KIR-MOAB (τὸ τεῖχος τῆς Μωαβιτίδος, LXX.), the stronghold of Moab.( Isa. xvi.), called also KIRHERESITH and KIR-HERES.( Isa. 16.7, 11; Jer. 48.31.) In the Chaldee version and the Greek of the Apocrypha, it appears in the form of Kerakka-Moab, and Characa (Χάρακα, 2 Macc. 12.17). Under this latter name, more or less corrupted, it is mentioned by Ptolemy (Χαράκωμα, 5.17.5; comp. Χαρακμῶβα, Steph. B.) and other writers, both ecclesiastical and profane, down to the centuries before the Crusades. (Abú—l-féda, Tab. Syr. p. 89; Schultens, Index ad Vit. Salad. s. v. ) The Crusaders found the name extant, and erected the fortress still known as Kerak, which, with that of Shôbek, formed the centre of operations for the Latins E. of the Jordan. With the capture of these, after a long siege by Saladin, A.D. 1188, the dominion of the Franks over this territory terminated. (Wilken, die Kreuzz, vol. iv. pp. 244—247.) The whole of this district was unknown till A.D. 1806, when Seetzen (Zachs, Monatl. Corr. xviii. pp.433, foll.) penetrated as far as Kerak. A fuller account of the place is given by Burckhardt ( Trav. pp. 379—387), by whom it was next visited in 1812; and another description is furnished by Irby and Mangles ( Trav. pp. 361—370), who followed in the same direction in 1818. (Robinson, Bibl. Res. vol. ii. pp. 566—571; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol xv. pp. 916, 1215.) [E.B.J]