April Travels, Day 1

In April Josh and I were privileged to host several visitors. One of them was our friend Christen, who was in Damascus for a conference. The three of us did a whirlwind tour around Syria, seeing several major sites within 3 days. We rented a car and driver on our first day, and were able to travel in style with a classic 1960’s Mercedes.


Our first stop was the city of Hama, a conservative city which boasts seventeen active waterwheels, the oldest of which dates back to the 13th century. They were large, magnificent and very loud.







From Hama we traveled to Apamea, an ancient city which was built by Seleucus Nicator, the first king of the Seleucids in Syria in 300 BC. He named it after his Parisian wife, Apamea. In the Christian era, Apamea became a center of philosophy and thought, especially of Monophytism. After several earthquakes destroyed much of the city in the 12th century, the city remained abandoned for hundreds of years until a Belgian team of archaeologists began a reconstruction project in 1930. Now, rising out of a grain field in the Syrian countryside, you can catch a glimpse of the former splendor of this city.


Our third stop was Qala’at Salah ah-Din, which I’ve written about in a previous post.
The views were even more incredible this time because the rainy season had turned everything green, and wildflowers were growing atop the ruins of the castle.

Our final visit was to the dead city of Serjilla. Considered the most extensive of the dead cities, we were able to see the remains of houses, baths, tombs and a church.