Today sees us leaving Hama for Lebanon.

Hama is famous for its water wheels, but it is also famous for a massacre in the 1980's led by the former President. It is the home of the Muslim Brotherhood, now outlaed in Syria. In the 1980's (not sure of exact year) the Syrian army was uunleashed on the city. Basic guts was residents were told to leave or if they stay they would be treated as insurgents and legitimate targets. As well as destroying 99 percent of the former old city that dated back to pre Roman times, something like 30,000 residents were killed. Exact numbers are not and never will be known and so vary.

We took our hire car out of the city and headed from Qalat el Salahdin, in the north west. Well, that was the plan, but afgter an hour of driving around in circles in impossible one way sytems we gave up and headed South West instead to Qalat el Hosn, better known as Kerak des Chelalliers. The castel photos in the album are of this castle. It is dead impressive and we scutled around it for a few hours. Built on a hill with commanding views all around this is said to be the greatest of all the Crusder castles ever built. It is multi layers with several moats and internal walls. Walls run to 25 meters thick, so have stood against ballistae, catapults and earthquakes and remain almost 10% in tact.

An amazing place and well worth a 2nd visit.