A castle and a lake

It was yet another Friday weekend in Syria. This week’s target was to visit the Castle of Saladin. We started off from Jisr Shoughor at about 9.45am and started our ascent to the mountains of Slunfeh. There was not many signboards towards Saladin except for one or two in Arabic. A few times we had to stop and ask a villager for direction as the road suddenly reaches a fork without any directions. The road becomes steep and winding as we approach the castle. The inhabitants of the castle had probably intentionally made it very difficult for visitors to come.

The area around the castle was said to be quite strategic since the Phoenicians controlled in the 1st millennium BC. It fell to the Crusaders before it was finally captured by Saladin in 1188. Much of the present ruins date back to Saladin’s time. There used to be a drawbridge to the castle. Although the bridge is now gone, you can still see a lone standing rock (like a needle) that used to support the bridge.

The castle is definitely meant for visitors who have difficulty with their limbs. There are lots of climbing, some places steep and without much hand rail support. (Safety is definitely not top of their minds!) Becareful, that you do not slip off at the edge of the castle!

The castle compound is huge but most of the towers and buildings have fallen into ruins. Definitely not as well preserved as Krak des Chaveliers. Nevertheless it is really magnificent to have such a castle sitting atop a steep and treacherous mountain overlooking the valleys beneath it.

There are a few crusader towers, citadels, baths, a tower of leadership, defensive walls, the palace as well as a mosque which was added by the Muslims.

After a long walk around the castle (it was good exercise in the summer heat), we descended the castle and headed for lunch. Our driver proposed a lunch by a lake called Mashqita. Obviously he did not really know the way as we took a long way south to Latakia city before heading north again to Mashqita. Nevertheless, it was a nice place for lunch, overlooking a huge large which has been dammed. We had “samak”, i.e. fish which is quite a rarity in Syria. After a heavy lunch, we headed back to Jisr Al Shoghour.

On the way, there was a police checkpoint manned by two policemen in plain clothes holding some old rifles. As usual they were curious to see a few foreigners in the car. But after finding out that we were Malaysians working a power station, they smiled and greeted us with a warm welcome! That’s a privilege for Malaysians traveling in the Middle East! We continued our journey and reached home around 4.30pm. It was a long 150km road trip!