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SyriaI arrived at the border at around 9pm, tired and hungry, but too tired to cook… Sandwiches and a couple of beers were all I could manage before I fell asleep on the back seats of M in the queue with the truck drivers waiting to cross the next day. This confused people somewhat – they all said – “you can go, you’re a car – no problem – go!” but I wanted to make the most of my 14 days in Syria so crossing in the morning was the only option. 3rd March 2007 I headed straight for Aleppo, the major city of the north. Only 50km from the border it took me just over an hour to reach the city itself but almost two hours to find my bearings, find parking and locate the hostel (the spring flower hostel) in central Aleppo. The hostel is great – well located, and with dorms as well as single and double rooms available. I’ve taken a single room (at £350SYP per night – just under £3.50 in English money). I’ve a bathroom, twin beds and I don’t have to setup the tent each night – which is a very refreshing change! I’m keen to make the most of my time here so I dropped off my things and headed straight to the Citadel. My walk to the Citadel was great, getting slightly lost I meandered through the back streets and Souq’s and finally finding the Citadel, which although is very large and hard to miss from a distance – is surprisingly elusive when you’re surrounded by buildings on all sides, with only narrow alleyways available to peek down every few metres.
Once at the Citadel I climbed to the top of the structure, and met Fatan, her son and a friend Mohammed, they’re from Aleppo, both were studying law and although they’d already spent some time exploring the site they offered to show me around.
After leaving Faten, her son and Mohammed, with promises to meet up or at the very least keep in touch (which I certainly will) I headed back to the hostel, met an American called Daniel who’s been collating pictures and information on the historical sites here for over a year and went for my first Syrian dining experience… The food is incredible, many starters or Mezze contribute to the meals here – truly outstanding food at rock bottom prices (and we were in a very good restaurant). Daniel’s planning a similar route to me – going east towards the Iraqi border and heading down to the Oasis city of Palmyra before heading towards the coast and onto Damascus – so we decided to travel together in M for just over a week, Daniel’s intimate knowledge of the country, it’s sites and where to stay and eat will be a great help – I’ll be able to see the best of the thousands of historical sites here and have a proper insight into their history. 4th March 2007
I went with Daniel and a Syrian friend of his – George to ‘Saint Simeon’, the spectacular remains of four Byzantine churches around 40kn from Aleppo. The intricacy of the stonework is incredible and I’m blown away by the landscape, the distinct lack of modern scars and the atmosphere here.
There are apparently over 800 Byzantine sites around Aleppo, and on the way back from Saint Simeon we managed to stop at a further 5 sites – all with their charm, and rarely visited by tourists. Some are used by local farmers, and many still stand in populated villages. The oldest site we saw dated to 100 – 150 BC, and consisted of tombs and an outstanding stone carving of an Eagle and a man lounging beneath.
That evening George took us out for dinner with five of his friends – to the Christian area of the city, we ate relatively western food, and I was amazed to see so many young people (150 – 200) in this rooftop restaurant enjoying themselves without a drop of alcohol. Maybe 2 people in the whole place were drinking – something for me – a Brit, which is completely alien! I still need to get M fixed ASAP – and George has kindly offered to help here – we’ll visit a garage that can fix most of the critical problems before we head out to the desert. 5th March 2007
Then after trying to find the leak using lung power (they literally put some fuel in and blew through the fuel pipe) it became clear that the leak was from behind the covering panel on the rear. Off it came, after a fair amount of heat and pressure was applied.
The fuel tank was then opened like a tin can; a replacement panel was measured, cut and bent into shape before welding commenced. Whilst the fuel tank was being repaired, I had the mechanics replace the hinge on the rear passenger door which was forced in Mostar, and fit the new fuel pump (which I remembered at the last minute would be needed to ensure fuel from the repaired tank made its way to the engine). Here’s my new golden part… Maybe by the end of the trip many other parts of M will look the same.
The owner of the garage guaranteed the work for 10 years! Maybe I shouldn’t have told him that I would only be here for a few weeks… That evening we met up with some of Georges’ friends from last night, and Fatan, who had given me such a warm welcome to Syria and shown me around the Citadel and the Aleppo’s mosque. We dined at a great restaurant called Sissi House, where waiters dressed in suits entertained Fatan’s son whilst we ate. I had a great evening with everyone, we went for coffee after dinner in a very western coffee shop, a welcome change from the varied, often bad coffee I’ve been having in the Middle East recently.
Avadan and Marina who I met the previous night commented that most English people were very cold; the consensus was that we weren’t very friendly (and when judging by Syrian standards I see where they’re coming from!). I’m glad to say that by the end of the evening that impression was changed, my good deed for international relations today is done. 6th March 2007
After an hour we took a detour to a hillside overlooking the valley, before arriving at our first site of the day. The area is littered with historical gems, many remain undocumented and not photographed (which is something Daniel is working on rectifying). His knowledge of the area is outstanding, and we’re able to locate and explore the sites in good time with M.
The light today was fantastic, making it very hard to take a bad photo. The quality of the stone engraving is clear, and the state of the ruins is impressive.
The next site was again spectacularly preserved, after walking for ½ an hour and seeing the main sites I sat and drank tea with the guardian of the site. Families here are large – and it’s polite to enquire whether all is well with ones family. The guardian of this site has 12 children. He also has 12 brothers and 6 sisters with just one of the brothers having 16 children, he laughed when I asked him how he remembers all of their names... The population here is exploding, with 40% of Syrians being under 20 years of age.
and stopped at many tombs and other sites en-route to the mountain pass which would take us to the east coast. The scenery en-route was spectacular, driving through the lush valleys, the olive groves spread out all around us in every direction.
We arrived just before sunset at the spectacular Roman ruins of Afamia. After taking some spectacular sunset photos:
We stopped in the town first for fresh food and water, we were greeted by friendly shop owners who were totally unlike the annoying fake coin touts at the ruins, we were even given some free garlic. So friendly they were that they insisted we camp in a very specific, safe place, hmmm not so sure now… After saying our goodbyes, we set off in the darkness to navigate our way around the 3km site, looking for somewhere suitable to camp. The wind was fairly strong, so we needed shelter, finding a secluded spot at the end of a dirt track by the neighbouring dam, just a 10 minute walk from the ruins we setup the tent and started to cook, Daniel has been in the country for quite some time now, and has become accustomed to being followed by the Mahaberat (secret police), they follow many tourists in Syria, especially outside of the large cities. We’re probably attracting special attention due to our nationalities and the fact that I have a car capable of going almost anywhere in the country… Within an hour we had new, more important visitors, at least one of the three visitors I recognised from the town earlier, they tried their best to make us move to the “safe place”, which admittedly had showers, but after being told at the border by officials I can camp anywhere and it’s totally safe, I wasn’t willing to be moved after setting up the tent. The wind was high, we had shelter, and a great view of the lake and the Dam. After kindly refusing to move they left and within an hour returned once more – this time with a plan. The senior of the three said to us – “look over there” (to the barracks or military facility by the Dam), “they may not be happy with you camping here – and I have no influence over them – they’re not from here, if they come and ask you to leave, you will have to move”. Within 30 seconds, another said “Oh – Listen! A motorbike is coming across the Dam, they must have seen you”. Uh huh. We again fought off arguments to move, and after sharing ½ a bottle of scotch with the police from the other side of the dam; they agreed reluctantly to let us stay… Little did we know they would place a guard outside our tent for the entire night. I was cold, and I had two blankets and a sleeping bag. Poor guy – he must have been freezing. I heard him shuffling round in the night, coughing occasionally, and generally being unhappy. No wonder everyone was so keen for us to move – no-one wanted to watch us all night! Apart from being noisy, our spook guardian left had no trace of his presence, he didn’t re-light the campfire, and left no cigarette buts, despite them smoking like chimneys, he was at least careful about making it look like he wasn’t here. I guess he’ll sleep well today. We left the tent at dawn, and saw our spook hurtle across the dam presumably straight to his bed, and took some more photos of the ruins, this time with the sun in the other direction – making the mountains in the distance look incredibly inviting:
After exploring some more, we left our Dam campsite (probably what the guard was saying too), and headed off:
We stopped to climb to the crusader castle of Barzeh on the side of the mountain pass, taking the hard way up the eastern cliff face. It’s no wonder the Arabs attacked this castle from the west – after reaching the summit exhausted, I found that Daniel was 100% right - it’s far easier to climb down the other way!
The easy way:
Once we’d started the climb over the mountains, it wasn’t long before M had started to overheat and not for the first time. It’s a reoccurring problem that has been worrying me somewhat – knowing that we’d never make it over the 1500m pass in anything like a reasonable amount of time if we had to keep stopping; the Haynes manual came out for the first time that day. After identifying an airlock in the coolant system and resolving the problem we were on our way again, albeit a little late. Stopping for lunch in one of the favourite Syrian mountain resorts, the locals started saying “Mahzot??” to me, which means ‘diesel’, thinking they were asking whether it was diesel (there’s a fair amount of interest in M wherever I travel but especially here) I answered “yes – Mahzot”, to which the reply came in the form of a pointed finger towards the back of the Land Rover. Sure enough, the diesel leak was now much worse than it was before – I estimated we were losing around a litre an hour. Thankfully the leak wasn’t coming from the new panel that was welded, but the fuel guage sender unit, but having paid for the work in Aleppo, I decided to take it back to the man who guaranteed the work for 10 years. That put an end to our plans of seeing the coast, but there’s only one nice beach apparently, and I’ve seen enough of them in Turkey. We arrived at the garage in Aleppo just before 7pm, and were glad to find them still open… They were happy to see us again, the previous days limited football discussions and Daniel speaking some Kurdish engendered us to them somewhat! After ½ hour and a rather ‘bodge job’ solution of sticking a screw in the offending gauge which seemed to solve the problem, we’re off to the hotel for some well deserved sleep. Too tired to meet up with everyone again I slept like a baby, but had vivid dreams of dripping diesel all night. 7th March 2007 Our first stop was the stunning minaret of Maskarieh, sandwidched between the desert and the huge lake created by Syrias largest hydro-electricity producing dam of the Euphrates.
Here’s the stunning view from the top:
The next site we would camp at – the grand castle (Qalaat) of Jaabar perfectly is situated now with a man-made moat, courtesy of Syria’s dam building projects in the 1980’s. To reach the castle, we crossed over the huge Dam, after receiving much attention from the military at the permanent roadblock. An Englishman and an American, travelling in a 4x4 seems to generate a lot of excitement for the men with rifles here – after a 10 minute stop, the guards taking all of our details, and ensuring we had no devices in the back of the Land Rover capable of destroying this beloved treasure (like what??!) we were free to cross the huge structure. We setup camp in the shadow of the castle, and met a group of pharmasists from Aleppo who had been fishing (unsuccessfully) all day. After collecting firewood and doing chores, I put a line in the water and we setlled into a great nights camping.
Note the annoying power lines in the last photo – it seems they do this to all great natural sights here – run great ugly power lines, right where there’s a good photo opportunity. Possibly a reminder to everyone of how important this new source of power is?? On the way to our next stop at Al-Rasafeh, we stopped at a minor site that Daniel had not visited before. Fairly ruined, with not much to see, I was for once glad to see the ever present local shepherds and ‘chat’ to them, using whatever means possible whilst Daniel took some shots.
Was probably due to the fact that it was actually their toilet – nice! Our campsite for the night was at the huge ancient desert city of as Rasafeh, a spectacular Byzantine site. We arrived, and I started work on jobs for M. Tightening the handbrake shoes, and starting the 6000mile service. I need some oil in the passenger side swivel pin, and an oil leak from the transfer box is preventing a successful handbrake resolution for now.
It’s great being able to camp where I please – and with no worries about safety. We can literally pitch the tent anywhere – the city walls provided me with some welcome shelter from the sun whilst fixing M… The site’s incredible, a huge city, with lots to see:
It’s Friday today, which is the one day off most Syrians get in a week… There are busloads of locals here enjoying the great weather, having barbecues, and some I noted were even smoking weed – rare in Syria.
we joined the rowdy crowd for cigerretes, dancing, talk of football and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
They truly were a colourful bunch, in the UK, I’d have been slightly wary of a large group of similar guys, situations like that back home can sadly often turn to violence, but not here – they taught me a few local dances, and I tried my very best (which isn’t very good at all)…. My height here is of constant discussion, and talk of basketball is never more than a few words away. 10th March 2007
Our first stop was at Tal Harira, an ancient site, dating to 6000bc
Here’s our view of Iraq, and sadly it’s the closest I’d like to be to it for at least the next 10 years:
Next stop was Tal Salihiyeh, a huge greek and roman site next to the Euprates,
That night we slept in a very cheap hostel in Dier Zor, experiencing firsthand the madness that is this city was quite something… They’re very proud of their bridge here – it’s the only thing of tourist interest here – so I was keen to take a look. After walking the 1.5km across the pedestrian bridge, it became apparent that there was nothing at the other side. It seems they just built it just so they could have something to shout about! 11th March 2007 The hotel manager said to me “where is your car?” A question sure to be on the lips of the security services… Funny that.
We needed some bread for breakfast, so instead of going to our first destination (Qalaat Rahbeh) we drove – as directed by a shop owner a few hundred metres before our turn, past the castle and 1km further on. Failing to find a bakery, we turned around, as did our tail, and headed back, past the castle once more… At this point, our tail, which had already been pointed out to us by our friendly hotel manager, and surely spotted not only by us, but by hundreds of other people on this road doing silly U turns following a foreign Land Rover stopped us and directed us to the castle…. It’s apparently unusual for security to interact openly with those they’re following – but interact they did, with cover so clearly blown. For the rest of the day and night we waved at each other, and they continued to help with directions. Very odd.
Our campsite for the night would be at Halabiyeh
It was a great campsite, I had a chance to practice some more unsuccessful fishing and we cooked a successful, interesting if not a little odd meal of chicken cabbage and spicy cheese. 12th March 2007
After an hour of exploring, we set off again into the desert, this time intending to take the roads to Palmyra, but we took a wrong turn. The road ended after 20km, off road again it is then – but this time there’s no-one around for at least 30km in any direction… And we only have 20litres of water. Hmmm, with problems, this could be interesting. Thankfully, there were no major problems on our way back to the highway, only a rather large mountain to navigate around. Offroad driving is immense fun, I only wish the terrain was slightly more challenging! We hit the highway as the sun was setting and headed to Palmyra, or ‘Tadmor’ as it’s known locally. A desert oasis home to Syria’s most spectacular roman and arab ruins.
It’s quite exhilarating feeling as free as I do at this moment… free to roam wherever M can take me, oh, and no security tail for a change. Upon arriving, in Palmyra we headed straight out in search of food. It’s been a tiring day: a couple of beers and some traditional Bedouin food and I was off to bed, but not for long – In the night I was rudely awaken by a very unhappy stomach, and spent much of the night being violently ill. People had warned me not to eat in Tadmor, I wish I had heeded this advice. I finally felt strong enough and had recovered enough to leave my room, and the safety of my bathroom… I was finally able to see the ruins and the city.
But if you’re thinking of visiting this place, I’ll let you into a small secret (the pun comes later): it’s all actually miniature size… Much like lego-land.
Leaving this place, and all it’s rotten food we headed for Damascus, a place I’ve heard so much about, and can’t wait to see.
The city suffers from severe smog, looking down on the sprawling Syrian capital, it must be a very different sight to that which the prophet Mohammed saw, and refused to enter after emerging from the eastern deserts. He said he would not enter the city as he only wanted to go to heaven once. Around this time, Damascus was small and surrounded by forests: A true paradise for anyone emerging from desert travel.
There’s little you can now see of the old town from the mountain side. The only clue to the location of the old city is the lack of tall buildings in the few square miles the historical heart of Damascus occupies. Once you spot this, the grand mosque is clear to see.
There’s no need for me to camp here in Syria whilst in the cities, rooms in backpackers hostels and the cheaper end hotels are a steal, costing around £3.50 per night… We met with one of Daniels best friends in Syria, a great guy called Salam (which means peace here – and is often used as a greeting – which confused me somewhat initially)! Salam is 20 years old, extremely political and very well read – it’s great to be able to talk to someone in Syria who has well formed opinions, and is happy to openly talk to me about politics here.
He’s also a keen chess player, so within a few hours of meeting, we were drinking Matte (the favoured drink of Ché Guevara) and playing chess. He was disappointed to lose both games, but we’ll be sure to play again. Friday 16th March After a day in the city, we decided to take a short 24 hour trip into the desert east of Damascus to visit a volcano called Jebel Siss. The weather forecast looks to be getting worse in a few days, so this may be the only opportunity we have. We stocked up on supplies, which took far longer than expected and after four hours of shopping in various colourful markets were off to the desert.
The volcano is around 100km from the city, with no roads a 4x4 is essential. We followed the roads as far as they went, and at the last village much to the locals amusement just carried on east over the sand towards our destination.
After 5 hours of driving across the desert, stopping to ask directions from the local Bedouin we found Jebel Siss, the surprisingly elusive volcano. Things got very bad on the way to the dormant giant, the terrain was suddenly volcanic, with large car breaking volcanic boulders. Oh, and the sun was setting.
After the sun had set, Daniel walked ahead of us trying to find the easiest route to a suitable camp site. We very nearly drove over a cliff into the volcano itself, before finding a secluded slightly sheltered site used by previous explorers. A fire pit was already there and we quickly set about cooking the kebab meat we’d bought earlier. I sat with Salam for a few hours discussing politics and listening to music before being too exhausted to think any more… I slept at around 10pm, only to be awoken by my stomach again four or five hours later. I’m sick again and fed up with it! Upon waking I checked over M. Noticing a few problems, thankfully and amazingly no major issues. I have however seriously bent the central crossmember – and broken one of the exhaust brackets. I’m amazed after looking around that more serious damage wasn’t done – and have learned my lesson with night driving on very rocky terrain.
It would have been a real shame to have driven all this way, and not climb the volcano, so mustering all of my remaining energy off we set. It was worth it.
Once we’d sat in the silcence at the top of the volcano for a good hour, watching the eagles soar above us, we set off for Damascus, this time following the road! We checked into a different hotel, this time one with a bathroom, there were no single rooms, so Daniel and I opted for a twin room. Little did I know I’d spend three days just seeing those four walls. I felt rotten, something like this:
There’s not much to say about the following days. Bread and roasted peanuts were the highlights of the day – and all the time I’m conscious that one of the cities I most want to see is waiting outside for me. After recovering, I was able to explore the city. The architecture in the old city is incredible. Strangely it reminds me of drawings I’ve seen of Frankfurt before the Second World War.
The old city is fairly compact, taking around ½ an hour to walk across. The souq isn’t as impressive and exciting as the one in Aleppo but it’s still quite an experience.
The mosque is apparently one of the must see’s of the area, I’m saving it until last – the inside is apparently spectacular, it’s pretty impressive from the outside too.
The next few days were spent rushing around the various sights of Damascus, and taking the opportunity to eat, and eat, and eat some more. I’ve barely eaten for 10 days, and the food in this city is as good as the best Lebanese food, at a fraction of the price. Daniel knows all the best spots, and I’m eating a big breakfast three mains for lunch, snacks throughout the day and as much as I can eat in the evening! The restaurants themselves are incredible, many are old town houses, converted to seat a few hundred people – Thursday night’s always busy, the traditional day of rest is of course Friday, and people make a whole evening of going for a meal – which can make getting a table frustratingly tricky if you haven’t booked.
Next to see in the city are the government owned town houses, often repossessed residences for foreigners who haven’t paid their taxes – they offer a fascinating glimpse into the life of the wealthy in Syria. The houses are situated in the heart of the old town; the entrances to these mini oases lie inconspicuously off the busy winding side streets.
Once inside, the hustle of the busy city suddenly evaporates; you’re left standing in a tranquil courtyard, surrounded by silence, fruit trees and stunning architecture.
\ It’s the kind of place where I can easily see myself living!
Turtles are scattered around many of the houses, often wandering between the two courtyards, or relaxing in the pool (fountain).
Some of the houses have gone a little crazy with the décor, although this building was used as a kind of hotel / hostel for the Bedouin who’d travelled to market with their livestock.
So, after a hectic day of rushing around the city, taking in as much as I can now I’m fit once more – I ventured into the mosque and after paying the 50p entrance fee (for non Muslims) I was finally inside, albeit a week late.
Children play in the courtyard, families sit, watching, often deep in thought and often laughing, it’s a very peaceful experience.
It’s common in the Middle East for men to hold hands or walk arm in arm, throughout the complex men can be seen walking quietly together, if they see you’re a tourist (and I’m hard to miss), they’ll insist you take a photo of them
Often spoiling what could be a great photo, that with the hoards of people constantly milling around takes some time to get ;-) !
Inside the prayer hall people sit, often reading the Koran or praying. I sat for at least 30 minutes, just watching the movement (or lack of it), and thinking about my journey so far – it seems like a lot has happened in just 7 weeks.
23rd March 2007 |
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