Syria - Land of ?

Hi again,

As you all know (all 2 of you who read this blog - Thanks, Mum's), we finished our African leg of the trip by heading back to the Middle East for a few weeks. Our first stop was Syria - Land of, well, we're not sure. Let's see...

Our first port of call was the worlds oldest continually habituated city, Damascus. Evidence shows that people have been living in Damascus since around 10,000 BC which is one hell of a claim to fame and great reason to start there!


Souk by day...




Souk by night.

In Damascus we visited the National Museum, which holds some fantastic finds from the various archeological sites around Syria dating from the Roman, Byzantine periods. We visited the Old City and it's souks (markets) which have been in place for hundreds of years selling sweets, clothes, curios etc. The Souks were a fantastic place to people watch while having a coffee and smoking a sheesha pipe.


Downtown Damascus - Activity central!


SyriaN-SYNC

Next we hired a car to challange ourselves on the Syrian roads with the insane traffic and lacklustre road rules/driving skills! We first headed to Syria's number one tourist attraction, the Roman city of Palmyra.


Palmyra



Palmyra, as far as any achrielogical ruins go, would have to be one of the best. Set in the middle of the desert amongst a real palm tree oasis, Palmyra truly awakes the imagination. The ruins themselves are spread over 50 hectares and there are still many sections yet undicovered. Compounding this surreal environment was certainly the fact that there were only 4 or 5 other tourist in the area - We had it all to ourselves!


Syriren



Off to a great ruin start, we headed east to the Euphrates river to the ruins of Halibyya (Zenobia) and Rasafa - If we thought Palmyra was quiet, these two sites were unbelivable, Rasafa literally in the middle of the desert with no one around. No sounds of tourist buses, american guides or touts, just the wind and a couple of stoked tourists!


Zenobia - The view from the top


Ruins, yay.


The Euphrates river


Rasafa - Ruins and wind.


Rasafa



With 700km behind us we then headed east to the city of Aleppo via Lake Assad where we enjoyed a lovely lunch of spiced chicken, hommous and tabouleh over looking one of the prettiest and serene lakes we'd seen (and wishing we had more time!).


Ren a top Castle Qal'at Ja'bar


Lake Assad

Aleppo, like Damascus, is one of the oldest habituated cities in the world and holds an equal amount of charm. In fact, the souks of Aleppo outdid the slightly touristy version in Damascus as they are the main shopping pooint for the locals and the spotting other tourists was very rare. Spices, olives, meat sandwiches, sweets, clothes, olive oil soap, textiles - you name it, it was all there.


Allepo´s olive store - Yumdidly


Custom built vans to fit inside the souks!


Aleppo

However, the most impressive site in Aleppo was the Citidel, perched atop a natural outcrop with 360 views across the entire city. Ren and I spent a lovely night smoking sheesha watching the Citidel at sunset as it was lit up with all the cities light - Wonderful!


Daily citadel life.




Our final leg of the tour was to the city of Hama and Krak de Cheveliers, quoted by T.E Lawrence as 'the finest castle in the world'. Not a small claim! Hama by contrast to Aleppo and Damascus was a rather small town, but still had a great vibe. The most interesting site there were the cities water wheels from the 12th century AD used for agriculture in the area.


Hama and the waterwheels.

We can't say Krak De Cheveliers is the best castle in the world, however it must surely be up there. Perched on top a mountain in near the area of Tartus, this amazing Crusader Castle dating from 11 centruy BC is in excellent condition almost entirely preserved. The views from all it's terraces are breathtaking and it was a great finish to our Syrian Driving trip.


Krak Des Chevaliers


Warrior pose.


Krak...





Coffee

Overall, Syria was a great change from the African leg and a culinary, coffee and cultural highlight. The people were by far the most helpful and genuine we've come across on any travels, which breaks any sort of steretype you could have. In two words - GO THERE!

Thanks for reading,
John and Ren :)