Wardan and Ashmamis

Lazy morning

I had hoped to make my third visit to Palmyra today but it wasn’t meant to be.  I wanted to see what damage had been done during the civil war.

Abdullah had appeared to discourage us from going and priced the trip at a prohibitive level.  Instead, he suggested a half-day trip instead starting this afternoon.

It was very nice to have half a day “off” just to chill.  I just have to be thankful that I had been to Palmyra twice and in fact, on the second visit, I had two sunsets there.

I took a brief wander around Hama’s citadel.  There appeared to be nothing much left as it looked like a public park on a hill and was closed.  After that, I found Khan Rustam Pasha, a 500-year poorhouse turned into an inn, then military barracks and now craft centre.  I had a shave at a barber’s before returning to the hotel.

Ant and I took a lunch of fatta before departing around 1240, Ant in Faisals’ car for our half-day excursion.

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Qasr ibn Wardan

We started with a 1h drive north-east to Qasr ibn Wardan. This is a 6^th century church, palace and barracks built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian.  It stands as part of the defence against the Persians and uses a Constantinople style not commonly seen here.

Parts of the floor still had mosaics in place and if dusted off, we could probably see some patterns.

Beehive Houses

After about an hour, we moved on to some beehive houses some 20 mins away.  Not many are intact as people have abandoned them for modern comforts.  Some are used as a barn or storage.

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Ashmamis Castle

We backtracked and turned to the south, driving for about an hour to Ashmamis Castle near Salamiyah.

The first builders of the castle were 2^nd Century Greeks but it was destroyed and rebuilt several times due to earthquakes and attacks.  What we see now is the remains of a 12^th Century Arab castle surrounded by a moat.

The walk up wasn’t too arduous and took about 10 mins for me to reach the moat.  Somehow, I didn’t think of descending down the moat to continue up to the castle.  Faisal told me later that I could have entered the castle but getting to the opening could have been a challenge.

From the moat level, the view of the countryside in the evening sun was stunning and totally worthwhile.

By the time we descended and took a short walk to get a different angle, it was nearly sunset and we left soon after, around 1730.

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Life working for the UN

Ant and I shared a half chicken for dinner tonight at a place near to the hotel.  We had nice chats about his life working for the United Nations.

He’d had postings in Afghanistan and Iraq where they live in compounds, isolated from the reality of those countries.  They are not allowed to venture freely and only go places for the necessities of work.

To give them respite from that “cooped up” life, they are given trips to low-risk destinations (e.g. UAE) every 4-6 weeks.

However, being the adventurer that he is, he buys separate tickets from such places to riskier destinations not on the approved list for mental health breaks.

And that is how he is currently in Syria.  He went for his mental health break in UAE but secretly came to Syria.  If it hadn’t been for the restrictions, he could have crossed from Iraq directly to Syria.

Finishing up in Syria

I counted up my money in my room and decided to head out to finish up as much of my Syrian pounds as I could.  I had a local ice cream from the corner shop nearby which I remember form last time, and got some Arab cake/sweets to take back to the hotel to share.

I was very pleased that my return to Syria had gone without a hitch.  While it was sad to see the destruction in many places, and how the atmosphere had changed, it is still an awesome country to visit.

Ant agreed that it ranks up there with Iran in terms of being hassle-free and hospitable.

Since 2020, I’ve been travelling with roaming and it was a bit of a change to be without internet continuously on my phone.  It didn’t take long to adapt to the offline mode that used to be so normal.