During our stay in wonderful Aleppo in 2009 we hired a taxi driver to take us northwards to two castles named Qal’at Ja’bar and Qal’at Najm.

The long journey was well worth it as both castles looked majestic framed by blue skies and the beautiful azure waters of Lake Assad and the Euphrates River respectively.

We happily clambered around both fortifications with my mate Hamish posing for some pretty hair-raising shots!

I was just happy to climb on and off the boat that we boarded for a tour around the base of Ja’bar with no mishaps.

We returned happy from our seven hour trip and made our driver’s day with a decent tip as he had looked after us so well (he had also taken us to St Simeon’s Monastery the day before).

I often wonder about how he has fared in recent years…….