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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment