Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo and Qal’at Salah El-Din

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo

   Northern Syria has a landscape of limestone hills crowded with the shells of ancient villages, and the Jebel Sem'an, the Mountain of Simeon, is the heart of it. Between the fourth and seventh centuries, when this region was a prosperous corner of the late Roman and then Byzantine world, farmers grew olives and grapes on the stony hills and built their homes, churches, baths and presses of fine dressed stone. When trade routes shifted and the Arab conquests came, the villages emptied, but the buildings were so solid that they remained, roofless but recognisable. The best of them, grouped into a number of parks, were inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2011 as the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria.

   Read the complete Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo is where the day begins. Next is Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb.

2. 2. Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb

   Along the limestone uplands of north-western Syria, close to the Turkish border, lie the remains of hundreds of abandoned villages from late antiquity, the so-called Dead Cities. Kafr Aqareb, on the Jebel Wastani, is one of them, part of the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria listed by UNESCO in 2011. These were prosperous farming communities between roughly the first and seventh centuries, growing olives, grapes and grain, and producing oil that was traded across the Roman and Byzantine world. They built in stone, with remarkable skill: houses, churches, bath houses, olive presses and tombs, many still standing to roof height. When trade routes shifted and the region changed hands, the villages were gradually abandoned, leaving ghost towns that look as if their inhabitants left only recently.

   Read the complete Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb comes up about 87 km into the recorded legs. Next is Qal’at Salah El-Din.

3. 3. Qal’at Salah El-Din

   Few castles are as dramatic as the one that sits on a spur of rock in the coastal mountains of Syria, between two deep ravines. Qal'at Salah El-Din, or Saladin's Castle, takes its name from the Muslim leader who captured it from the Crusaders in 1188 on his campaign along the coast, but the story is much older. The site was fortified in Byzantine times, taken by the Crusaders in the early twelfth century, and strengthened with new walls and towers. The great trench that separates the castle from the rest of the ridge is cut out of solid rock, many metres deep, and in the middle of it a slender needle of stone, about twenty-eight metres high, was left standing to carry the drawbridge. It is one of the great sights of medieval military architecture.

   Read the complete Qal’at Salah El-Din write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 179 km into the recorded legs you reach Qal’at Salah El-Din. Next is back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb.

4. 4. back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Jebel Wastani Kafr Aqareb, late in the day. Next is Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo.

5. 5. Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Jebel Sem’an 2 KafrNabo. That is the ride.