Templar's Hold

The Templar's Hold was a fortress situated along the coast of Tyre that was used as a base for the Knights Templar during the Third Crusade. It was notable for the gargantuan wall that flanked its west side and faced the Mediterranean Sea.

History
At the height of the Third Crusade, the great fortress in the Tyre harbor, known to the Assassins as the Templar's Hold, was used by the Crusaders as a base of operations.

In 1190, the Assassins, keen on acquiring a way to infiltrate this stronghold, enlisted the aid of a pair of brothers who were acquainted with its layout. Before the brothers were able to share this information with the Assassins, however, they were captured by the Crusaders.

It was around this time that the Templar leader Basilisk returned to Tyre after his expedition to the Temple of Sand, with the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad close behind in pursuit. Altaïr had tracked him to the Templar’s Hold, seeing him as his only lead to the Chalice after they both failed to find the mystical relic in the desert temple.

When Altaïr met with Hamid at the Tyre docks for help in entering the fort, the Rafiq informed him of the two brothers who had access to the keep but had recently been captured. As they were imprisoned at the top level of the fort's massive wall, Hamid instructed Altaïr to scale the great rampart and rescue the brothers.

This, the Assassin accomplished, and in gratitude, the brothers guided him to the gate into the stronghold and the sergeant with the key. After pickpocketing the key from this guard, he infiltrated the fortress and began his search for Basilisk throughout its premises. Erstwhile, the Templar leader was roaming near the eastern gate to the city as was his habit, and it was there that Altaïr found him after interrogating a servant.

In the duel that followed, the Assassin wounded Basilisk, causing him to retreat out into the city where he would soon afterwards lose to Altaïr a second time and divulge the location of the Chalice—alongside a secret Templar plot to poison Acre—in exchange for mercy.

Great wall


Iconic to the Templar's Hold was the colossal wall erected along its west side that served as a great barrier between the fortress and the Mediterranean Sea. So immense was this rampart that it was a complex in itself, with many buildings stacked among its top level, serving as barracks, storehouses, and detention cells. Indeed, the wall's roofs were vast enough to serve as courtyards.

Because the wall was so massive, scaling it was a perilous feat even for an expert Assassin, and Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad was forewarned by Hamid to be cautious in his climb. This was even more so because the wall incorporated a sewage system whereby water was flushed out into the sea along its base.

Though the wall posed as a formidable defense for the stronghold, only parts of its southern section was crenelated. Bastions technically were a component of the wall, but the intervals between them were inconsistent, and they varied greatly in size. One such bastion stood as the wall's southern endpoint, and near it was one of the gates through which the stronghold could be entered. In general, the composition of the wall was haphazard and irregular.