Sweet, sweaty Syria

Jeff and I recently returned from our second trip to Syria. This time we headed north to Aleppo, up near the Turkish border. We had a great trip...once we got into Syria, that is. It took us a good four hours for them to let us cross the border from Lebanon. Four hot, thirsty hours. Luckily we had a couple bagels (from our Beirut source) and some water with us, but it was still somewhat uncomfortable. On the other hand, we felt really victorious when we finally got across and headed to our hotel in the little town of Hama. Here's Jeff in front of one of the waterwheels, or norias, in Hama:

The next day we started sightseeing with gusto. First we visited the Musyaf castle, which the Crusaders conquered in the early 12th century. After the Crusaders, a sect known as "The Assassins" took it over.

I thought Musyaf was pretty impressive, but then we visited the ruins of Quala'at al-Hosen, or Krak de Chevaliers, which is by all accounts Syria's most grand and well-preserved castle.

It was, of course, blazing hot in Syria in late June, and the desert air was much dryer than Beirut's seaside humidity. The thing I noticed (and appreciated!) about both castles was their ability to maintain cool temperatures even in the mid-day heat. Those massive stone buildings were really quite practical desert structures.

We saw another fascinating bit of desert architecture when we visited what are commonly called "beehive houses." They are conical mud structures that used to be used as housing by the Bedouins who live in Syria's desert. Nowadays they are mostly used as storage, and the villagers live in more prosaic modern cement houses. One Bedouin family keeps a beehive house open for viewing by the few tourists who travel through, and we had tea with him inside it. The house had airholes at the bottom of it, and there was quite a nice draft coming through. It wasn't quite as cool inside as the massive stone castles, but it was very pleasant nonetheless.

Speaking of clever air conditioning methods, Jeff and I had dinner one night at a restaurant in a restored old building. We sat in the building's courtyard, and every so often jets of water would spray out and cool the area. It looked as nice as it felt.

Before leaving Hama, we also visited some Roman ruins at Apamea:

When we were finished sightseeing around Hama, we headed north to Aleppo. We had fun walking through the souk, or bazaar, and visiting the old citadel that dominates the town. Here we are atop the citadel:

After a day of walking the streets of Aleppo, we repaired to the Baron Hotel bar for some cold Turkish beer. The Baron Hotel is famous as the place where Agatha Christie stayed while writing Murder on the Orient Express. It was also frequented by T. E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia), whose bar bill is on display inside.

Before I say more about the sights we saw, I must say that the biggest thing I will remember about Syria is how incredibly nice and welcoming the people are. Everywhere we went, people asked where we were from. When we said "America," nearly everyone said that they were very glad that we were there, and that they hoped our country and theirs could be friends. Many, many people asked us to sit and talk with them and have tea. No one had anything good to say about former president Bush, but they were all able to separate American people from American politicians. One man said "American people good, Bush bad."

The most surprising, and moving, thing to me was that several women dressed head-to-toe in all-black hejab (in the heat!) went out of their way to be friendly to me. One kissed me on both cheeks and said (in rough English) that she hoped her daughter would be able to marry an American man. Another woman gave me some candy and smiled broadly. It was sweet how they went out of their way to make me feel welcome.

Another time, Jeff and I were walking past a tiny little tire shop and the proprietor waved us in, brought in some chairs for us, and handed us chilled bottles of cherry soda. We sat and drank soda and tried to make small talk despite the language barrier. For awhile we took turns naming American brands of tires! It was really funny, and just so sweet how hospitable they were.

We went on to visit another town to the south and saw some more ruins, including those at Ugarit, where a written alphabet dating from 2000 BC was found. I can barely imagine something that old. Also at Ugarit were ruins of temples to pagan deities Baal, the storm god, and his father, Dagon.

While all the sights (and sites) we saw were fascinating, it is the Syrians' genuine goodwill toward Americans that I will remember most. If an Arabic-speaking woman in full hejab were ever to go sightseeing in the U. S., I can only hope that Americans would be as hospitable to her as the Syrians were to us.

Happy 4th of July to all!