Towards Mesopotania

Moving east, we travelled through the arid, barren desert with short stops en route to visit Euphrates Dam and Lake Assad. The former of rubble encased in concrete built by the Russians in a 'S' design which they had perfected during the Second World War.  The lake is Syria’s largest lake with a maximum capacity of 2.8 cubic miles with a maximum surface area of 240 sq miles.  Leading from it is a vast network of canals which irrigate lands on both sides of the Euphrates. In addition, the lake provides drinking water for the Aleppo and supports a fishing industry  Unfortunately, when we arrived there was thick fog and we could barely see the water from the cafe at its edge.

Euphraties River

After a short drive we came upon the imposing walls and bastion towers of the pilgrimage town, Rasafa.   The large site and bounded by an almost continuous wall - within the site were the remains of just a couple of buildings - a basilica, a palace and a couple of water systems - but the ground look like the Western Front must have during World War I, hundred of craters where the locals had dug to find coins to sell the tourists.  It was here that Sergius, a Christian commander in the Roman Imperial Guard, was horribly martyred after refusing to offer sacrifices to the Roman god Jupiter.  He was marched through the streets in a woman's dress, scourged severely, led to Rasapha on foot with boards nailed to his feet and, eventually beheaded.    Later he became the patron Saint of Christians in the Roman Army and among local desert nomads. 

Halabiye

Further on we visited Halabiye on the banks of the Euphraties River,  It was largely derelict but your could just about make out its shape and there only a couple of buildings left above ground.  Its function was as a border defence and, when successive invasions moved the Empire’s border, the town was largely abandoned.  Now the stone’s glitter has dulled but the site remains impressively intact.

Both Rasafa and Halabiye were a frontier fortresses constructed from shimmering white gypsum, a strange and frightening vision for invading forces. Today, some of the blocks that retained some of their original dressed surface looked as if they were made of ice - opaque with lots of cracks & fissures.

The road continued down the side of the wide river flood plain and it was bounded on one side by cliffs cut into former sand dunes by the annual flood water.  Since the dam was built 35 years ago, the annual inundation does not happen.  This, like the one of the Nile, used to bring nutrient washed down from Turkey's Annotolian mountains - without the flood nutrients are leaving the soil leaving salts that are running the solid.  The farmers flood and drain their fields five times but this, evidently, is only 50% effective.

Armenian Church

We stopped for the night at Deir ex-Zor on the banks of the fabled Euphrates River  It was a cotton town but is now Syria's oil capital.  Next to the hotel was the town’s Armenian Church which contained a haunting memorial to the 1915 genocide . In the heart of the Syrian desert the town was a great killing center where many thousands of Armenian refugees were forced by the Turks onto death marches during the Armenian Genocide. There were many harrowing pictures of the event when men, women & children died on death marches or in concentration camps - the stated aim was to wipe out the Armenian people.  One book on display was entitled "The First Genocide" - unfortunately it wasn't the last and my mind was taken back to my visit to Cambodia a couple of years ago.  If I ever go to Rwanda, I think I may well skip the memorial there - it would be just another reminder that man doesn't learn lessons easily !

Bridge to Mesopotamia

After our evening meal, we walked across the suspension bridge built in the 1930s across the Euphrates River and entered the ancient land of the two rivers (the other being the Tigris further West) - the fabled Mesopotamia.