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[Trekking] [Mountain-biking] [Historical sites] Historical sites At a short drive from the Bagdad Café you can find numerous historical sites of great archaeological value. Harbaqa Dam: Some 20 minutes drive away along the Homs road. This impressive construction, which dates from the Roman period (probably first century AD) and improved during later Byzantine and Arab times, shows the robustness and reliability of Roman constructions. The entire dam is almost in its original conditions, a 345 m long wall, some 20 metres high and 18 m wide at its base, and still being used to drive on it. The lake behind it has filled-up with centuries of accumulated lime deposits; a beautiful sight is during the spring when fresh grass grows on this fertile plain behind the dam resembling a kind of inland green sea where Bedouins bring their sheep to graze. Downstream from the dam, along the banks of the "wadi" you can still find the remains of the canal system that took the water to irrigate the area around Qasr al-Heir al Gharbi, an Ummayad castle some 20 km away. Khan Manqoura: Some 30 km from the Bagdad Café, direction Damascus , you can see some ruins on the right side of the road. These are the remnants of an ancient lodge used by the travellers along the Silk Road . Although only the remains of the building are visible you can follow the track behind the Khan to find a man-made cutting through the neighbouring rocky outcrop, bending along what it must have been a river that led to a small Roman dam, the remains of which can still be seen along the rock faces. Jebel Seiss: An Umayyad castle built on the inside of a crater of an extinct volcano at the eastern edge of the As Safa volcanic wilderness. The crater, of some 500 metres width by 2 km length, contains a smaller and younger crater in its interior, as well as a "khabra", a lake filled with water during winter and dry in summer. The castle seem to have been built during the reign of al-Walid I (ca. 705-715), the builder of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus . It has the shape of a square, of some 66 m sides, like many other desert lodges, a design borrowed from Roman military encampments, walls 2 metres thick and strengthened by eight cylindrical towers. The lower parts of the wall, of well-cut basalt blocks, were augmented by an upper layer of mud-bricks, which has since crumbled. The main entrance gate was the only part of the castle finished in its entirety in stone. An inner open court includes a water-well where still today serves the Bedouins for water collection. A further ensemble of ruins is dispersed on the southern slopes of the inner crater and primitive drawings and inscriptions (conexion con JbSeiss3) can be found on the crestal basal boulders. Palmyra (Tudmor): The antique Roman city of Palmyra is located in a small natural oasis some 200 km away from the closest flowing river, having been mentioned its name in small clay tablets, several centuries B.C. In the old days Palmyra was a necessary stop to all those caravans that moved from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, and a very important communications point on the Silk Road, between Europe and the Orient. The Romans took posession of the oais and built Palmyra , city of palms, althouhg the local tribes never changed the original name of Tudmor, city of dates. The prosperity of Palmyra under the Romans lasted almost three centuries, until the widow of one of the last emeprors, Zenoubia Queen, opposed Rome , declared independence and formed her small empire. The Romans sent troops against the rebel queen and after a few years of armed conflicts succeeded to retake the city, although it never again reached the same prosperity. Despite the taking over by Muslims in the VII century and the construction of a castle, Palmyra never reached again the grabdeur of Zenoubia Queen's days. |
