Palmyra exploring the ruins

November 19th

I really must give up drinking 12% beer...

A little history:

The ancient city of Palmyra is one of Syria's must see places of antiquity. Not only for its superb archaeological ruins of the Roman city that once stood here, but also because it boasts one of the largest, and most complete, temples in the Middle East: The temple of Bel.

Palmyra was, and still is, also known as Tadmor - the modern Hebrew name for this place. This title gives some clue to its history. The ancient city of Tadmore is referred to in the bible [in Chronicles 8:4 to be exact] and was thought to have been built by king Solomon himself. It has been further traced back to Babylonian tablets in the ancient city of Mari (see earlier blog) where it had the pre-Semitic name of Tadmur or Tadmor. The exact etymology of the word is a little uncertain but the Semitic name appears to be a corruption of this. The name Palmyra itself is of Greek origin - it means city of palms.

It was an important centre for trade in the network of cities that allowed merchants to travel between Persia and the Mediterranean. The Seleucids left the city mainly to itself, during their conquest of the Syria in 323BC. It grew and flourished independently for the next four centuries... until the Romans turned up. Being the historical equivalent of the Borg from StarTrek, the Romans immediately marched on Palmyra to occupy it. Interestingly enough, the Palmyrenes got word of this ahead of time and buggered off over the Euphrates. This kind of indicates that, at this time, most of the city was nomadic and could be removed and decamped at short notice! This was short lived though, and in the early part of the 1st century AD Palmyra became a Roman province, it retained a great deal of independence though, and its denizens enjoyed a very liberal rule under the Empire. In 121AD Hadrian named it Palmyra Hadriana and declared it a free city. This meant the citizens did not have to pay imperial taxes and also enjoyed equal status as Romans did. Life was good and trade prospered. Power shifted here in the 3rd century AD as the Sassanids, from the Persian empire, began to threaten Syria, and occupied the Tigris and the Euphrates. This led to a series of power struggles for control of the city which culminated in Queen Zenobia taking the throne in place of her assassinated husband, Odaenathus, [by his lovely, caring, nephew], Zenobia was quite some Queen. She was purported to be descended from Cleopatra, and equal do her in beauty, although she did not apparently share her appetite for sexual deviance. She was loved and admired greatly by her people, and during her reign created and extended the Palmyene Empire across Syria, nearly as far as Egypt itself.

The Romans were not too happy about this arrangement, and more than a little suspicious of Odaenathus's untimely decease. So they kicked off. Zenobia responded by giving it a bit of large and thus a brief war ensued. The Romans, of course, won. They besieged the city, and finally defeated Zenobia. Emperor Aurelien had her carted off to Rome as a trophy in golden chains, however it is believed she spent her remaining years as a predominant figure in Roman society -so her punishment didn't sound all that bad.

For the remaining Palmyrenes things didn't work out so well. The city was placed under martial law and became a barracks for the Roman legions in Syria. They were still more than a bit miffed and staged a rebellion in 372AD. Most of the inhabitants were massacred and the city was torched. Diocletion further expanded its fortifications but the city itself fell into ruins. In 636AD it fell to the Muslims under Khalid ibn Walid. A fortress was built above the ancient city it was used as a base for several centuries. It was finally abandoned in 1089AD after an earthquake, and it was left desolate until in the 17th century it was discovered to western history by two English merchants. It was not until the 1920s that large scale excavations began to take place. Work is still continuing today.

To access the ruins one simply walks out of town. There is no entry fee to the site itself - although certain areas within the ancient city charge an entrance fee. The main areas are distinctly divided into the Roman city, the temple of Bel, and the valley of the tombs. The Palmyrenes shared the same fascination and passion in funerary rites as their near by neighbours, the Egyptians: indeed mummification was also practiced in Palmyra. We decided to spend the first day exploring the Roman city. It was a cloudy day, which was unfortunate, as I imagine the ruins look ever more so spectacular in the sunshine, however in a converse fashion the cloud lent an ominous feel to the whole site which made it even more exciting to explore. The walk from the town took no time at all. Rather than being normal, we decided to take a roundabout route which took us to the outskirts of the site along the perimeter wall and then down to the end of the great colonnaded street. This took us to the opposite end of the Temple of Bel. To the camp of Diocletions, the Principia, and the temple of Allat, all in the shadow of the ever-watchful Qala'at Ibn Maan.

From here you can climb the watchtower and experience the amazing view along the decumanus. We then walked through the temple of Allat and onto the decumanus itself. Once on the ancient street you can begin to get a proper idea of just how vast this place was in its prime. Here we were hassled by a family of Bedouins. Bedouins are knights of the desert; renowned for their unsurpassed hospitality. Unfortunately this lot were just after your cash and we spent 10mins trying to get rid of kids who were trying to pickpocketed us.

We walked east along the decumanus, pausing to explore the Byzanine churches and the funerary temple. It is quite a walk down to the crossroads, where the famous tetrapylon stands: one of the most photographed sites in Palmyra. From here you can strike north to the nymphaeum (no, it's not where the nymphos used to live), and the temple of Baal-Shamin; or south to the Senate house, the theatre, and the agora.

We spent a good while lost amongst these amazing ruins before rejoining the massive Corinthian street that was leading down to the monumental arch. The view from this archway back along the colonnaded street is breathtaking. It is as though the whole city could at any moment become a bustling and lively place, full of merchants, traders, nomads, and soldiers from nearly two millennia ago.

After this we were pretty knackered, but we decided to push on and explore the Temple of Bel before sunset. This required an entrance fee but is well worth it. The temple is dedicated to the its namesake, a Babylonian God, the Romans knew him as Jupiter, and he was Zeus to the Greeks.

the Temple is enormous and in very good nick. Inside much of the excavations have been focused on the central enclosure, although to the west there is also altars and sunken porticoes. Around the outside of the perimeter enclosure was once a double colonnaded row of Corinthian columns. Many of the ones adorning the eastern wall have been recreated. It is a superb temple its magnificence still shines out even though it is much diminished from its days of glory.

night was beginning to fall by the time we left. We walked into town and bumped into Jules once more. Jules, you may recall, was the guy we met in Aleppo. He was with an eclectic party of travellers from Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, Korea, and Slovenia. We arranged to go out for a beer with them later on.

The later on beer turned out to be traditional Bedouin food in a restaurant in town. It was delicious and we followed it up with beer and nargile in the Pancake house. We were introduced to all of the party, some who we grew to know us friends, including the wickedly funny Katie, and the very funky Per.

I really must give up smoking nargile.

Palmyra first night

November 18th

Although I could scarcely contain my joy this morning, the impossible seemed to happen: Mr pipe thwacker was up at 7am once more. You cannot even begin to imagine my elation when I heard those dulcet tones reverberating around my head like a jack-hammer.We checked out pretty early and went to grab some breakfast before heading off. I had one beady eye on the look-out for a guy with a hammer - I was planning on nailing his testicles to heavy oak table - but unfortunately I could not locate him to express my gratitude. We met another really genuine guy who helped us get some fresh food, and sat and chatted to us, and then came to the station to help us organise our trip and even paid for our taxi. We tried to reimburse him but he refused. He said he knew how it felt to be in a foreign country as he was stuck in the UK trying to get to a conference in Geneva last year and no-one would help him. People's capacity for kindness never ceases to amaze me. Interestingly enough the tourist police (you have to submit your passports at most bus stations here) seemed to know the hotel we had been staying at before we told them. Big bruvva is wotchin'!

We then headed to Palmyra. The journey took around 2 1/2 hours so we got into town around 2pm.

We checked into a cool and relaxing hotel which was very cheap. After trekking around in the east of Syria we decided we need to rest for a while so we kicked back and took it easy for the afternoon. We had some food and chilled out.

We discovered a great pancake house around the corner from our hotel, and proceeded to stuff our faces.

In the evening we went out for a beer and some food. We ended up playing cards with two kids in the local restaurant. They joined in and played memory with us, which they were shockingly good at; unlike the pair of us, who were bloody awful. I couldn't even remember that it was my go. We then played them at snap. I don't want to take the moral high ground here but I feel it must be noted that all of them cheated and lowered the tone of the game. I played by the book and lost with dignity; and I am a better man for it.. the bunch of fecking crooks. The place we were in served some mad Danish exported lager called Faxe and was 12%. Oh, the Syrian government has blocked Facebook and Blogspot as they do not want the Syrian youth corrupted and infiltrated by the Zionists. Mmmm...

Dier-Ez-Zur, Dura Europos, and Mari

November 16th-18th

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We got into Dier-Ez-Zur pretty late last night. We checked into a reasonable hotel. The rooms were ok apart from someone had white-washed the the bedroom walls in some chalk based paint. We got it all over our rucksacks. What was immediately apparent when we got here was the complete lack of European tourists, which was very nice. The other thing I noticed straight off was the people were so friendly and so genuine. We went out exploring in the evening armed with our lonely planet; we opted for a Russian restaurant on the banks of the Euphrates. I think maybe it was launched into space to join the Mir space-station at some point; either that or the people writing this book never actually visited this town at all. There was a suspension bridge leading over the Euphrates as the book said. However on the far side there was no sign, nor indeed any remnants, of any Russian restaurant. We met a nice chap from Damascus who helped us hunt high and low for said restaurant. In the end we all had to give up. We ended up back by the hotel starving to death after walking around everywhere. We ate in a local cafe which was really good. No beer though. I was gagging for one; I am still finding it hard to shake off the stereotypical English lager swilling image. Burp!

17th Morn...

This morning started off well. Incredibly well in fact. We were woken up by someone banging a pipe. They were pretty keen on banging this pipe (and also pretty good at it), and proceeded to thwack it thus from about 7am to 8:30am. I have no idea what they achieved by doing this; apart from driving us batshit. But whatever they were attempting to do, I admire their dedication.

Although I desperately wanted to stay curled up in bed and listen to the sadistic pipe-banger all morning, we wanted to see two historical sites today: Dura Europos, and Mari. So we upped and out pretty early. We grabbed a load of fruit in the market, cheese, bread, and olives, from the bakers. I paid a mad old woman 5p for a huge bunch of, what I thought was, coriander but turned out to be flat parsley. We then got a Sharwarma and headed up to the bus station.

It was a beautiful sunny day and Dier-Ez-Zur was teeming and bustling with people. We got to the bus station and were promptly shunted off to the Tourist police who decided they were very interested in where we were going; probably as it took us right to the Iraqii border. We were made sit in the police office whilst the local constanbularly took absolutely no interest in us or our passports. We began to realise we were in for a long morning. Another bunch of guys came in, one looking like a character straight out of a James Bond movie with a glass eye and a huge trench coat, and began to question us. I was just beginning to think there is going to be an expensive largess involved here when two Slovenian guys came in kicking up a huge fuss because the police were detaining them. This was pretty fortuitous for us as we were just sitting around chilling out and being quiet. They were pretty cool guys but they were breaking one of the golden tenets of travelling: never, ever, give anyone a heap of shit, who a) in a position of authority and b) has cock all else to do for the whole day other than to make your life difficult. The police soon lost interest in us and started interrogating the Slovenians so we jumped on a servise to Abu Kamal. We were heading firstly to the archaeological site of Dura Europos aka Tell Selhiye.

Dura Europos is another one of Syria's hidden gems. Stuck out in the back of beyond, with almost no visitors poking their head's in, it is a Hellenistic/Roman fortress city, much of which is still undergoing large-scale excavations. The Seleucids founded Europos on the site of other settlements in approx 280BC taking also the Assyrian name of Dura - meaning fort. The city was built along an plateau that ends in a sheer 90metre wall that overlooks the Euphrates which provided a great natural defense. The Parthians claimed the city in 128BC and remained under their control until the Romans re-took it in AD165. Along with the mighty Palmyra, the city was integrated into an armormentarium of Roman frontier fortifications to keep the Persian empire at bay.

One of the the most fascinating things about Syria is the continuum, and harmony, of different cultures and religions. It is very much apparent in Christian and Muslim worship and you will often see Mosques and Churches juxtaposed in the same area. But historically, in places such as Dura Europos, you can see evidence of Roman temples, Greek Deities, Parthian altars, synagogues, and mosques side-by-side.

We got the driver to stop and let us off on the roadside as it was another 1km walk to the site. It was only when we alighted from the bus we realised how completely in the middle of nowhere we were. It was quite an interesting feeling being stuck in the back-of-beyond. As we hiked toward the site two guys in a 4x4 stopped and kindly gave us a lift. The ticket office tout was openly shocked to see tourists at the site. He was even more shocked to discover we were British. We soon realised why when we entered the site as we had the entire place to ourselves. Well, I say to ourselves. We did have to share it with a couple of thousand flies. They were quite friendly little insects though, and spent most of the time flying around my head. At one point I could barely even see there were so many of them. We sat down and tucked into the food we bought. It was pretty bland, but starving fat b*stards cannot be choosers, so we made do.

After lunch we spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around this wonderful site. The edition of the lonely planet we have is probably 4 or 5 years out in some places. So places like Dura Europos are mentioned in passing, with maybe a half a paragraph dedicated to it. The reality is the site is expansive, virtually unvisited by European tourists, and so much fun to explore. Many of the temples are still being excavated and just the foundations remain. as you walk through the ruins you approach the edge of the fortress and you discover that an entire new area has been excavated on the east side of the city. Not only this but further to the North-East is the remains of the new citadel. You can climb up inside of here and get a gobsmacking view over the Euphrates; if you can get the flies out of your face for two minutes that is.

We were quite tired, and quite hot, after this, but we decided to push on to Mari - Tell Hariri as the Syrians know it. Unfortunately, like so many eastern archaeological sites, it is even more in the middle of nowhere than Dura Europos. So we had to hitch. We got a lift surprisingly quickly. Ok, the lift was in a ten ton oil-tanker, but it was still quicker than walking. The driver was a very chilled out guy. He was on his way to Iraq. He was also a ginga. It is surprising how many red-headed people we have met in Syria. It could not have been an influx of those virtuous crusader types - as we all know them to be paragons of chastity and decency.. so it is a wonder where they came from. Maybe Genghis Khan was secretly of the carrottesque persuasion. That would explain the hat... Our erstwhile driver and host hammered it through the Syrian desert, passing through peaceful and idyllic towns and villages, beeping and waving at several people on the way. It was a very relaxing, if not surreal, sojourn in the truck on the way to Mari, perched it the cabin of a vehicle that wouldn't have looked out of place on the set of a Mad-Max film.

We got a little worried at one point that we may have over shot so we tried to confirm with our driver. He happily confirmed that we were just about to cross the border into Iraq. It transpired he was just messing with us, and he was pretty amused to see the look on our faces. it is good to see how humour is universal; oh how we guffawed!

He dropped us at the site and said he'd pick us up at 5pm if we were around to take us back. We hiked the kilometer or so up to Mari to find the friendly gentlemen with the 4x4 sitting in the tent taking in the afternoon air. It was nice to see the Syrian government taking such an interest in our welfare.

Mari was once a vibrant Mesopotamian city dating back to 3000BC and lies 10km north of Abu Kamal. The site has remains of the city from various dates around this time, however the most important excavations going on are of the palace of Zimri-Lim, the eponymously entitled palace of the ruler who reigned in the 18th Century BC. Mari was the focal point of the most important trade routes across Syria and into Mesopotamia. Even in ancient times, the royal temple was vast, measuring 200m by 120m with over 300 rooms. There is a French team of archaeologists currently working on the site and the entire temple has been placed undercover to protect it from the elements. The city was destroyed in 1758BC by the Babylonians. Until this time it stood, and was occupied, for well over a millennium. One of the main unique points of interest, of this site, is the ceramics that have been uncovered in and around it. Most of these have been swiped to be put on display in Damascus, and in the Louvre. To the north east of the palace lies the remains of domestic houses, several other temples and a ziggurat - a kind of Mesopotamian pyramid.

This was by no means the most aesthetically stimulating site I have ever visited, however Syria, I am beginning to realise, has so many unexploited and exciting places to explore, that are not overrun with streams of tourists, driving each other, and you, nuts. It brought to my mind the poem, by Shelley: Ozymandias. King of Kings! For anyone that has ever been to Egypt It is something much more apropos to the majesty and splendour, and of course the decline, of such an ancient civilization. But out here on the perimeter, there isn't two or three thousand other people. Out here there is just you, and the desert. As we made to leave Mari, the sun was just setting over the desert. It was a pretty amazing sunset and we got some great pictures.

OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,

The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

We trekked back to the main road, and to our great surprise, we found the lovely Syrian government guys, who insisted on securing us a lift back to Deir-Ez-Zur. They were so insistent, that they stuck on us on a servise and left two old ladies - who'd been hitching since before us - standing on the roadside so we could get on; I think they wanted to avoid any diplomatic incidents on the border.

We got back into Dier-Ez-Zur and naively, and somewhat optimistically, went hunting for what the Lonely Planet described as the 'best kebab in Syria'. Yup. We had all the fun trying to find that place. I think we walked over 2K out of town looking for it. No. It wasn't there. Marcus actually wanted to continue. neither was the bar. Oh no. No chance me old china plate. That was right out. My feet were also right out at that point. We did stumble on a fantastic restaurant though, that served pretty good kebabs and Amistal beer. Result!

Rasafa and Qala'at Jabar

November 16th

We planned to use Raqqa as a base to visit the desert fortresses - Qala'at Jabar, Qala'at Najm, and Rasafa, however we got up late, and by the time we got our act together it was quite late. Also because we are in winter, the days are much shorter and the sun sets around 5pm This meant we had to skip Qala'at Najm. We hired out a minibus for the day after haggling with a whole bunch of drivers. They really enjoyed trying to rip us off and we drew quite a crowd. We got the price down to an acceptable amount in the end though. We ended up in the cheesiest minibus I have been in yet. It had leopard skin interior and pictures on the ceiling. It also had curtains with tassels on. Our bus driver spent the day with us wondering around and taking photos. I think he enjoyed it more than we did. Our first stop was the deserted walled city of Rasafa. It lies 25km south of the Euphrates highway. It is a very remote location and is basically in the middle of the desert. It makes it an even more evocative location to spend some time at.

Like most places in Syria, remains of settlements have been found dating modern history. Historical evidence suggests it was once an Assyrian town. Diocletion Romanised the place in the 3rd century AD - maybe as an outpost against the Persians. It was also a trade route, and had an established connection to Palmyra. It was further fortified by that Byzantine fun-boy, Justinian. By the 5th century AD it had become an important place of Christian worship and a palatial basilica was erected within the city. As power shifted through Syria in the wake of the Muslim empire, thus the city became occupied by one Hishamabd-al-Malek who built a mosque here and a and even more palatial palace residence. Not long after his death it was razed to the ground by Baghdad Arabs known as Abbasids. The city never really recovered from that and slowly declined until the 13th century when the Mongols swept through Asia; causing much pant wetting and prompting the city to be abandoned completely.

It is quite a sight to see as you drive up to it. Because it is such a flat area you can see it looming out of the desert from a long way off. A great deal of the city still remains un-excavated. But the parts that are, are amazing. Much of the exterior wall of the city is still intact. The whole site is enclosed in a 400m by 500m Quadrangular wall. A big wall. The sort of wall you could spend a very long time trying to breach. It was great to wander around at take in, however, the best part of this, like so many other beautiful archaeological sites in Syria, there is hardly anyone else here. You get the school trips of Syrian children, or tour groups from Iraq, Russian tourists, and French and Belgian, but even these are few and far between. You have the entire site to yourself, and nowhere is cordoned off, or has barriers in place. You can climb up very dodgy steps and scramble across very loose stones on top of very high walls. It is a little scary in some places, and of course you have a responsibility not to deface, or damage these antiquited locations.

s. It is a great experience though; the freedom to explore. We were befriended by a bunch of local kids who showed us some really cool places on the site. I paid them in nuts. You many remember I purchased a kilo of them in Aleppo. Well they turned out to be quite a handy form of baksheesh. I think me in five or ten years time when this site is properly excavated it will be the most amazing place to visit; and probably overrun by tourists. Right now it is simply amazing and felt somewhat, admittedly spuriously, pristine in a strange way.

The kids also introduced us to the vast underground cisterns, which you enter through a tiny whole in the ground. It was a most excellent morning and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

The second site we visited was the desert fortress of Qal'at Jabaar on the shore of lake al-Assad. This beatiful lake stretches out before you as you approach the castle, shimmering azure blue in the sun-shine. The mighty Euphrates flows into this lake from the North. Syria has also built a huge dam here

in order to regulate the flow of the Euphrates. There is currently a bit of a hoo-hah going on as Turkey have also been building dams which has directly affected water flow. Turkey has put this down to natural causes but this is as believable as a man selling you tartan paint. It is a constant bone of contention between the two countries and Syria is suffering from extreme water shortages in general. The castle itself was a bit of a let down once we got inside. It was impressive enough on approach, but once you have climbed up inside of it, sparse ruins remain. What is standing, at present, looks to be completely rebuilt. The top of the castle looked like a building site. It just lacked the ubiquitous hairy arse sticking up out of the rubble. The views, however, over al-Assad, were spectacular and it was a great location to sit and watch the sun go down. The castle is one of several strategic placed Qal'ats throughout Syria. Some are Byzantine, some Muslim, some built to provide bases in the war against the Crusaders, some built by the Crusaders themselves. This one was built long before the arrival of Islam, and was later modified by the Nur a Din's forces in the Holy Wars.

We got back into Raqqa just after sunset. We had planned to stay another night, but we just couldn't hack it. I really would have experienced much greater joy by nailing my testicles to the table, and since I didn't have the nails or the hammer we bit the bullet and left on a servise to Dier Ez-Zur.

Aleppo final day, citadel and Raqqa

November 15th... Happy Birthday Dad!

We spent this morning exploring the last part of the old city in Aleppo: the Citadel. This magnificent fortification towers over the Old City. A monolithic testament to a by-gone age. It no longer has a military function and now serves mainly as a tourist attraction. But once this place was a repository for Muslims in the Crusade wars. Fortifications existed here since time immemorial (remains of a temple from the 10th Century BC have been discovered) but the first large fortress was built by the Seleucids in the 4th Century BC. It was in the 10th Century AD that the moat was first dug-out. The first impression you get when you see the citadel is of immeasurable size and of power. It is vast and very imposing. Two thirds of the lower citadel are encased in a glacis, which is a kind of stone sloped base. The moat, which is completely dry now is 20m deep and 30m wide. It is pretty huge; in fact everything about this place is grandiose. We paid our entrance fee and started across the bridge from the south to the great keep. The bridge is designed to only allow six or seven people abreast. This would severely impair any invaders trying to mobilize an army sufficient to mount an attack on the keep. If that wasn't enough, and it appears it wasn't, a bastion tower was later added to the east to allow archers to flank the slim crossing. You could feel The hospitality oozing out of every arrow-slit. As we made our way up to the keep a whole party of school-kids descended on us from out of the castle, like a river of energy, screaming 'mahabar', 'bonjour', 'hello', and shaking our hands. After five minutes I was exhausted and, not for the first time, silently saluted the school-teachers who had to put up with them everyday; mind you they were angrily slapping the faces off most of them. It is good to see corporal punishment is alive and kicking [no pun intended] in Syria.

The keep to the citadel is a feat of architecture, not to mention engineering, in itself. It was designed with the entrance at a sharp right-angle to a narrow, but extremely high, set of double doors. This was to stop any attacking force using a battering ram. In addition, high up in the ramparts, were machicolations [what a great word] holes for pouring oil (boiling of course), tar, rocks, and raining down arrows. The whole keep was designed this way. As you go further inward you are channeled through a series of narrow corridors, each right-angled and contained, each with openings in the roof and walls to allow defensive attacks. I have not done any research to see if this fortification was ever breached. I would be very surprised though. We spend a pleasant morning wondering around the Citadel. Most of the area atop the citadel contains ruins from the Mamluk era around the 12th Century AD. These include a hammam, a palace, and cisterns and the blood dungeon. They are very dark and absolutely minging. I was feeling thoroughly depressed after spending just 10mins down there, and I had a torch with me.

We sat atop the Citadel with an amazing view of the sprawling metropolis that is Aleppo and took tea in a cute little cafe that was once Ottoman barracks. We then wondered down through the beautiful Mosque of Abraham where it is purported the head of St John the Baptist is interred [what another one? Yes. Pay attention at the back. His bonny bonce is all over the place].

We wrapped things up in Aleppo and got an evening bus to Raqqa. It was an uneventful journey but we were pretty tired when we rolled in to our destination. We soon realised two things pretty soon after we got here. Firstly the place is a shit-hole - every country has pass through towns and cities, the sort of places that just have no soul; well Raqqa is one of Syria's towns that fit this bill - and secondly the guide for Syria is not only four years old but it is also less than accurate about maps and where things are on it. To wit we spent 20mins wondering around the same block looking for a hotel that didn't exist. We got dragged into some shop by a very happy, albeit demented, local guy to talk to some bloke who, as far as I can remember, was trying to sell us kid's shoes. We finally checked into a reasonable place. It was pretty dead though. The rooms were sparse but the beds were clean. Here we also had our first experience of Syrian hotel beds. These ubiquitous little beauties are in hotels all over the country [incidentally you don't have a Gideon's Q'uran in the bedside cabinet in case you were wondering] they seem to be fashioned out of man-sized caskets containing lumps of sand. The shower looked like the basement location from the movie Saw. All in all it I was pretty happy with the place.

We went out for dinner - finally choosing a local place doing Shish Tawouk after believing the LP and walking around for half an hour looking for a restaurant that didn't exist. I was too tired to even watch the half-cacked TV in our room after that.

Around Aleppo the Dead cities and Apamea

November 14th

We got up early today and headed off on a shared service to see the sites around Aleppo. Two guys that were supposed to join us dropped out. Here we met Jules, a very cool and chilled out Auzzie guy who is travelling the middle-east before heading to London to work. We found ourselves again at St Simoen as one of the party, a Mongolian girl, wanted to visit the basicalla. From here we headed south to the Dead cities, south of Aleppo.

These sites lie off the Aleppo-Hamas highway and number approximately 600 in total. They are remains of the once great Byzantine empire that stretched throughout Turkey into the Middle East and were probably suburbian settlements to what Aleppo was known as then: Antioch.

Not much is known as to why these these eerie and ancient ghost towns were abandoned although speculation is rife. The widely accepted theory is that trade routes changed and inhabitants left due to demographic shifts. The recommended, and certainly the most aesthetic, sites to visit are those of Al-Bara and Serjilla. We stopped at Al-Bara first. This is still inhabited in parts, and is the most extensive of the dead cities. We checked out a couple of tombs and took some pics, the most impressive site was the pyramid tombs. I think that the larger one still has sealed sarcophagi within it.

Our next stop was the amazing site of Serjilla. This was certainly the most evocative of the two cities. It stretches from atop a hillside right down into a valley. Many of the buildings, temples, and streets are nearly complete and, apart from a party of Belgium tourists, it was also pretty much deserted. This makes a huge difference when you are trying to imagine and capture the feel of a place such a this. You pretty much have the entire place to yourself and can really lose yourself for an hour amongst the ruins; and let your imagination run free.

We bundled back into the mini-bus and headed off. I had forgotten that we still had planned to see the Roman ruins of Apamea. Nothing had prepared me for this. I hadn't read up on it, and had no idea of what to expect. It utterly blew me away. Apamea is what remains of a great Roman town of the same name. It was built during the reign of Seleucus and formed a trade route to the port of Laodecia (now Latakia). It was also famed for its horse breeding. In it's heyday it boasted a population of around 500,000 inhabitants. It fell into decline in the 5th century AD and was finally sacked by the Muslims. What remains now, largely thanks to the fantastic efforts of a team of Belguim archaeologists over the last 30 years, is the most amazing cardo maximus - main street - of colonnades running for over a kilometre. It is like something out of a science-fiction movie. I just could not believe what I was seeing. [Why don't people tell you about these things? Why don't they say: 'here have you popped over to Syria recently? Do you know that there are archaeological sites dotted all over this country that are unparalleled anywhere else in the world?' Well unfortunately people do not mention this in passing in Domino Pizza as you are getting your 2 for 1 offer with chicken wings and garlic dip. So I am mentioning it to you now. Syria is just simply amazing. I am writing this blog up nearly a month later - as I was restricted from writing it at the time by limitations placed on ISPs in Syria - and some of the places I have seen since have made my legs wobble. Go to Syria. It is astounding and vibrant and such a lovely place, and right now, it has hardly any tourists. In 5 year's time you'll be kicking yourself if you don't]

We had the place to ourselves as well (apart from the Belgians who turned up at as we left) we followed the cardo maximus down to the decamanus (the east-west axis) and then on to where the minibus dropped us off.

We headed back to Aleppo for night-fall. It was a superb day. Tomorrow we are going to visit the citadel and then we take a new route. We have decided to trek east. Along the road less travelled, away from the usual coastal trail and into the desert - the great emptiness. Out to the desert fortresses of the crusaders, the ancient river Euphrates, and to the Mesopotamian temples in Mari, by the border of Iraq.

Syria Aleppo (Haleb) part III

November 13th

Another day, another smoothie. We got up this morning with firm and resolute intent(ish) to do something. But first things first, Falafels. There is a wonderful falafel shop (I wrote down the name but have since lost it) just opposite the cinema off Sharia Al-Baron. Falafels cost the equivalent of 15p and are delicious for breakfast especially with fresh mint and chilli sauce. We decided to do some exploring and therefore opted to get a service (minibus taxi) north to St Simeon. Saint Simon (infer the eponymous name) was an uber funboy who lived in north Syria methinks in the 4th century. He decided at some point to get it into his head that life would be much better up a pole. A big pole. A huge pole in fact, some 3 metres or so off the ground initally, however by the time of his death it had increased to around 18 meters. He also decided that he would chain himself to the top of it at start ranting at people from atop of it. In fact, I think he did this for about 40 years. He also got it into his head that he could not, or would not, speak to any women at all; including his poor and long suffering mother. I think he was basically trying to rid himself of his sexual urges and base feelings by elevating himself above them. The irony is not lost when you consider he did this by sitting on a whopping great phallus. This was fascinating stuff in 300AD and I am sure Life of Brian was loosely based around it. You have to understand the St Simeone was probably the equivalent of Justin Timberlake in the Dark Ages; a regular superstar (finally polished stratified pole notwithstanding of course) When he died I believe he was the most famous person in Christendom and a icon for pilgrims from all over the world; although his mum probably wasn't too best pleased with him.

Anyways, we trekked out to see the ruins of the huge basicalla built on the site. We went via the pullman bus-station, which is public transport. It is really good fun, it just means you get on a mini-bus free-for-all. This is one of my favourite things about Syria: communal transport. Everyone just leaps on and goes when a bus is ready. I really don't understand why this hasn't taken off in Europe. We got to the nearby town of Darat Azze and got a ride up from there. It was a pretty amazing basilica. I was unfortunately a little unimpressed by his pole. Sorry girls; it had been subject to pilgrims, scavengers, and opportunists over the last 2000 odd years and is now about 4ft high. It was a very impressive site though and the view of the surrounding countryside was superb.

We got back into the city in the evening and explored the beautiful Jami al-Kabir mosque. It was very beautiful, especially during sunset. Rachel headed off for Hama soon afterward. We will hopefully see her again in Damascus. Marcus and I headed out and stuffed our faces later on that evening -and had an argile. We also managed to book ourselves on a tour tomorrow for the dead cities and Apamea.

Syria Aleppo (Haleb) part II

November 11-13th

Our first night in Aleppo we decided to hit the town and wander around the old city, looking for somewhere nice to eat. We ended up at a very swanky restaurant with amazing food that cost a fraction of what a UK meal would do for this quality of service and cuisine. We even threw in some nice Lebanese wine. Syrian cuisine is unbelievable. By unbelievable I mean, I can't believe the crap I have eaten for years in the UK and called it edible. Hummus is part of the staple diet here but dishes such as Mutabalah, mmmm aubergine and olive oil, or kebbeh, ground mince, wheat, fried in breadcrumbs, or shirwama, kofte, lebna, the list just will keep going on. This has not even reached dessert. btw, the lentil soup rocks also.

So anyways, bellies gently hanging over our trousers and wafting - this being an ambiguous verb - in the wind we adjourned to the live piano bar and had a couple of beers. After this I was ready to drop. Luckily our hotel, despite having rooms colder than an Eskimo's haemorrhoid, had SKY TV (of sorts) bring it on with the Star Trek. My room was a better place for this.

Day Nov 12th

We woke the next day eager to explore this vibrant city. It usually takes a day or so to adjust to a new country. So there are always practicalities to observe that I know all you travellers have experienced: language, currency, orientation, communication, and transport. Once you have those figured you are just seven degrees away from being normal - i.e. language, attire, cultural identity, housing, that sort of stuff. Luckily, Turkey and Syria share very similar phrases; well hello is the same anyways.

We met up with Rachel and struck out to explore the labyrinthine Souq and the Jami al-Kabir Mosque for the day. We first explored the central area of Aleppo, changed some money, and grabbed some food. Cinemas are a huge attraction here; mainly for the reason they promise wanton decadence and wild abandon. What I love about these places are that they are, on the exterior, promulgated by scenes of an ostentatiously sexual nature. However once you enter the picture house, you will find that the government has banned nearly all risque excerpts (I am not at liberty to expose how I know this). The result is mass sexual frustration. No wonder so many men grow moustaches as a hobby.

Some of the things I love about Aleppo (Haleb) so far:

• Smoothies - you can procure these bad boys for about 35p. They can be a mix of banana, milk, honey, sugar, strawberries; or mangoes, kiwis, banana, orange, apple, milk, sugar, or pomegranates, pistachios (did I mention Aleppo is famous for these?) Or a combination of any of the above. mmmmm




• Shiwarma - you can buy these for 25-45p. They are delicious, kebabs, peppers, mayonnaise, lamb or chicken (usually chicken) meat. flat bread, juice (more on this later) and stuff...




• Nuts! Almonds, Cashews, Pistachios, Walnuts, nuts nuts nuts, nuts. Everywhere. I recently, and accidentally bought a kilo of them by mistake. I am still eating them a month later.




• Streets. They never go where you expect them to.




• Pizza slices; meat, cheese, tomato, thyme. All at 5p a slice.




• People. They are amazing, friendly, sincere, and warm.




• Souqs - They never end




• Oh - the Syrian Government blocked blogspot. Thus I am a month behind. Sorry about that

After stuffing our faces we headed into the Souq and spent an amazing afternoon wandering around these overground catacombesque streets. It was like being on a constant high. Not only was this experience open and honest, but there was next to none - if any at all - hassle. It was amazing. Aleppo's souq is one of the most famed in all the Middle East; and with good reason. It is sublime. It stretches through so many paths and ways I think I actually got fed up being lost. As always the main area of the Souq is fortified and each area further decimated into rough categories: textiles, jewellery, fabrics, and so forth. Of course, the whole area is cultural and therefore geographically juxtaposed with a mosque: the centre of the community.

I think we all bought something in the Souq that first day. Rachel bought a bowel, to blag it as a Turkish present, Marcus bought a length of string: for nefarious purposes, and I bought some Havle. For those not in the know (including me up until this point) this is a dessert made of honey and sesame seeds. It never goes off - unlike my sexlife - we are such big spenders. We are also fat b*stard supremos as we had extra smoothies and shawarmas. Tonight Rach and Marcus went off to the internet and I, I found an off-licence and watched Naked Gun 2 1/2 the smell of fear.... what? It has been over two months since I could sit in bed and drink and watch crap TV!

Syria

November 11th

Syria.. is a place of magic and mystery. It is home to some of the oldest known settlements on Earth. There is evidence of civilisations dating back to 6000BC at the site of Ebla and 4500BC at Telle Harari; in the Mesopotamian city of Mari; and further references to the existence of Damascus have been traced much further back in Egypt. It also boasts some of the greatest archaeological sites in the Middle East. Many legends that are referenced in The Holy Bible draw from locations in and around this country where once a vast Semitic empire once stretched from Turkey to the Red Sea. It is bordered on the north by Turkey; the east by Iraq; the south by the kingdom of Jordan; and to the west, Lebanon and Israel. The ancient river, Euphrates, wound its way through the north-eastern region on the way to Babylon in what is now the modern Iraq. St Paul was converted to Christianity on the way to Damascus. The prophet, Mohammed, wandered through these lands. It has been occupied by Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Roman, and Byzantines. Many of the wars of the Crusades were fought in Syria: The ruins of the desert fortresses, or Qa'alats, are to be found throughout this country; one particular, Krak des Chavaliers was described by T.E. Lawrence (more famously known as Lawrence of Arabia) as the most beautiful castle in the world. There are so many places to explore and marvel at in Syria, from the labyrinthine alleys of ancient Damascus, to the great emptiness in the East, inside of the exquisite Omayyad Mosque, or throughout the vast and endless passageways of the Souqs of Aleppo. The oldest alphabet in the world was invented here in Ras Shamra and it was also here the explorer Richard Burton translated the Arabian Nights and to English thus opening a whole world of Eastern myticism to Western Culture. Excited yet?