July 25, 2001 Aleppo Qalaat Al Saadin (Castle of Saladin) Tartus (1) |
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Short night
due to an early wake up at 4 am, I am ready for the first prayer of the day!
Once again I have to wake up the guard at the entrance in order to leave the
building. I have no problem to find my way to the railway station and I
arrive well before the departure for Lattakia. I take my first class ticket
for the 6 am train (SP 65) but I have to wait in the hall of the building
whereas the temperature is better outside but its forbidden. I take time to
look at the paintings on the walls all linked to the history of trains in
Syria. Two employees spend their time cleaning the marble floor whereas there
is no dust on it, we can have breakfast on it!! Finally we
have the authorization to go on the platform to reach the train. With such
low fares to go to Lattakia, all the Syrians seem to travel in first class
cars, whereas there is only one second class car. The trip is
straightforward, I fall asleep many times so I cant remember well the
landscape we ran trough. In Lattakia
just after 9 am, I directly go to the stadium where is located the minibus
station to reach the castle of Saladin (Qalaat Al Saladin). On my way, I find
the visitor center and I ask for some information on the castle, the fares to
go there from the village of Al Haffe (SP 50 roundtrip but you have to
bargain a lot). Not yet fully waken up I paid two places in the minibus (me
and my bag). In Al Haffe, I start bargaining to get the right fare to go to
the castle on a motorbike and it is not easy for me to seat on the motorbike
with a nearly 20 bag on my back but the driver is a professional. The road
that leads to the castle is a kind of rollercoaster and I am very happy when
we finally stop at the end. The driver agrees to come back in 2 hours to
bring me back to the village. No problem! Mafi Mouchekala! The gatekeeper
offers me a free entrance because he doesnt have the change for my SP 200
banknote. I can leave my bag near the entrance so I am lighter to visit the
site. The castle is a ruin except for the north part which is well preserved
and perfectly restored. The restorations are in progress in the central part
of the site. But the castle is huge (700m long and 120m wide), it is the
biggest crusaders castle. The castle is
located on a rocky spur and the castle had to be separated from the hill on
one side. The ditch is 15m wide, 30m high and 155m long. It is very hard to
imagine that the locals of the region made all this work manually. In the
middle of the ditch we can clearly see pile that sustained the drawbridge. As
soon as enemies were near the castle, the crusaders shot on the stones at the
top of the pile and the drawbridge fell down in the ditch. Castle of
Saladin : the ditch On the
right after the entrance, there are defensive towers, built by the crusaders. Castle of
Saladin : the towers The stables
are between two towers and they are composed of a big room with huge piles.
Just a little further, there is the entrance of the donjon: just after
entering the donjon we can notice a big pile in the middle of the room.
Inside there are stairs that linked the top of the tower to the river 30m
below. For security reasons the entrance of the secret passage is sealed. Castle of
Saladin : the south part After the
seizure of the castle, Saladin builds a mosque on the site and a hammam.
Outside this place, there are canals that were used to evacuate the water of
the hammam. We can notice a 8 branches star covered in the past with mosaics.
This square was entirely covered with marble. From the
ruins of the Byzantine citadel in the middle of the site, we have a great
view on the south part and this is for this part of the castle that Saladin
took the castle. |
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D10 :
Aleppo San Simeon Aleppo D11 :
Aleppo Qalaat Al Saadin Tartous (1)
(2) D12 :
Tartous Krak des chevaliers Beirut (1) (2) D15 :
Damascus Maaloula Damascus D17 :
Damascus Bosra Damascus D18 :
Damascus Amman Dead Sea Amman |
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Last update : January 2002
Contact : pindavid@hotmail.com