Day 75, Crac des Chevaliers, Syria

We are now leaving Syria for Lebanon but not before we see Crac des Chevaliers, which has been described as the epitome of the dream castle of childhood fantasies, and 'the finest castle in the world'.

Impervious to the onslaught of time, Crac des Chevaliers (in Arabic Qala'at al-Hosn) is simply awesome!

The first fortress known to have existed on this site was built by the emir of Homs in 1031, but it was the Crusader knights who, around the middle of the 12th century, largely built and expanded Crac into its existing form. Despite repeated attacks and sieges, the castle held firm.

In fact, it was never truly breached; the Crusaders just gave it up.

Numbers in the castle, which was built to hold a garrison of 2000, had fallen to around 200. Surrounded by the armies of Islam and with no hope of reprieve, Crac must have seemed more like a prison than a stronghold. Even though they had supplies to last for five years, after a month under siege the Crusaders agreed to depart the castle in return for safe conduct.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhtYtrF5ZuM

This tour of Syria has been wonderful.......it is such a pity that there is only 1 active postcrosser in this beautiful country :-(

Day 75, Palmyra, Syria

We are now going to the middle of the Syrian Desert.....our next stop in Syria is Palmyra, one of the world's most splendid historical sites.

This Arab commercial metropolis, which has now turned pink with age, used to be on the old Silk Road.

The ruins, dating largely to the 2nd century AD, cover some 50 hectares and have been extensively excavated and restored.

Called Tadmor by the Arabs, Palmyra appeared for the first time in the 2nd millennium BC in the archives of Mari and in an Assyrian text. It was also mentioned in the Bible as a part of Solomon's territory.

Palmyra's intriguing history, along with the profusion of colonnades, temple remains and funerary towers, in a mesmerising desert oasis setting has simply rendered us speechless!

The Seleucids practically ignored Tadmor and it became independent. It flourished through trade with Persia, the Indian sub continent and the Arabian Peninsula. In 41 BC it had become rich enough to attract the Romans and Anthony attempted to occupy it but failed because of the Palmyreans escaping to the other side of the Euphrates.

It was fully occupied by the Romans under Tiberius, Augustus' successor and was integrated into the Province of Syria between 14-37 AD. During the next 100 years of Roman rule Palmyra prospered greatly as a trade route linking the East Asian empires of Persia, India, China, and the Parthians who were Rome's enemy for a long time.

They managed this by keeping good ties with both the Romans and the Parthians. In 129 AD Hadrian visited Palmyra and was quite enthralled by it and named it Palmyra Hadriana and proclaimed it a free city. In 212 AD Palmyra was considered as a colony of the Roman Empire and Palmyra took a higher military role and caravan trade diminished. Trade diminished even more when the Sassanians took over and occupied the mouth to the Tigris and Euphrates.

The leader Septimus Odeinat (Odenathus) became qu ite favored by Rome and in 256/7 was appointed by the Emperor Valerian as Consul and Governor of the province of Syria Phoenice which Palmyra had been transferred to in 194. A few years later Valerian was captured and murdered by the Sassanian Persians, and in redemption Odeinat campaigned as far as the Sassanian capital Ctesiphon.

Palmyra's greatest days however were after the murder of Odeinat, when his wife Zenobia started ruling Palmyra on behalf of her son Vaballath. Zenobia with the help of her Prime Minister Longinus extended Palmyrean power to the west and took over Bosra and occupied as far as Egypt (269-270), then she headed for the north and attempted to take Antioch.
This sudden expansion posed a threat for the Romans, and after two years in 272 of being flexible Aurelian retaliated and took back Antioch then Emesa (Homs) and then Palmyra itself. Zenobia tried to escape but was captured and was taken back to Rome as a prisoner.

After this Rome kept a close eye on Palmyra and it was forced to become a military area and let go of its reputation as a trade center. It was expanded under emperor Diocletian to harbor Roman legions and it was walled in defense from the Sassanian threat.

Later in the Byzantine period a few churches were built and added to the much ruined city. It was then taken by the Arabs under Khalid Ibn Al Walid who was leader of the Arab army under the Caliph Abu Bakr. It played a minor defensive role during the Islamic periods although the Umayyads built the two Qasr Al Heirs.
Later Temple of Bel was fortified and the Arab Castle of Fakhredin Al Maany was built. Since then it has had no major roles and the ruins have fallen victim to natural erosion.

It wasn't until 1678 that Palmyra was 'rediscovered' by two English merchants resident in Aleppo. Few followed in their footsteps; the buried desert city was an often-dangerous five days' journey from civilisation.
It took a 1751 expedition, which resulted in drawings and the first tentative excavations, to truly pique travellers' interest. Throughout the rest of the 18th and 19th centuries a steady flow of intrepid visitors made the expedition out from Aleppo or Damascus, although it wasn't until the early 20th century that the first scientific study began.

Simply stunning!

Day 75, Bosra, Syria

Next stop is the ancient city of Bosra.

Did you know that Bosra was mentioned in Egyptian records as early as 1300 BC, but it was not until the Nabataean kingdom relocated here from Petra, and Rome crowned it capital of the Province of Arabia, that its importance was secured?

The fertile land surrounding the city, and the 1st-century construction of a road linking it with Damascus in the north and Amman in the south, ensured Bosra would become an important centre of trade and a key stop on caravan and pilgrimage routes throughout the Middle Ages.

This city of Bosra, was first mentioned in the Hieroglyphics of Thutmos III and Akhnatoun in the 14th century BC, and 1000 years later was the capital of the Nabatean kingdom under the name of Bousra.

Later in the Hellenistic era it bore the name of Boustra.

Bosra, grew the most under the Romans, who paid great attention to it and was named Niatrojana Bostra as the capital of the state of Djezire under the king Trojan.

It was later attacked by Zenobia in 268 AD, however she only occupied it for a while and did not leave her mark.

In the Byzantine period Bosra became the seat of an archbishop who was in charge of 33 bishops in the area.

In 632 AD, Bosra was the first Byzantine city to fall to the Arab Muslims, and it flourished greatly as a point on both the trade route and the pilgrimage route between Damascus and Mecca.

The crusaders failed to take it over but it was their threat that pushed the Ayyubids into converting the theater into a fortress.

Bosra survived the Mongol invasion, and later under the Mamelukes the main pilgrimage routes moved westwards and this left Bosra quite abandoned, until the Druze moved here from Lebanon in the 18th and19th centuries.

Bosra is most famous for its magnificent Roman amphitheater, which was later converted into a fortress by the Ayyubids.

Wow, the original theater, which has been miraculously preserved, seats 15 000 and its stage is 45 meters in length and 8 meters in depth. It has been designed so that all the audience can hear the actors without the use of any special equipment. The theater has been renovated and restored, especially a lot of the columns.

Hmm, I wonder if the large area in front of the stage might have been used for circuses or gladiatorial matches??

Hey Feroz, did you know that before the town's fall to the Muslims in 634, the young Prophet Mohammed, passing through with his merchant uncle's caravans, encountered a wise priest named Bahira who, during theological discussions with the Prophet Mohammed, revealed to him his future vocation as the Prophet?

Day 75, Aleppo, Syria

While Damascus was always the 'holy' city, the seat of rulers and wary of foreigners, Aleppo (or Halab as it is known), Syria's second city, has been one of commerce since Roman times. While both cities claim the title of 'oldest continually inhabited city in the world', it's in Aleppo that the legacy of history feels more immediate.

First stop, the souk!C'mon guys, let's go in.....

Aleppo today retains that air of an Arabian bazaar city, with people going about business as they have done for centuries. The streets speak a rhythm of sounds – from horse-drawn carts over cobblestones to the more frenetic pace of donkey-riding couriers, still the fastest way through the atmospheric, labyrinthine souq that's fragrant with olive soap, exotic spices, roasting coffee and succulent grilled shwarma.

The Aleppo souk is covered by stone archways for about 30km. This makes it the longest covered souk in the Middle East.

Once the most important trade area in Syria, a complicated maze of narrow cobbled streets forms this magnificent Bazaar.

Hey , what did everyone buy??
Marti bought a gold chain....a special gold pattern called the Aleppo weave or chain that is made only in Aleppo.
Nopi bought decorative boxes. Aleppo is famous for its intricate inlay work that can be found in boxes of all shapes and sizes, and Nopi is going to store her postcrossing cards in them.
Feroz bought woolen wraps that can be worn as shawls
Sita bought sweets made from the pistachio in decorative boxes.
Jarca bought an ornate pots to make her coffee in.
We all bought the most famous Aleppine product, olive oil soap. Many factories produce this using traditional techniques.

The Bazaar is extremely busy today as people are doing last minute shopping for Ramadaan.

While Aleppo may not bustle as it did when it was a key stop on the Silk Road, the relative lack of big investment has actually done the city a favour.
The World Heritage–listed Old City was saved from irreparable damage by not succumbing to modernisation. Today it is without doubt a fragile treasure, but a new breed of local investors and entrepreneurs have been wisely spending money to immaculately restore some old city treasures. Yippee!!

A plan is in place to restore all of the historic buildings in the Old City – still a thriving centre with more than 100, 000 residents.

There is the famous Aleppo Citadel.
A magnificent enormous fortress, the Aleppo Citadel, is sometimes considered to be one of the oldest in the region.

The hill the Citadel stands on is supposed to date back to the 16th century BC, when the Amorites were in control. However the earliest remains that have been uncovered only go back as far as the 10th century BC when the Neo Hittites raised a temple on this site.
Later it was said Abraham milked his cow there.
It became a citadel under the Seleucids.
Saladin's son, Ghazi, used it as both residence and fortress and it suffered from the Mongol invasions in 1269 and 1400. The present structure and designs of the Aleppo citadel is Ghazi's work.

The sole entrance to the Citadel is through the outer tower in the south.
This defended the stone arched bridge, which covered the 22m moat. The magnificent gateway is almost a castle in itself. The door is placed on a sidewall with a close wall facing it to limit the space needed to ram the door down.

As we go in, there is a bent entrance that goes right, left, left, right, right, and then left. This is to slow down attackers. There are three gates with carved figures at each. In the court there is a cistern (Byzantine) and a few brick vaults, probably dungeons. The pitch dark of the inside of the gateway is to strengthen the contrast between light and dark so that it would be impossible for attackers to see..
This is truly an impressive place...

And there is the famous Great Mosque.

The site of the Great Mosque is the former Agora from the Hellenistic period, which later became the garden for the Cathedral of St. Helena, during the Christian era. It was built by the Umayyad Caliph al Walid, who had earlier founded the Great Mosque in Damascus. It was completed in 717 by his successor Caliph Suleiman. Nur al Din later rebuilt it in 1169 after a great fire and the Mamelukes made further alterations.

This mosque has an enormous 45-meter minaret,

which is completely detached from it, built by the Seljuks in 1070.

Through the main entrance, a large court can be seen with pillared arcades, which are substitutions for the original ones in the Damascus mosque. Another series of arches can be found in the façade of the prayer hall, which were built by the Mamelukes. The façade is well decorated with intricately cut and various colored stones. A composition of white marble and inlaid basalt can be seen on the main door.

As for the minbar, which is the pulpit on which the Sheikh stands when preaching, it is very beautifully carved out of wood and probably dates back to the 15th century.
Inside the prayer hall, to the left of the mihrab is a finely tiled chamber that is said to hold the head of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jjQDE-YjGg

Another impressive Syrian city!

Day 75, Damascus, Syria

We have finally left Europe and landed in the Middle East.

Marhaba from Damascus in Syria.

Syria has such a rich heritage...and hopefully we will be able to see some interesting places during our quick visit to this amazing country.

Legend has it that on a journey from Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed cast his gaze from the mountainside onto Damascus but refused to enter the city because he wanted to enter paradise only once – when he died!

'…no recorded event has occurred in the world but Damascus was in existence to receive news of it. Go back as far as you will into the vague past, there was always a Damascus… She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies.'....Mark Twain

The Grand Mosque of Damascus, known more commonly as the Umayyad Mosque, is one of the largest, oldest and holiest mosques in the world.
It now holds the Shrine of John the Baptist's head, and there are man y rumors to explain how it came to be here. One is that Herod sent it to Damascus so that the Romans could be sure of his execution, while another is that when the Arabs took over the church, John the Baptist's blood bubbled and when the church was demolished his head was found underneath it with skin and hair!!

Damascus is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and the Umayyad Mosque stands on a site that has been considered sacred ground for at least 3,000 years!

It was 1000 BC at the latest when the Arameans built a temple here for Hadad, the god of storms and lightening. A basalt orthostat dating from this period, depicting a sphinx, has been discovered in the northeast corner of the mosque.

In the early first century AD, the Romans arrived and built a massive temple to Jupiter over the Aramean temple. The Roman temple stood upon a rectangular platform (temenos) that measured about 385 meters by 305 meters, with square towers at each corner. Parts of the outer walls of the temenos still survive, but virtually nothing remains of the temple itself.

In the late fourth century, the temple area became a Christian sacred site. The Temple of Jupiter was destroyed and a church dedicated to John the Baptist was built in its place. The church was (and is) believed to enshrine the head of the Baptist, and the site became an important pilgrimage destination in the Byzantine era.

Initially, the Muslim conquest of Damascus in 636 did not affect the church, as the building was shared by Muslim and Christian worshippers. It remained a church and continued to draw Christian pilgrims; the Muslims built a mud-brick structure against the southern wall where they could pray. Under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid, however, the church was demolished. Between 706 and 715 the current mosque built in its place; an indemnity was paid to the Christians in compensation. According to legend, Al-Walid himself initiated the demolition by driving a golden spike into the church.

At that time, Damascus was one of the most important cities in the Middle East and it would later become the capital of the Umayyad caliphate . The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was accordingly a magnificent structure.

The work of thousands of craftsmen of Coptic, Persian, Indian and Byzantine origin, the Umayyad mosque complex included a prayer hall, a vast courtyard and hundreds of rooms for visiting pilgrims. The layout was based on the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina.

The triple-aisled prayer hall, 160 meters long, was covered with a tiled wooden roof and supported on reused columns taken from Roman temples in the region as well as the Church of Mary at Antioch. The facade of the courtyard and its arcades were covered in colored marble, glass mosaic and gold. The mosque may have had the largest golden mosaic in the world, at over 4,000 square meters. The minaret structures of the mosque developed out of the corner towers of the ancient Roman temenos.

The Umayyad Mosque has been rebuilt several times due to fires in 1069, 1401 and 1893. The marble paneling dates from after the f ire of 1893, which was especially damaging to the great mosaics. In 2001 Pope John Paul II visited the mosque, primarily to visit the relics of John the Baptist. It was the first time a pope paid a visit to a mosque!!

Look, there is the Tekkiye Mosque, also known as Tekkiya as Suleimaniyya.

If the mosque reminds you of Istanbul, it's for good reason: the fine Ottoman mosque was built at the order of Suleiman the Magnificent and planned by the famed architect Sinan. The mosque was built mostly by Christian masons and architects who had converted to Islam.

The buildings that surround the mosque's courtyard were also built and planned by Sinan. They were built originally as accommodation for the Dervishes, famous for their religious chants and "whirling." It was used later as a khan to house pilgrims who were on their way to Mecca.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WJMPuTOtGo

Wow, this place really has a great deal of historical significance!!