to decay in the August heat and, as a result, a plague ensued, killing approximately ten of Saladin's officers. However, this setback did not diminish Saladin's military prowess. In 1180, Saladin and Baldwin signed a truce. Seven years after this peace treaty between the Muslims and the Crusaders, Saladin captured Jerusalem from the Christians after the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Some scholars suggest that, following Saladin's victory at Jacob's Ford in 1179, Jerusalem was extremely vulnerable to capture because "the entry into the kingdom by way of the Jordan crossing immediately south of Lake Tiberias... used [by] Saladin in 1182, 1184, and 1187 was virtually undefended". However, that crossing has nothing to do with the more northerly Jacob's Ford, and beside that it was only some ten kilometres south from the fortified and garrisoned Crusader town of Tiberias, capital of the Principality of Galilee, this being one among several Crusader strongholds in the eastern Galilee and Jordan Valley, which leaves space for debate. After the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin remained militarily and politically successful in the Near East until a military encounter with Richard the Lionheart, after which he was forced to make peace in 1192. He died the next year. Meanwhile, King Baldwin IV, afflicted with leprosy, died in 1185 at age twenty-three. Archaeological importance Today, most of the information scholars and historians know about the siege at Jacob's Ford derives from archaeological evidence uncovered at the site. For succession of related campaigns see also 1177: Battle of Montgisard 1179: Battle of Marj Ayyun 1182: Battle of Belvoir Castle