Karak is a hilltop town in central Jordan, about 140 km south of Amman on the King's Highway. It is dominated by one of the largest and best-preserved Crusader castles in the Middle East — Kerak Castle, built in the 1140s by the Franks and later strengthened by Saladin and the Mamluks.
The castle is massive, with underground galleries, vaulted halls, and an archaeological museum inside covering the site's layered history from the Crusades through the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. From the walls the views drop away steeply to the Dead Sea rift below.
The town itself is lively and workaday, not a tourist village. The old centre has narrow streets and a good market. Karak makes a natural stop on the scenic King's Highway route between Amman and Petra — a far more interesting drive than the Desert Highway.