Not Sweating the Small Stuff

The Crusader Fortress of Krak des Chevaliers (حصن الأکراد) - My Very Next Travel Destination!

I found my next must-go travel destination not long ago in the C12 crusader fortress of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria.


I've traveled through Egypt, Turkey and Israel and have for some time been looking for another Middle Eastern fix. Which has provoked much contra advice, each time making me think of the Spanish saying 'A life lived in fear is a life half lived'.

T E Lawrence described the complex as 'the finest castle in the world' and and the travel writer Paul Theroux as the dream castle of childhood fantasy. And I had exactly something of the sort in mind as a fourteen year old reading 'Knight Crusader' by Ronald Welsh ... in which a young crusader is captured by Saladin's troops and then kept as a servant by an elderly and wealthy merchant. Till, after some years of devoted service, he is given his freedom to return to England.


I particularly remember such exoticisms in the narrative as the descriptions of the sound made by huge black pearls cascaded across a marble table top, and of the delicious thirst-slaking quality of ice-cold sherbet on a blazing hot summer day.

I do all the appropriate and expected research before visiting places like Krak des Chevaliers but I really like the time just before this, when I can just muse and dream on the pleasures in store - a kind of almost erotic reverie. This anticipatory phase can be heightened by photographs and videos, like the great footage shot by Sagonne@YouTube on a visit the fortress ...

... and then enhanced by evocative Arabic music on pipe and drum.

Ok, my appetite is now whetted almost beyond endurance - actually, beyond!

Anyone been to Syria or the castle? I'm now obviously entering the research bit!