Photo tour of Crac Des Chevaliers - Syria

Crac Des Chevaliers (can be spelt Krak Des Chevaliers) is known as Qal'at Al-Hosn in Arabic and is one of the best preserved Crusader Castles in the world. It is UNESCO world heritage listed. It is massive and you can easily spend a day there exploring. The views from its turrets and ramparts are beautiful and on a clear day you can supposedly see the Lebanon boarder.

I visited it yesterday along with Apamea (see following post) on the same day. The castle in the morning and Apamea in the afternoon as the castle closed earlier. Starting out from Hama and returning back to Damascus late last night. Its doable but tiring. Anyway i hope you enjoy some of the pics i took out there and dont forget to check out the ones of Apamea in the next post.



One of the many passageways in the castle with light filtering in from the ceiling.





A view of what is now left of the moat - where it ends is where the hammams are in an underground labyrinth.



The picture on the right is of a supporting column that runs through 2 floors and shows some detailed stonework with Arabic writing which is possibly a prayer from the Koran.



A view from one of the towers towards the center of the castle.








In most other countries the ramparts of a castle would be off limits or only certain reinforced and safe sections would open to the public - here all of it accessible.



Views from the castle.








VP