Syria Part III: Castles & Ruins – America's Finest Ambassador

Intro

: The line drawn on the map roughly traces the route we took from Aleppo over to the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus before cutting east across the country to visit the ancient city of Palmyra. From Palmyra we went back to Damascus where I spent the night, and the following morning I was picked up by Asser the driver at Bab Touma before being shuffled back across the border to Lebanon.

: The next stop on our list had been the ancient ruins of Apamea. The plan was to drive south from Aleppo on the M5 Highway until we hit the town of Khan Shaykhun, where we’d turn right and start heading west towards the Mediterranean coast. What makes this ride interesting is that the city of Idlib and the area surrounding it are still held by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. So this is the closest we’d get on this trip to what is still considered an active warzone. That said, we’d already driven this portion of the M5 on our way north up to Aleppo without incident, so we weren’t expecting to have any problems this time around. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham actually has a pretty interesting back story. I won’t bother trying to explain it here, but at the time of writing, this was the best article that I’d encountered on the subject… https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20230511-reporters-notebook-idlib-the-last-islamist-rebel-bastion-in-syria

: When passing near the town of Saraqib on the M5 Highway, they had these big dirt embankments on the side of the road to protect drivers from bullets and whatever else that might come flying towards ‘em out of Idlib

: Don’t know the exact location of this photo, but I remember it being one of the smaller towns we’d passed through after having turned west off the M5 at Khan Shaykhun. There were several Syrian Army checkpoints in this area as well as at least one Iranian checkpoint on an even smaller road that branched off this one towards the north, but – even though I was expecting to – I did not see any Russian forces at my time of passing through.

: Unexploded ordinance

Apamea

: Arrival to Apamea. At two kilometers long, the Great Colonnade, which you’re looking at here, is one of the most famous stretches of columns from the ancient Roman world.

: Winter, spring, summer and fall – these guys have been standing out here since the second century

: Here I set a 10-second timer on my phone, balanced it atop some old knocked-over ruins, hit the button and ran to go stand by Akel for the photo

Saladin’s Castle

: After visiting Apamea, we continued our journey west towards the Mediterranean coast. This photo was taken in a town called Shathah in the Hama Governorate. We’d soon after be turning to the left to go up and over the An-Nusayriyah Mountains you see ahead there in the photo. Once up at the top of those mountains we’d be leaving Hama behind and entering the Latakia Governorate.

: At a rest stop/viewpoint on the top of the mountains from the previous photo. Manhal doesn’t seem as pleased as Akel to have entered Latakia.

: Women preparing manakeesh at the rest stop where the last photo was taken

: Once the dough has the toppings on it, it’s stuck to the wall of one of these ovens and left to cook

: Things are heating up

: Finished product. The two folded ones were filled with cheese, two different types. The green topping on the one below that is zaatar, which is an herbal blend composed primarily of thyme. And the red one on the bottom was…I don’t remember. I don’t think it was tomato, I think was some kind of red pepper mixture. Or maybe it was a combo of red peppers and tomato. I’m not sure.

: Some dude we flagged down and asked for directions on how to get to Sahyun Castle

: The castle as seen from afar. This site had first been fortified as early as the middle of the tenth century and was used to guard the route between Latakia and Antioch – the latter now located in the Hatay Province of Turkey – but wouldn’t take the form of a castle until after the place was taken over by French crusaders (specifically Robert the Leper) around the year 1119. Not too long after that, in 1188, the castle was sieged and taken over by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. The traditional name of the site had always been Qal’at Sahyun – which in English means “Zion Castle” – but because of who it was conquered by is also known as Qal’at Salah ad-Din, or Saladin Castle.

: Checking out the inside of the castle

: View from the castle

: As seen in the previous photo but with much more zoom, here’s a local family having a picnic at the base of the castle

: We ended the day with a visit to a place called Buhaira 16 Tishreen, which in English is the “16th of October Lake” or something like that. I looked up a list of public holidays in Syria to see what the significance of October 16th might be in the country and there are no holidays on that particular day, so I’m not sure why it’s called that. I guess, because of its proximity to a nearby town called Mashqita, it’s also referred to as Lake Mashqita.

: The plan was – like the other people on this boat in the photo you see are doing – to have a nice, peaceful relaxing boat ride while the sun sets. Our ride wasn’t like that, however, because…

: …the driver of our boat used his enormous speaker system to blast obnoxious party music at a volume so loud you couldn’t even hear the person next to you talking. I mean, it wasn’t like we were having a dance party with drinks and girls or anything like that. It was literally just me, Akel, Manhal and that dude on the boat. His choice in music really just didn’t match the set or the setting at all.

Goin’ Coastal

: The Latakia Governorate is where President Bashar al-Assad and his family come from – specifically from the town of Qardaha. While reading up on Latakia and the current state of things in Syria, I found an article from late November 2022 that was written by this dude who was born in Syria but’d been living in America for a long time and had recently taken a trip home to visit his family. It offers perspective that I as a foreigner can not… https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/an-exile-returns-to-find-syria-changed-forever/

: We spent a night at La Mira Hotel & Resort which is a bit north of the city of Latakia. The place was jam-packed. There were so many people trying to get breakfast at the same time that there weren’t enough plates and juice glasses for everyone. As soon as one of the busboys would come out of the kitchen carrying a clean stack of either, a group of breakfasteers would pounce on ‘em and take ‘em for all they’re worth. I was able to get a plate on my own, but was not able to get anything to drink juice out of. Upon joining him at a table, when my driver Manhal saw I didn’t have one, he volunteered to go grab a glass for me. I told him that it wasn’t a big deal and that he didn’t have to, but he did it anyway. He ended up standing by the kitchen door alongside the rest of the glassware scavengers for a good 5-10 minutes until he was able to snag one for me while his own breakfast got cold and shitty sitting on the table in front of me.

: The beach at La Mira. Beyond the swimming zone, there was a guy cruising around on a jet ski. It was weird to see. Felt more like being in Florida than in Syria.

: After a night in Latakia, we drove down the coast to spend a night in Tartus at a place called Shahin Tower Hotel. Unlike in Latakia where it was no problem at all for me to go swimming, none of the beaches in Tartus would allow me in, not even the one directly affiliated with Shahin Tower Hotel where I was a guest. We drove around to three different beaches before giving up and they all told us the same thing – that it’s not that type of beach. And my guide Akel was like, “What ‘type’ of beach do you mean? The guy is a tourist in our country and just wants to go swimming.” And they said their beaches are for families and for couples and even for women, but a guy or groups of guys that don’t have any women with them are not allowed because they will probably start trouble.

: At this fruit stand was the first time I ever tried yellow dates. All the other ones I’d ever tried had been the brownish ones that kinda look like prunes.

: The man, the myth, the legend

: About two miles offshore from the city of Tartus is Arwad, the only inhabited island in Syria. Arwad has been inhabited since as early as the 2nd Century BC, and as of the most recent census has a population of 4403.

: Watching the sun go down alongside some fishermen in the town of Tartus

: There was a pretty rowdy wedding celebration at Shahin Tower Hotel that night. Lots of drumming and lots of fireworks

Krak des Chevaliers

: One of the most well-preserved medieval castles in the world, Krak des Chevaliers, as seen from the nearby town of Al-Mishtaya

: “Krak” is an old Syriac word meaning “fortress.” So, combined with the second half of the title which is in French, Krak des Chevaliers means “Fortress of the Knights.” The Knights being referenced here are the Crusaders that were in control of – and had built the fortress up to how it appears now – Krak des Chevaliers from 1143 to 1271.

: A family hanging out at the entrance of the castle

: Guys doing some reparations at the castle which had been damaged during the war. From 2012-2014, Krak had been under the control of some 500 rebels that occupied the fortress until being recaptured by the forces of Al-Assad. I have no way of verifying whether or not this is true, but I like this one story told by Ayoub Smadi – the owner of Marrota Travel & Tourism, the company that sponsored my visit to Syria – about Krak des Chevaliers. He said, “I would like to mention an incident that occurred during the war in the castle when the terrorist groups were occupying and the terrorist leader was staying in the middle of the castle enjoying drugs. He asked one of his guards to bring girls to have fun, and when the guard told him that there were no girls, he asked him to bring his sister, so the guard emptied his automatic rifle in the leader’s body and ran away.”

: In 1271, Mamluk sultan Baybars laid siege to the castle for little over a month before the crusaders within surrendered. The chapel there was turned into a mosque and the fortress remained with the Mamluks all the way until 1516 when it fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

: I think this is the only Latin inscription that was left up on the walls of the castle since the time of the crusaders. My guide Akel told me it says something like, “Wisdom, beauty and richness are given to you by God. Be careful of pride because it will destroy them all.”

: This place has so many different underground hallways and staircases and stuff, it was like a maze. It was pretty fun to explore. Though I think there was only like one functioning bathroom in the place and that was back by the entrance, and by this point in the trip I developed a pretty shitty case of diarrhea, so holding that in for the three hours we were there wasn’t too much fun, but yeah…the exploring was.

: Following behind Akel in this creepy dark hallway

: A view of what I believe to be the village of Al-Husn as seen from Krak des Chevaliers

: Me hangin’ out that same window

: Walking with Akel along the outer wall of the fortress

: Looking down from the top of the castle at that same outer wall from the previous photo where a group of young women are now hanging out

: View of the village Al-Mishtaya, the place where I’d be spending the night

: Before going out to dinner in Al-Mishtaya, Akel and I took a walk over to this Greek Orthodox place called St. George Monastery which had been established back in the 5th Century. According to our good friend Wikipedia, of the 32 villages in this area of the Homs Governorate called Wadi al-Nasara, 27 of them are Christian, 4 are Alawite Muslim and 1 – Al-Husn, the one right next to Krak des Chevaliers – primarily practices Sunni Islam.

: While his group of Lebanese tourists had been exploring the inside of St. George Monastery, this bus driver had been hanging out smoking a hookah in the luggage storage/undercarriage part of the vehicle

: Plant people of Al-Mishtaya

Palmyra

: Saw this while eating breakfast at the Villa Rosa Hotel in Al-Mishtaya. Pretty much every country in the world has either a Red Cross or Red Crescent NGO operating there, doing humanitarian aid stuff. Because it’s a Muslim majority country, in Syria they have the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. Because the US is a Christian majority country, we have the American Red Cross. Fun fact: Lebanon is the only Arab League member state to use the red cross symbol instead of the red crescent. Though this can’t be proven because the last official census that was held in Lebanon had been back in 1932, it’s probably because Lebanon had still been a Christian majority country back in 1946 when the organization was founded. In 2022, the CIA World Factbook estimated that around 67% – not including all of the Palestinian and Syrian refugees there – of Lebanon’s population is now Muslim. According to that same source, 87% of Syria is Muslim (includes Sunni 74% and Alawi, Ismaili, and Shia 13%) and 13% is Christian/Druze.

: Filling up on gas somewhere in western Homs before the long drive east to the ruins of Palmyra

: Guys hanging out at the gas station shown in the previous photo

: To the left we go

: The city of Palmyra is said to have been founded in the 3rd millennium BC, but only became a subject of the Roman Empire in the first century AD.

: All that’s left of the Temple of Bel which dates back to 32AD. The temple, dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Bel, had actually been in pretty good shape up until the start of the civil war. During the time when ISIS was in control of Tadmur (the modern town adjacent the old Roman city) and Palmyra, they decided to blow the place up for being a sacrilegious pagan temple. Though that wasn’t before they looted every artifact they could from the site so they could sell ‘em on the black market and continue to fund their expansion.

: Some reconstruction projects have been undertaken since Palmyra was recaptured from ISIS by Syrian forces in March 2017. Knowing that, I couldn’t help but wonder if the residents of the adjacent town of Tadmur – which was in shambles when we passed through it – are angry that people care more about rebuilding an ancient site that no one lives in than fixing up their homes and mosque.

: Exploring with Akel. ISIS was said to have left mines all over the place upon their retreat from Palmyra. And even though the place has been thoroughly demined since then, I stuck to the well-trodden paths just in case.

: Checking out an old “hypogeum” burial site in a part of Palmyra called Valley of the Tombs that was raided by ISIS for artifacts and then turned into an underground bunker

: Akel asked me if I wanted to swim here but I declined. Not gonna lie, temperatures were in the mid-90s and it looked mighty refreshing, but there were some sketchy guys hanging out there and I didn’t wanna be near ‘em. Akel said they were foreign soldiers. “They look Central Asian. You think they’re from Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan or something?” I asked. “I thought they were Afghan,” he replied. “Afghan?” I said. “I don’t think the Taliban has enough control over their own country to send troops abroad to maintain peace.” “Hmm yeah,” Akel said. “All I know is that there are Russian troops here. I really don’t know where these guys are from. Or what they do here.” At any rate, their origin wasn’t what made them sketchy. What I didn’t like was how one of them caught a frog and then they were all throwing it around to one another and hitting it like a baseball while laughing hysterically. Made me feel like if these guys are ignorant enough for that shit, they’d have no problem beating the shit out of some stupid white guy just because.

: The first thing that came to mind when going back and looking at all my photos and seeing this one were the lyrics to the song “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John. But instead of them being directed towards an emotionally abusive ex-lover, I imagine them being directed towards ISIS. “You know I’m still standing better than I ever did. Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid. I’m still standing after all this time. Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind. I’m still standing (yeah, yeah, yeah)”

: The Roman Theater at Palmyra was built in the second century AD. There was an 82-year-old man named Khaled al-Asaad to whom the ancient city of Palmyra was a very special place. He was a renowned antiquities scholar that was said to have dedicated more than fifty years of his life to the study and preservation of this place. When ISIS rolled into town he was captured and interrogated. They wanted to know where all the goods were at so they could sell ‘em all and get rich. Because he refused to reveal where the valuable artifacts had been moved for safekeeping, they proceeded to cut his head off and hang his body from one of the ancient columns here in Palmyra. And it was here in this amphitheater, in front of a live studio audience, where those animals made one of their infamous propaganda videos of 25 men being executed in unison not too long after having taken control of the site.

: Adjacent the ruins of Palmyra is the Bedouin-style tent belonging to a man named Abou Eid where Akel, Manhal and I spent a good portion of the afternoon drinking tea, eating dates and napping in the shade.

: Baby camel outside Abou Eid’s tent

: Manhal takin’ it easy inside the tent before that afternoon’s ride back to Damascus