Monuments of Syria أوابد سورية
A Window on Syria's Past by Ross Burns
The zone south of the main entrance to the Aleppo Citadel was developed as a ceremonial area aligned with the great gateway ascending to the fortifications. Here was buried the great leader of Aleppo’s resistance to the Crusades, al-Zaher Ghazi (ruled Aleppo and a wide stretch of territory east into Mesopotamia from 1186-1216. The Ottomans […]
The young French artist, Louis-François Cassas, visited Antioch on his way to Palmyra in 1785. (See separate set on Palmyra.) The sketches he prepared at the time were later published in the form of lithographs, issued from 1799. These depictions give us important clues to the remains of the Byzantine and Crusader-era fortifications and gates […]
Those who have fantasized for many years over the castles of the Crusaders need to prepare themselves for a different experience at the Citadel of Aleppo. Fortification techniques were developed on a unique plan in the Islamic world at the time of the Crusades. We see may examples in Syria of these ideas with a […]
