Crusader Castles History Detective Pack

A history detective pack for ages 11 to 14: when did the Knights of St John leave Rhodes, and why do the sources give different dates? Six short quoted sources with provenance, an evidence table, reading the dates, open questions, what happened to the castles after the Crusades, a judgement question and full answers.

What’s inside:

- Teacher page (the Crusades are a non-statutory example in the Key Stage 3 history programme of study; Department for Education wording)

- Background: Crusaders, knights and castles

- Glossary

- Sources A to F: short quotations with provenance from UNESCO, the Museum of the Order of St John and Heritage Malta, with source-weighing grids

- Task 1: evidence table

- Task 2: reading the dates

- Task 3: open questions, where the sources give no single answer

- Task 4: what happened to the castles after the Crusades?

- Task 5: your judgement, with a planning prompt

- Full answers with sources

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 13 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from UNESCO, ICOMOS (for UNESCO), the Old Akko website, Heritage Malta, English Heritage, the Temple Church, the Museum of the Order of St John and the Department for Education (checked 3 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Where the evidence gives no single answer, what each source says is shown with its source.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs, not reconstructions of any real castle, not to scale, and not copied from any site plan, map, guidebook, print, photo or book. Not affiliated with UNESCO, ICOMOS, Heritage Malta, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism of Cyprus, the Jordan Tourism Board, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the Old Akko & Nazareth Development Company, English Heritage, the Temple Church, the Museum of the Order of St John, St John Ambulance, any government, the UK government or any museum. Their names, and the names of the places they look after, are used only to identify the places and sources we quote.

Licence: personal and single-classroom use. You may print as many copies as you need for your own family or your own class, and share it with your class through a password-protected platform. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For school-wide use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind crusader.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.