Antioch was located between the Orontes River and the foothills of two mountains—Mount Silpius and Mount Staurin.
In the 6th century, the Byzantines fortified these natural defenses by building a magnificent set of enclosed city walls (3 miles long and 60 feet high) that included some 60 towers. The walls ran along the banks of the Orontes River, crossed Mount Staurin, and followed the steep slopes of Mount Silpius.
Hundreds of feet above the main city, near the summit of Mount Silpius, stood a formidable citadel at the very apex of the fortifications. By the late 11th century, this defense system had been eroded by time and damaged by earthquakes, but it remained a terrible obstacle for any invader.
The Counts led their army and encamped on a gentle slope outside Antioch City. Eric, representing the Counts and the King of England, was to conduct the preliminary negotiations with Sultan Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire.
