Wednesday 27th January - Hama to Aleppo

As I was buying some fruit and vegetables at the local market in Hama, Anne got chatting to some German cyclists who were loading up their tandem outside our hotel.  They’ve been on the road for about four months and are on their way to Damascus to catch the train to Tehran, before making their way back home for the end of May.  We felt slightly humbled as they set off south by peddle power and we went north by diesel power.

Speaking of which, we filled up with diesel - both the rear tank and topped off the front tank - in preparation for crossing into Turkey and a fourfold increase in price.  We’ll fill our jerry can and brim the rear tank tomorrow near the border to try and make it across Turkey without refilling; it’s a long shot but we just might make it.

En-route to Aleppo, we detoured off to the west to visit some of the so called Dead Cities, a series of Byzantine era towns that were abandoned around the 8th century.  There are over 600 sites scattered amongst the limestone hills, some just single buildings whilst others comprise whole towns with houses, churches, hammas, mills, inns and wine presses.  We headed for two in particular, Serjilla, which is the best preserved, and nearby Al-Bara, the most extensive.  As you drive down the side roads away from the modern day villages you keep coming across ruins of ancient houses, some reclaimed by vegetation but others still standing in isolation, and if it wasn’t for the lack of rebar sticking out of the tops of the latter they could be mistaken for new builds awaiting completion.

We stopped off at one site to have a nose around, drawn by a pyramidal roofed building.  There were also the remains of several grand looking two story buildings and a number of sarcophagi, but seeing these did little to prepare us for Serjilla. SPOT

Serjilla has been deserted for almost 1500 years, yet many of the buildings are in remarkable states of preservation, with clean stone facades surrounded by neatly cropped grass, giving the place a slightly spooky air. SPOT

In stark contrast, Al-Bara looks like it has been long abandoned, hidden amongst fruit and olive trees, spread over a 6 km2 area.  Large villas, three monasteries, numerous churches and pyramidal tombs lie in the undergrowth, and it was one of the last occupied of the Dead Cities (up until the end of the 12th century).

 
It’s amazing how quickly you become familiar with a place as, on our return to Aleppo, we drove straight to the Baron Hotel without a missed turn, then onto our secure parking as we couldn’t fit under the Baron’s entrance!  Mohamad had booked us into the historic Baron Hotel when we were in Damascus as this is where his tour party will stay, and as we both quite like hotels with character we thought we would stay there for our last night in Syria.

Built in 1910-11, the Baron quickly became known as one of the best hotels in the Middle East, with the Orient Express bringing many of its famous guests including Agatha Christie (who wrote the first part of Murder on the Orient Express there), TE Lawrence (his bar bill is on display in the lounge), Charles Lindberg (we stayed in his room), Amy Johnson and Theodore Roosevelt.

Unfortunately Anne was suffering from stomach pains, shivering and had a high temperature and so couldn’t really appreciate the slightly faded grandeur (she thinks she’s allergic to returning to the UK!).