Just returned from a weekend trip to Hama and the region around it. The city itself has little to offer outside of reconstructed water wheels but it is famous for being destroyed by the Syrian government in 1982 due to there being a larger number of Muslim Brotherhood members there. The simple solution for the banned organization? Destroy the entire town and kill around 20,000 people. Thus, there is really little worth seeing there.
However, within an hour in all directions of Hama, Syria is bursting with history. There are around 9 castles from the crusades, deserted Byzantine towns out in the middle of nowhere eerily quiet and undocumented, Roman cities like Apamea and much much much more. I visited the infamous Krak de Chevaliers, which T.E. Lawrence called “the finest castle in the world” and was right, as well as the Musayf castle, used by the Assassins
The magnificent Krak des Chevaliers taken from the outer wall. It consists of a huge outer wall, moat and then inner wall.
Krak again. a truly exquisite place
Apamea, the most stunning Roman ruins I’ve seen in all my life. This main street was over 1 mile long (~2km). In its heyday, the city was home to half a million Roman citizens. Now it sits overlooking vast plains in the middle of nowhere while a small Belgian team continues to excavate around it.
Serjilla, one of the hundreds of deserted Byzantine cities in northern Syria. They were originally located on land that was supposed to have been home to vast orchards. Why and when they were abandoned nobody knows.
More of the same. Keep in mind there are no fences, no guards, nothing restored and this is truly the middle of nowhere with nothingness in all directions. A small 5×5 house with a family and a 10 year old asking for 10 cents entry is all there was.
We found two families squatting there and living in what must be houses at least a thousand years old. They were tending to their flock of sheep.
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