Krak Des Chevaliers

Castle hallway

Vaulted Hall

Outline of the Round Table at Knights Level

View from Castle

Krac Des Chevaliers

Castle on the Hill

April 16

Left at 6AM as we had a lot of ground  to cover. Drove To Krak Des Chevaliers  and toured the castle.  This Castle has been described as the  "finest castle in the world" by TE Lawrence and dates back to the First Crusade. The desert is totally void of any trees or any greenery but here here the coast it's really green, a real contrast to the desert. We were stopped  at several checkpoints but everyone was very pleasant. They usually consist of several soldiers and a machine gun on a truck. you have to feel sorry for these guys stuck out in desert with no shelter sleeping on the ground. In Damascus we had several bus loads of military or police and they just sat or slept on the crowded buses parked there day and night. At one point in the desert we stopped for what we thought was a checkpoint, some soldiers holding there arms out, when we stopped one got into the car saying he was going to Homs and as we tried to stop him two more got in. One spoke some english or as he said he learned "brish" {British] and they had a two day leave. I guess it's a common way of getting rides, even had people running out into the freeway to try and stop cars, but it was a bit uncomfortable out in the middle of nowhere.
After the castle we drove to the city of Aleppo. The freeway has three lanes but times you are five abreast with cars passing on the shoulder. Everything from heavy slow trucks, speeding buses, fast cars, motorcycles, three wheeled vehicle with large loads, vehicles going the wrong way, pedestrians crossing, and even herds of sheep compete for space on the freeway. In at least three places there were herds of sheep grazing in the median. I don't know how the shepherds manage to get them across. It is impossible to describe the traffic in Aleppo but it took us at least an hour to go the last couple miles.