Day Six Syria Palmyra to Aleppo

Picture 1: Map Syria (Lonely Planet)

Picture 2: Palmyra (main colonnade)

Picture 3: Me at Palmyra (sick and cold)

Picture 4: Crac des Chevaliers (photo from internet)

Picture 5: Water Wheel at Hama

Picture 6: Teachers (old friends) meet up at Apamea

Picture 7: Father and son at Apamea (one of my favourite photographs of the trip)

After a ridiculously early rise, Wayne and braved the wind and headed out to the Roman ruins an saw all that we could possibly see. It was actually a bit of a privilege to have this world renowned Archaeological site to ourselves to discover. It was around 6 am and it was fresh.
"In the middle of the Syrian Desert is without doubt the most beautiful and magnificent of the Syrian historic sites, Palmyra. This Arab commercial metropolis, which has now turned pink with age, used to be on the old Silk Road. Called Tadmor by the Arabs, Palmyra appeared for the first time in the 2nd millennium BC in the archives of Mari and in an Assyrian text. It was also mentioned in the Bible as a part of Solomon's territory. " from http://www.syriagate.com/Syria/about/cities/Homs/palmyra.htm
An amazing site and extremely well preserved in parts.
We went back to the hotelo for breakfast and then back to the site for another look at The Temple of Bel and the Graves that are scattered in the valley. We looked at the Citadel, a castle on a very high mountain overlooking the city on our way to Crac des Chevaliers. From the citadel we asked our guide about the local prison, as we knew of its legend of mistreatment and torture of political prisoners. Our questions were awkward and met with quietness from our guide.
We drove across the desert askingabout the war in Iraq, opinions on USA, music, relationships, everything you ever wanted to know etc.
We arrived eventually to see Crac des Chevaliers (Fortress of the Knights) early afternoon.
It is a classic Crusader Castle. It is often billed as the most complete crusader castle, one like you picture as a kid.
"The Krak of the Knights, described by T.E. Lawrence as 'the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world,' from http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Krak_des_Chevaliers.html
After checking this out and discovering our castle guide was trying his moves on every second bloke he came across, we moved onto Apamea.
Apamea (pronounced Afarmea), is a well preserved Roman site dating to 300 BC.
For us the interesting part about Apamea was that it was in the countryside, we visited on Friday, the Holy Day of the Muslim calander and were fortunate enough to see many local families enjoying the area, for walking, playing, picnics..it was really nice to be able to see and we wer considered a real novaelty and all sorts of people would approach us for conversation, questions and photographs. Attention like this was alsways male dominated. Interaction from females was extremely limited. An occasional shy smile was about it.
A really pleasant atmosphere at Apamea.
We pushed onto Aleppo around late afternoon and arrived around 9 pm.. a huge day and a mammoth drive from Raaziq, our driver from Palmyra (brother of the hotel owner), who after a cup of tea, turned around and drove another four hours back to Palmyra.