Advertisement
Published: November 8th 2009
Finally the Middle East, after a few weeks galivanting around Europe in an erratic, expensive and unblogged sort of way I had finally arrived in the destination I had planned to come to for months and had done no planning for beyond the rough outline of a route. Isn't travel fun!
Aleppo (
Halep)
I'll admit it, I wasn't much of a fan of Aleppo. For reasons unknown to me (it could actually have been a number of things really, culture shock, missing someone, tiredness) the city and I did not really click. While the famed Souq was nice in parts it just looked a little dirty and rundown, although work is going on to fix this, as detailed below. I couldn't help comparing it to the Tunis Souq and it came out second best, although time does tend to allow us to conveniently forget the bad aspects of any locale.
The Aleppo
Citadel was for me the highlight, perched a top a man made hill the views from its ramparts gave you an unimpeded view of the city with hundreds of minarets from the mosque's breaking above the hustle and bustle of the streets and buildings.
Inside the
Souq was an interesting place called the
Shibani Museum detailing work done to restore the old town to its former glory, by increasing the economic vitality of the area and bringing back the residents to its streets after poor planning decisions in the 60's and 70's led to major highways being ploughed though with scant regard for the consequences. The biggest success so far has been the restoration of the ancient water transport system in the Souq to allow drinking and cleaning water to be accessed by all. It would be interesting to go back in a few years and see the progress.
Hama The beautiful town of Hama is famed for its lovely water wheels which spin gracefully in the crystalline blue waters of the
Orontes Riverdelivering life giving moisture to the surrounding fertile farmland.
Supposedly.
In reality, from what I saw, the water doesn’t flow and is full of trash while giving off a rather distinct and decidedly unpleasant odour in the warm sun. The real attraction of Hama is that it provides a base
par excellence for day trips to the surrounding historical sites, all of which I tried to squeeze into one hectic
A Camel by Day
In the middle of nowhere not really doing anything.day as detailed in the next exciting paragraph.
My companions for the day were two Polish women whose names I have disgracefully forgotten. They had organized a driver for the day and I tagged along, the plan was to see
Krak de Chevaliers (
Qal'at al-Hisn ),
Qalaat al-Marqab ,
Saladdin Castle (
Qala’at Salah El Din), and the
Dead Cities of
Serjilla and
Al Bara, a full plate to say the least.
We set off and the first thing we did was get lost. It took us over two hours to get to
Krak when it normally takes one, we took the scenic route along tiny mountain roads winding their way up and down and around the
Anti-Lebanon Range.
Krak is famous as being, arguably, the best example of castles designed with the eventually aim of gracing postcards, as such it was a heavy tourist draw and it was hard to find a quiet corner. Being the young boy that I am at heart I immediately aimed for the highest point of the highest tower to survey the surrounding countryside. The view, if a little hazy, was amazing, you could almost see the knights of
old riding past. Krak deserves its reputation as it is extremely well preserved and doesn't require much imagination to see how life would have gone on inside its walls.
In hindsight we could have skipped
Qal'at al-Hisn as it really didn’t compare to the other two so I won't bother to say anything about it.
Saladdin Castle on the other hand was probably my favourite of the day; it is perched on an outcropping of rock and hemmed in on both sides by sheer cliffs leading down to the ravine below. It is surrounded by a beautiful green forest on either side no doubt planted by the long term planning society at the postcard corporation, it is this element alone which for me made it the stand out.
We didn’t make it to the Dead Cities as it was dark by the time we drove past but we proceeded to get back to Hama albeit with a few more grey hairs due to the crazy night time driving conditions in Syria, picture dark roads with pedestrians, motorcycles with no lights darting out, little to no appreciation of lanes and hair raising speeds. Scary stuff.
Palmyra President Awesome
Bashar Al-Assad, president for life of Syria (
Tadmor)
By far my favourite part of Syria, the extensively renovated ruins at Palmyra definitely hit a nerve with me. I could have spent hours walking around the ruins during the day and at night when they were lit up in a pretty yellow glow. My first night there I snuck, ninja style, into the
Temple of Bel. Though obviously closed I found an open gate which I stuck my head around and saw two guys off at the other end of the site, I walked in and hid behind an ancient and historical column and lo and behold I wasn’t seen. Even better was that after a couple of minutes of hiding I heard a motorbike engine and the clang of a metal gate. I poked my head out and they were gone, mwahahahaha, I had the ruins to myself. Though still a little cautious at first it was soon obvious that no one else was inside and that I had the run of the place, I was soon joined by a dog and her two puppies who were my company for the next hour and a half. I spent the time looking around at the stars and the
Aleppo Citadel
Ramp leading up to the Citadel temple and soaking it all in without anyone else there at all. A really fantastic evening.
Another highlight was the sunset from
Qala’at ibn Maan, built on a hill with a panoramic view of the archaeological site and the modern local town. I spent a good hour up here from just before sunset to darkness.
Damascus (
Dimashq)
This was probably my favourite city in the whole country. Lots of things to do and cool people to hang out with at the hostel.
We went out drinking one night in the Christian Quarter which given that I thought the whole country was "dry" before I got there was something of a pleasant surprise, tempered only slightly by my first look at the prices.
I did a couple of day trips from Damascus, one to the town of Bosra, the site of a 15 000 seat freestanding Roman theatre made from striking black basalt. Wandering the dark corridors of the fort you suddenly found yourself in the sunlight looking down at a stage far below. Impressive. Not really knowing how to get back to Damascus, it being a Friday, the Muslim Sunday, we fell in with a bunch
of history students from the university of Damascus who invited us on their charted bus all the way home. Being the hard partying university students that they were we proceeded have a
Big Bus Disco Dance Party set to the altogether foreign sounds of local music. See the attached photo 😊
One evening I went to the
Umayyad Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, to watch the evening prayers. I sat down on the carpet and watched hundreds of men all bend, knee and touch their head to the floor in near perfect unison, quite powerful to watch. The mosque itself is astounding, beautiful mosaics, a huge courtyard, tall imposing minarets and all lit up in early evening light.
And that was pretty much my time in Syria.
Next stop Lebanon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.298s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 27; qc: 127; dbt: 0.1231s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Joel Meadows
non-member comment
good to have you back and blogging mate!
awesome blog! love the photo of you "just hanging out"! :P looking forward to the lebanon blog! next challenge is to sneak into baalbek without paying! :P