Tag Archives: Krak des Chevaliers

Syria Before The Conflict Part 3, Hama & Krak des Chevaliers

We bade a very fond farewell to Aleppo. We were on the 4am train to Hama some three hours south. Our hotel had kindly made us a packed breakfast, not overly appealing as it happened, but nice of them to take the trouble. As you might expect, we slept most of the way and set […]

Wordless Wednesday – Krak Des Chevaliers, Syria

Sunday Photos – Camels

Today’s photo collection features that ridiculous looking but truly amazing creature, the camel. Without the ship of the desert there would have been no Silk Route, no Samarkand and perhaps little or no amazing Islamic architecture throughout Central Asia. We have much to thank our hump backed friends for. Kraka the Camel, Krak des Chevaliers, […]

Syria Before The Conflict Part Three, Hama & Krak

We bade a very fond farewell to Aleppo. We were on the 4am train to Hama some three hours south. Our hotel had kindly made us a packed breakfast. Not overly appealing as it happened, but nice of them to take the trouble. As you might expect, we slept most of the way and set […]

Sunday Photo – 20

This is another of my favourite photos from Syria. It shows me and my travel buddy Hamish with the marvellous castle of Krak des Chevaliers behind us. Notice we were wearing identical t-shirts – a thoughtful gift from Mrs Wilbur presented to us on the morning of our departure.

Ancient Aleppo

Aleppo has the status of my favourite city ever visited and as the metropolis that vies with Damascus as the world’s oldest continually occupied settlement of significant size, I have convinced myself that it will rise again from the devastation caused by the civil war that has raged since 2011. With the attention of the […]

Krak des Chevaliers

I have visited some brilliant castles on my travels (notably in Wales) but the number one for me by some distance is Syria’s Krak des Chevaliers (castle of the crusaders), situated in Western Syria close to the Lebanese border. It was built up by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem from 1142 to […]