as steps and roads all carved in the rock. One ancient quarry, known as the Great Trench, was used by the Phoenicians as a dry dock; The Phoenicians used the place as a shipyard for the construction of their vessels, as it was a strategic point on the mediterranean coast. The Crusades Period The Enfeh peninsula was once a mighty fortress area, including the Crusader castle of Nephin, and a fief of the Counts of Tripoli. The Crusader Lords of Nephin, who were protected behind the walls of Enfeh, the vast rock-cut moat which severed the peninsula from the town, and the sea-swept battlements of their citadel, soon established a reputation as robber barons, the terror of travellers between Jerusalem and Tripoli. The town itself had a better reputation, for its wines were known and prized far and wide throughout the Latin kingdom in the 12th and 13th Centuries. Enfeh entered its glory days during the Medieval era, and most of the archaeological and historical monuments that can be seen today date from this period. Around the 13th century, Enfeh was a small, fortified village surrounded by fertile fields, and it was famous for its wine production. It was one of the lordships of the county of Tripoli, governed by French provincial nobles from the Renoir family. The French Lord was eventually chased out of Enfeh by the Prince Bohemond IV of Antioch, the Lord of Beirut, and the Genoese, and he took refuge in Cyprus. Enfeh, as a cell or a hive sculptured out of the ground, is surrounded by walls and fortifications of enormous stones hauled from the nearby quarries. In 1282, Enfeh was part of one of the greatest plots that marked the end of the Crusades. The Lord of Byblos, Guy II Embriaco, the Genoese, and the Knights Templar rose up against the Count of Tripoli Bohemond VII, but they were brutally crushed. Bohemond VII punished the Genoese by blinding them, and he buried alive the Lord of Byblos and his family in the Fort of Enfeh. Fall of Tripoli In 1289 Sultan Qalawun suddenly attacked, captured and destroyed Tripoli. The knights who escaped from the burning city to the two remaining coastal castles of Batroun and Nephin (Enfeh) were unable to withstand the full fury of the Mamluk army and beat a further retreat to the island kingdom of Cyprus. Sultan Qalawun destroyed both castles