[13] The fortress as it now exists was built in the eighteenth century by Zahir al-Umar, the Bedouin ruler who became Ottoman governor of the Galilee.

[14][15] It was Zahir al-Umar who had the enclosure walls and towers constructed and the moat hewn out of the bedrock, together with an angled entrance gatehouse, vaulted in a manner faithful to the Crusader style.

[16] The vaulted hall on the lower level of the castle was the basement of a palatial residence that included a small mosque and a bathhouse.

[13] An Italian, Giovanni Mariti, who visited "Geddin" in the 1760s, says he was given a generous reception by the local sheik who guarded the place for Daher.

[6] A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as Chateau de Geddin.

[18] French explorer Victor Guérin visited in 1875, and described it: "'Two great square towers, deprived of their upper stage, are still there, partly upright, and contain several chambers now in very bad condition.

On July 11, 1948, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, it was captured by Israel's Sheva' Brigade as part of Operation Dekel.