Damascus

 

Carpets in the souk and in the traffic, a memorial in Martyr Square

Damascus

 

The traditional and the new, approaches to just hanging around

Crusader Castles

Saladin's Castle, the gate where Raymond of Tripoli was taken out by the Assassins Cult and the town and crusader tower interior in Safita. Plus Krak des Chevaliers and the pass through from the coastal plain towards Damascus, the Homs gap, which gives Krak both its importance and its wild weather.

Ebla, Apamea and Ugarit

Ebla as a working site was still very nuch in action with excavators finishing off their season. You can see above the kitchen with its grinding stones looking towards the main gate and the destruction layers in the walls. Apamea was a cavalry base with both 300 elephants, that didn't work out as the climate was wrong for them and later 33,ooo horses. The very long and elaborate colonade was unsurprisingly the victim of the frequent earthquakes in the region.
Ugarit, as a part of the Empire that Akhenaten lost to the Hittites despite extreme diplomatic efforts to save it, is very interesting to me. There was more to see than I thought as the guide books were unfairly scathing about it. From the strangely Mycenean front gate to the palace with its plumbing and gardens, the streets, houses of the wealthy with thier inbuilt tombs and water storage arrangements, it was easy to read, admittedly the temple area at the top is more of a jumble but I don't know why the guides strongly implies there was nothing discernable.

Aleppo

This is where the bug got me so I didn't get around that much, probably a lovely place. Citadel, mosque and souk saw me on the run.

Justinian's Vision

We visited two centres that both gained major fortifications under Justinian as part of his doomed plan to revive the power of the old Roman Empire. One on the Euphrates was known as Zenobia the other in the desert had as its heart the church of Bishop Sergius

Dura Europos

very excited about this, a city right on the edge, of the Euphrates,of the border and in the end of cultures that saw its destruction. It became the haunt of wild beasts and even now seems an isolated and semideserted sort of place. Its a huge site but the amazing finds of frescoes and military artifacts from the great seige are all elsewhere.

Desert Castles

We visited the first castle on the edge of Palmyra but the second is in an isolated area that apparently was a little more fertile in the time of the Arab conquestswhen many of these were developed, hunting and pleasure lodges but security measures as well.

Pretty, pretty Palmyra.

The desert oasis, enormous temple to Baal/Bel, Arab castle, tombs, colonaded street, very lovely, bit too lovely, why don't I warm to them, perhaps it is the rampant commercialism, ancient not modern. Women are well represented in the tombs of the wealthy but pictured in the temple they are anonymous bolts of cloth.

Syrian Desert

We left the coast and turned east to the steppe area, very arid and flat but a surprising number of quite large eating places, often designed for bus tours dot the countryside. The Bagdad cafe is famous, there are now three altogether, they serve, among other things, excellent mint tea.