The Semi-Circular Tower

Archaeologists have reconstructed the evolution of the castle over time by analyzing the sequence of construction phases and identifying the building techniques used in each historical period.
In this particular tower, we see a construction style typical of the Mamluk period, characterized by large, squared blocks of organogenic limestone.

_{To learn more:}

• ^{Nucciotti, Michele. “Analisi stratigrafiche degli elevati: primi risultati.” In Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak, edited by Guido Vannini, 27-55. Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio, 2007.}
•  ^{Walker, Bethany, and Francesca Dotti, Michele Nucciotti. “Shawbak and the mamluk Transjordan.” In Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera. Catalogo della Mostra, edited by Guido Vannini, and Michele Nucciotti, 126-131. Firenze: Giunti, 2009.}

_{For further information on the siege techniques and war machines used during the medieval period:}

• ^{Chevedden, Paul E.. “The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet: A Study in Cultural Diffusion.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000): 71-116.}
• ^{Vanni Desideri, Andrea. “Notes on Two Manjanīq Counterweights from Mamluk Shawbak.” Mamlūk Studies Review 22 (2019): 23-48.}

The dedicatory inscriptions that decorate this tower and other Mamluk-era bastions have been studied and compared with similar examples across the Islamic world.

_{For further details:}

• ^{Dotti, Francesca. “Qal’at al-Shawbak: an interpretation on the basis of the epigraphic data.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, III: Islamic Session, edited by Paolo Matthiae, Frances Pinnock, Lorenzo Nigro, and Nicol Marchetti, 23-36. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010.}