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.