To Aleppo via Saladin’s castle, Hama and Apamea

This morning we supposed to be joined by another three of the 13 that were supposed to have joined us in Damascus but they had decided that they wanted to visit Krak de Chevalier first, so we- should see them tonight in Aleppo !

We drove out of town into the mountains and were told that they had once been covered in trees but that gradually they had given away to citrus orchards - Syria does not export any of its harvest but consumes it all internally - and very tasty they are too.  The Government has now banned all felling of "natural trees" (or local guides description) and has banned barBQs because of the fire risk - there appeared to be some new planting to restore the original ecosystem.

The dramatically located Citadel of Salah Ed-Din was our first stop - evidently it is referred to one of the most romantic of the Crusader castles.  Its  strategic position goes back in history to the Phoenicians who controlled this site in the 1st Millennium BC, and were still holding it when Alexander the Great arrived in 333 BC. It fell in the hands of the Crusaders at around the beginning of the 12th century. In 1188 Saladin succeeded in occupying it and it stayed in Muslim hands from Saladin to Baibars to Qalaun.

One of the most magnificent features of this fortress is the 28m deep ditch, which was cut into living rock probably by the Byzantines (it might have been completed by the crusaders) - the rock was reused as construction material. This ditch, which runs 156 meters along the east side, is 14 to 20 meters wide and has a lonely 28-meter high needle to support the drawbridge.  The top of the pinnacle was made to be destroyed if attacked so that besiegers could not span the gap with beams.  Despite it being almost impregnable, it was not the castle’s main entrance.

The larger main entrance castle is through on the south side of the fortress. On the right of the entrance is a tower which is a crusader bastion. There is a cistern for water storage and some stables just next to a massive keep that overlooks the ditch. This keep has walls of 5m thick and it covers an area of nearly 24 sq meters.  As for the Arab additions to the fortress they include a mosque, which dates back to Sultan Qalaun and a palace, which includes baths with courtyards and iwans.

Despite being less known than Krak de Chevalier, its footprint is larger and it sits in a much more impregnable position - it was taken only because that when it was attacked, via a breach caused by a mine in the NW curtain wall , there were not enough people to defend it and an internal ditch was unfinished.  If the external wall were complete, it would easily compete with Krak as the most imposing castle.

Heading into the Ghab depression, one of Syria’s most fertile areas, irrigated by the Orontes River, we visited the  great city of Apamea, founded here in the 2nd Century BC by Seleucus I.  

This was a martial town whose intellectual twin was on the coast at Antioch.  The town housed a vast stud of 30,000 mares and 300 stallions and the Seleucids also kept 600 elephants after Hannibal trained them in the art of elephant combat.  Other distinguished visitors to this crossroad city were Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, after the campaigns against the Armenians.

It was here that we completed our metrological set with fog shrouding the long column of columns (straight, fluted and spiral) - the columns were really the only recognisable remains of  town that once covered over 4 sq kilometres.  They lined a 2k long street lined with shops that led in one direction to Damascus and Northwards to Antioch.  The only recognisable remains were those of the public toilets - two rows of people facing each other with no privacy and runnels of fresh water taking away their deposits.

The damp fog again brought out the antipodeans hijab !

Next we visited Hama, famous for its 13th century wooden waterwheels, many of which are still used today to irrigate surrounding farmland.  There are a number of wheels up to ones as high as a three story house.  They revolve stately, powered by the river, lifting water up to little aqueducts taking the liquid off to irrigate the fields.  The wooden axles of the wheels sit on wooden bearings, so one of the enduring impressions of these gentle dripping wheels from my last visit was of the noise - a constant squeal which changes pitch as the wood on wood rotation sticks and suddenly releases.  Unfortunately, the river was too low to operate the wheels, so we missed both the movement and sound effects.

From there we travelled to Aleppo along the highway that was dark by now - after the fog lifted we were treated to a full Moon low on the horizon as a backdrop to the constant wizz of roadside shops and workshops each with a garish selection of illumination.

Our hotel was in the Armenian quarter - the coach stopped in a thronging shopping street and we disembarked into the throng. Our bags were loaded onto a minivan and we set  off on foot, through the shoppers -  diving through a narrow archway into a small alleyway, we passed a number of small mysterious doorways - who knows what was behind them.  Suddenly,- we ducked into one and found ourselves in a little courtyard - our hotel for two nights.  The rooms were around the edge some looking down on tables & chairs and a little raised alcove with soft furnishings on which we could lounge like Pashas holding court.

And our adventures continue with a BANG !  We had gone to eat at a local restaurant and got as far as negotiating the menu with no prices and were starting on our beers, when there was a muted wooof, a wave of heat and a soft orange glow.  I really only took real notice when people sitting opposite started to move at a rate of knots.  What they could see over my shoulder was, through a hatch in the wall, was a ball of flame enveloping the kitchen.  Evidently, the gas supply to an oven had ruptured and ignited - luckily nobody in the kitchen suffered anything but scorching and one of our number a bruised hand as they had jumped away.  So, we sat down to continue our conviality until smoke started wafting along the ceiling prompting staff to rush up stairs with extinguishers.  At this point we took the hint and headed for another venue.