Middle East Trip: Krak des Chevaliers

Our next major stop was the Krak des Chevaliers in western Syria.  (You can also see on the map below the two previous legs of our journey, Aleppo and Palmyra.) 

Lara’s mom had joined our group when we left Aleppo and remained with us through this stage of the trip.  Just before we reached the Krak, we all stopped for a visit with Lara’s uncle and his family, who live in a small village called Ain Alajouz.  The house they live in used to be Lara’s grandfather’s house, and this is where she spent her summers growing up; it’s an absolutely gorgeous setting out in the middle of the Syrian countryside. 

We spent a lovely few hours here chatting with her aunt and uncle, drinking Turkish coffee on their balcony, and filling up on peaches from their backyard, cactus fruit, homemade baklava, and fig-filled pastries.  Delicious!  The family ended up accompanying us to the castle, and her uncle acted as tour guide, since he’d been there so many times. 

The Krak des Chevaliers (Qala’at al-Hosn in Arabic) was built by crusaders some 800 years ago and is amazingly well-preserved.  Located at a break in the mountains that run north-south, the position was strategic for controlling the flow of goods from the ports to Syria’s inland.  It was never breached, and according to legend, Saladin took one look at it up on the hill and just turned his armies the other way.  In addition to being very daunting, it’s also beautiful; T.E.  Lawrence called it “the finest castle in the world.”  Needless to say, we (especially my husband) were quite excited.

As you walk up the main entrance, you can see hundreds-of-years-old hoof prints in the stone. 
The ramp was wide enough so that two horses could be ridden up side-by-side… 
…and the long hall at the top was used for stables. 

Brian went down some stairs to where the baths used to be. 
While he was down there, he took this picture of a doorway leading to one of the many washrooms. 
We thought this was a pretty cool photo (taken by our friend Anjana) of a woman coming back up to the main level. 

Many of the rooms were quite dark, which made them feel even more cavernous—too bad we didn’t bring torches! 
The knights had windows facing all directions for lookout points, but now they work just as well for frames of the surrounding landscape. 
Gothic architecture was not limited to the windows, and on several occasions the beauty of the castle left us speechless. 

We spent hours exploring every nook and cranny—from the huge stone oven… 
…and preserved paint on the underside of some of the arches… 
…to sentry points along the upper wall… 
…and these two lion carvings, thought to symbolize Richard the Lion-Heart. 

This photo was taken from the top of one of the towers and gives you a better sense of the layout. 
Taken from the same tower, these look down on the loggia where those earlier pictures of the arches were shot. 

It was the kind of castle every little kid dreams of and fulfilled at least one person’s childhood-afternoons-spent-running-around-in-foil-covered-cardboard fantasies. J 

After we’d seen everything and bought our souvenir t-shirts, we drove up one of the western hills for lunch at a restaurant called al-Qalaa.  Not only did it have a great view of the castle… 
…but it also served outstanding food.  We had an enormous spread of mezze (small starter plates), including many dishes we had tried in Aleppo, but also fried eggplant, potatoes with pomegranate sauce, and baba ghanoug (which is one of the few things I didn’t like on the trip).  The main course was grilled chicken with the restaurant’s famous sauce of olive oil, lemon, and tons of garlic.  So good!

We dropped Lara’s mom and her other relatives off before heading south to Lebanon.  Getting visas and crossing the border took a long time, and while we were waiting, Brian took this photo of the van’s side mirror. 
It was funny to see something we’re so used to reading in English written in Arabic and was a little pinch-me moment that we were actually in the Middle East. 

Eventually, we got our paperwork processed, and as we entered Lebanon, we realized just how much living in Cameroon has accustomed us to seeing military personnel with large guns.  Next stop: Beirut.