the dead cities

After Thursday's independent travel marathon, decided to relax a bit by taking an organized "tour" through my hotel. "Tour" is loosely defined. They usually = taxi driver with limited English and fixed itinerary. But it's amazing how much more interesting these become when you can speak (some of) the local language! My translation skills got a good workout.

The tour went to some of the Dead Cities and Qal'aat Salah-al-Din (Saladin Castle). The former are scattered throught the plains between Hama and Aleppo. Built in the Byzantine era, they were mysteriously abandoned: probably a combination of changes in trading routes and earthquakes. Their former occupants didn't bother carting away any of the stone and later residents left the structures intact. Now, they're ghosts towns, empty except for the occasional Bedouin family and herd of sheep.

We went to Sergille first. The city was a provincial capital and the site is extremely extensive. Many 2 story buildings are still standing. Beyond the city, a rocky, rolling landscape criss-crossed by ancient stone fences extends in all directions. You wander in sun-soaked silence broken only by the occassional tinkling of goats' bells. I decided to up the atmospheric ante by throwing the soundtrack to "The Last Temptation of Christ" onto my iPod.

Next, Al-Barra. The site is more spread out and buildings are half-hidden by surrounding olive groves. Coming up over a rise to get my first view of the city, I had a brief moment of deja vu; the view was oddly reminiscent of Tikal in Guatemala. Especially with the pyrimidal tombs.

From Al-Barra, we drove through rural towns, across the "Al-Gharb" agricultural region (lots of water-intensive crops like tobacco and cotton taking advantage of the river plain). Then up over the Western mountains; these are the same ones that run through Lebanon. The views were amazing. The driving, terrifying.

The most impressive thing about our last destination, Qal'aat Salah-al-Din, is its location, on a spur between two ravines. On the one side with a land linkage, Byzantine builders and their Crusader replacements had carved a 50 foot deep trench out of solid rock. Here's the view from the top of the ramparts:

Coming back, we passed through more gorgeous scenery. Some reminded me of Provence: white, chalky rocks surrounded by scrub. Further up, pine forests. Closer to the coast, more lush: far greener than I expeced in Syria.

Back in Hama, joined locals and tourists in an evening promenade through the city parks. Everyone was out strolling and taking cell phone photos of the norias. And of the camel and handlers that had disconcertingly appeared to offer rides. The funny thing is that 98% of the tourists here are Arab, but the camel was clearly meant to be an entertaining novelty. One more stereotype bites the dust.