Overland to London - Ephesus to Anzac Cove

 

Celsus Library, Ephesus

Day 87 (London Day 3)  Wed 20 August    EPHESUS – ANZAC COVE

After a night-drive through from Pamukkale we arrived at the top car park at Ephesus at around 2 am and settled down to spend the rest of the night, ready for when the gates opened around 8 am.

COMMENTS:     MISTAH! MISTAH! EPHESUS IS CLOSED!

          This was a profound Turkish observation made by some local intellectual giant at around 2 am.

                     How we long for the 3 S’s                                                                                                       Shower, shave, shit!

           First thing this morning, we will drop you off at the top entrance to the ancient Roman city of Ephesus (Efes to the Turks) and will meet you at the lower entrance at 9.30. Ephesus in ancient times was one of the most important and wealthiest cities on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. Its beginnings date from prior to 1100 BC when the Achaean Greeks settled  in the area, developing a harbour at the mouth of the River Meander (Menderes). In the 8^th century BC a temple was built to the Goddess of the hunt, Artemis, and the town became an important religious centre. In 356 BC, a madman named Erostratos who wanted his name to go down in history, set fire to the temple. On this very night in far-off Macedonia, Alexander the Great was born and a tradition developed that Artemis had left the sanctuary to attend Alexander’s mother at his birth, hence there was no protection against the fire. Alexander, after defeating the Persians at the Battle of Granicus in 334 BC, offered to rebuild the Temple, but was told that ‘one god may not build a temple to another.’ The Temple was rebuilt with money usually levied in taxes by the Persians. This rebuilt Temple was the one that became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. All that now remains on site is one, solitary, reconstructed column, with a stork’s nest at the top.  

Street of the Curetes, through Ephesus

Roman drainage pipes stacked at Ephesus

         After Alexander’s death one of his commanders, Lysimachos, moved the city to its present site and constructed a new harbour. To encourage trade, he destroyed the harbours of the neighbouring cities, thus forcing merchants to use Ephesus. In 190 BC the Roman occupied Ephesus and in the 1^st and 2^nd centuries AD, the city reached a new peak of prosperity. Many of the inhabitants became Christians. St. Paul preached here in 53 AD and St. John was said to have brought the Virgin Mary here. Tradition has it that both the latter died here. St. John’s Basilica is in present-day Selçuk and Mary’s House (Meryemana) is in the hills at the back of Ephesus. A 19^th century German mystic, Catherine Emmerich, described the site from a vision – she never visited Ephesus – and subsequent investigation revealed the foundations of the house now venerated as that of the Virgin Mary. After the 3^rd century AD Ephesus declined. The Goths destroyed the temple of Artemis. Many inhabitants began to move to the area around Justinian’s Basilica of St. John in Selçuk. The harbour silted up and malaria was rife. Eventually the city was abandoned until it became the tourist attraction it is today.

A place for the Roman males to pontificate at Ephesus

         From Ephesus we will press on to Izmir, ancient Smyrna, and now the third-largest city of Turkey to shop for food, then head on to  Çanakkale, stopping off at Troy (Truva). Little now remains of the 9 cities of Troy which date from prior to 3000 BC. Troy would have remained an obscure city on the Dardanelles if it had not been for the poet Homer and his poem ‘The Iliad’ which recounts the 10-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans in 12^th century BC.

The Walls of ancient Troy

Traditionally the war is said to have been caused by the abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, by Paris, son of King Priam of Troy. It had been predicted on his birth that Paris would bring about the destruction of Troy. Priam’s chief herdsman was given instructions to kill the infant Paris on Mt Ida, at the back of Troy, but instead he was abandoned the baby who was suckled by a she-bear. When the herdsman found the infant Paris still alive after a week, he decided to raise the child as his own and it was while attending the cattle that the Olympian Gods decided, as Paris appeared to be honest, to judge a beauty contest between the goddesses Aphrodite, Hera and Athena in what has become known as ‘The Judgement of Paris’. Each of the goddesses offered Paris incentives, but it was Aphrodite who offered Paris the ultimate prize – the most beautiful woman in the world (Helen) as his wife.  Paris, a mere mortal, judged Aphrodite the most beautiful, much to the displeasure of the other two goddesses, and, with divine help, Helen was abducted by Paris and fled to Troy, his father’s city. Agamemnon, Menelaus’s brother and King of Mycenae, mobilised his Greek allies and set sail for Troy. 

Group in the ruins of Troy - Wooden Horse at back!

The resulting war was said to have lasted ten years. Heroes such as Achilles, Ajax, Odysseus and Patroclus were on the Greek side, and Hector, Aeneas and Sarpedon on the Trojan side. Hector, son of Priam, was killed by Achilles who ignominiously dragged Hector’s corpse behind his chariot around the walls of Troy. Achilles, in turn, was killed by Paris whose arrow struck him in the heel, where his goddess-mother Thetis held him when she dunked him in the waters of immortality of the River Styx when he was a child. Sarpedon was killed by Patroclus who was killed by Hector, hence Achilles’ revenge. Troy finally fell to the guile of Odysseus who proposed the building of a great wooden horse – an offering to the Gods who throughout much of the war had taken sides, but were now neutral. The Greek ships sailed off to hide behind the nearby island of Tenedos (modern Bozcaada) and the Trojans, believing they had won, dragged, against the advice of the soothsayer Laocoön (who, with his sons, was killed by sea serpents sent by Poseidon), the wooden horse into Troy. Odysseus and a hand-picked group of Greeks were hiding in the horse, dropped out at night, opened the gates of the city to the Greeks who had returned under the cover of night and Troy was sacked and Priam and his surviving family were killed. As punishment by the gods, Odysseus had to suffer a further 10 years of adventures, related in Homer’s Odyssey before arriving home in Ithaca. Aeneas, the Trojan, also survived and with a band of followers also sailed the Mediterranean through a series of adventures (Virgil’s Aeneid) before settling in Italy and becoming, or so the Romans liked to believe, the ancestor of the Roman people.

Wild flowers around the ruins of Troy II

We will have dinner at Troy, before proceeding to Çanakkale to catch the ferry across the Dardanelles to Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula. We will spend the night in an unfinished Australian War Memorial near Anzac Cove.

 Day 88    Thu 21 August       ANZAC – SOFIA (London Day 4)

Departure time: 6.45am

Remains of a landing boat still remain on Gaba Tepe in 1981

          Early morning departure for the Anzac beaches. It was probably a morning such as this, on 25 April 1915, when in the grey light of dawn the first wave of Australian and New Zealand troops waded ashore at Anzac Cove and neighbouring beaches in the debacle that became known the Gallipoli Campaign. The plan to capture Gallipoli and thus gain control of the Dardanelles, the narrowest body of water between Asia and Europe, was Winston Churchill’s, and although the plan was viable, it was grossly mismanaged by the War Office in London. The Royal Navy was originally supposed to destroy the main Turkish defences in the area which it did with only limited success, and on the morning of the invasion was to carry out the preliminary bombardment. For some reason the barrage was inadequate and stopped too soon enabling the Turks to reoccupy the defensive positions. No allowance was made for the coastal currents and the invading troops ended up landing in a hail of Turkish fire on the wrong beaches. Losses were heavy, but the beaches and lower slopes were captured. After the first few days the war stagnated into bitter trench warfare, and although the upper slopes as far as Chunuk Bair were captured, it was finally decided to abandon the expedition after an exceptionally harsh winter and the troops were finally pulled out in early January 1916.

The Atatürk inscription in Anzac Cove

          The area has been left much the same as it was after the battles. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintain the cemeteries in the area. The main Australian Memorial is on Lone Pine Ridge and the New Zealand memorial on the heights of Chunuk Bair. The Turkish commander at Gallipoli was Mustafa Kemal, later known to the World as Kemal Atatürk.

Sculpture of Turkish soldier with wounded Australian, near Lone Pine

         From  Gallipoli (Gelibolu in Turkish) we press on through Thrace to the city of Edirne, formerly Adrianople, with its great Selimye Mosque, built by Sinan, the famous Ottoman architect, in the 16^th century.   The border with the Socialist Republic of Bulgaria is not far from Edirne and we will drive on to Sofia, the country’s capital, which we will reach after dark. We will be staying at Camping Vrana.

The oil-wrestling monument in Edirne, Turkey

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.

Overland to London - Side to Pamukkale

 

Turkish countryside near Antalya

Day 79    Tues 12 August    SIDE – PAMUKKALE (almost) ANTALYA

After leaving Side with its myriad of ‘rubbles’, we push on along the coast towards

 Remains of frieze in Theatre, Side          

Antalya, first making the short detour to Aspendos. This place is famous for its excellently preserved Roman theatre which dates from the rule of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD). From Aspendos we carry on to Antalya, one of the largest cities long the Turkish Mediterranean Coast with a population of over 100,000. Antalya, besides being  a major resort centre is also a major fruit and vegetable exporter.

From Antalya we head away from the coast, through Burdur and Dinar, and near the town of Denizli we turn off for the climb up to the famous hot springs of Pamukkale. Over the centuries the hot mineral waters, seeping from the hills, have left a deposit of silica, forming impressive pure white terraces. Here also are the ruins of the Roman  city of Hierapolis, built above and around the terraces. Here is a recently excavated ‘Plutonium’, or Gates of Pluto, which in earlier times had been the sanctuary of Cybele, the Anatolian mother-goddess.

Aspendos Theatre

The strong vapours issuing from the hot waters of a cave beneath the sanctuary are toxic (high in carbon dioxide) and it was said that only the eunuch priests of Cybele could withstand them. Also at Hierapolis is the Martyrium of St. Philip, the Apostle, who was crucified upside-down in 80 AD, and also the so-called Cleopatra’s Pool, where you are able to bathe in the clear waters among the fallen ancient Roman columns.  Sunset at Pamukkale is particularly impressive with vivid reflections in the waters and on the whiteness of the limestone terraces.

Comments:             

                 A word of philosophy, a word of complaint                             A warning here just a little too  late                                         Sam is bemoaning our fate and his luck                                Stuck on a bus surrounded by dust                                       Approaching heaven, just gone through hell                          Wishing he was in India where all was so swell.

 Day 80    Wed 13 August             ANTALYA

 Well once again we have decided, or at least OMJ has decided, to take a lengthy break. This time on the coast, so it can’t be all bad. OMJ is throwing a smoking fit, and as the Turkish army don’t seem to want her for making smoke screens during their war manoeuvres, it seems we must have her fixed. Rings and pistons seem to be the logical explanation, only problem – Ramazan holiday until Friday, so we will do our best to get back on the road as quickly as possible. To carry on in the coach the way it is, is too risky – maybe a seized motor miles from anywhere. So we will stay here at Bambus Motel, camping, for the time being.

Cumhuriyet Square in the centre of Antalya

Day 81    Thu 14 August             ANTALYA

       Again, nothing can be done on the coach, but we have been assured that work will begin tomorrow (Inshallah!). Hopefully we will be able to set a departure time tomorrow.

 Comments:                                     Jane it was plain was definitely game                                                                                   But it’s not for this story to over explain                                                                                 Her giggle was loud and overabound                                                                                    Especially at nite when all slept around

                                                          Prowling the disco late at night                                                                                              Looking for something called a Turkish delight                                                                      Juliette, Juliette can’t remember who                                                                                    Maybe we should take a photo or two

Boats along the rocky coast, from Bambus Motel, Antalya

 Day 82    Fri 15 August              ANTALYA

    At last things are moving. The Turkish mechanics do not seem to think that it is the rings and pistons but seem to think it is the fuel injectors and pump. Today they replaced the injectors which were kaput and will check the pump tomorrow. The brakes have also been repaired - properly! The coach does have to go to the garage tomorrow morning at least, but there is still a chance that we could get away sometime tomorrow afternoon, so if everyone could be around camp from midday onward.

Düden Waterfall, Antalya

Day 83    Sat 16 August              ANTALYA

       Again, a delay in the garage, but the bus will be back in camp tonight and we will head off early tomorrow morning for Kuşadası via Pamukkale. As tomorrow is Sunday, the day off, it would be at least two more days before we would be mobile again. Let us live in hope!

The travertine terraces of Pamukkale, the 'Cotton Castle'

Day 84    Sun 17 August     ANTALYA – KUŞADASİ  PAMUKKALE

Departure time: 5.45am       

 The terraces at Pamukkale at sunset       

            Well, once again the Magical Mystery Tour founders in the Turkish countryside. Leaving Antalya with lots more power and as much hope, we flew inland en route to Pamukkale and with high hopes of spending the night at Kuşadası. Over mountain, across valleys we raced, past Burdur and through Dinar but, alas, our joys were but short lived. After a loo stop near Denizli during which Tom replenished the engine’s oil, our problems returned, ending in a great cloud of black and white smoke which enveloped a large group of curious, then somewhat annoyed Turks at the tourist centre of Pamukkale – end of the road for another couple of days! So a mechanic has been found and says the rings can be replaced in two days in Denizli, all going well. A friend of Pauline’s has shown us a small camp site (small being the key word) with a pool, at the foot of the white terraced cliffs of Pamukkale where we will remain encamped for the next couple of days – Hotel Konak Sade!!!

 No Comments Please!!!

          There is a mile between every Sundowners’ smile – Robert

         Above & following pieces of prose won the Katherine Mansfield Award for originality and wit!?!

 Day 85    Mon 18 August  scheduled arrival in LONDON (PAMUKKALE renamed)

Departure time: Pretty bloody early to reach London by 10 am           

     Disembarking early in the usual English rain, we make our final run up the A4 from Dover (of White Cliffs and Vera Lynn fame) to London to arrive at Gloucester Road bus park by 10 am, just after morning rush hour!  But on the other hand, we could just have another quiet relaxing day at Pamukkale, feeling so glad that we have escaped the rat race of that teeming English metropolis for yet another day (or week).

A tomb of ancient Hierapolis within the limstone of the Terraces, Pamukkale

So, as the saga of P48 stretches out, we are all kept waiting ‘in suspenders’ once more – what will happen to OMJ? Will it be on the road tomorrow, or should Tom call in the knacker to put it down? (Should be plenty of volunteers for the job!) Stay tuned for tomorrow’s exciting episode of “How I travelled from Kathmandu to London and met the famous OMJ smoke machine.” (50 Turks now in Denizli hospital suffering from acute asphyxia); and still the question is asked – ‘when will we reach London?’ – the answer is "Definitely not on the 18^th!"

 All comments written below will be completely ignored!

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.

Overland to London - Kizkalesi to Side

 

Kızkalesi, the Maiden's Castle, on an islet on the Turkish Mediterranean Coast

Day 75    Fri 8 August          DAMASCUS – ADANA

Departure time: 5 am               Tach reading:  135,935         Distance run:  583 kms

 Another day spent backtracking through Syria to Turkey. We will stop again in Hama by the Great ‘whispering norias’ for lunch then press on, this time by-passing Aleppo to go straight to the Turkish border. Once across that border we’ll be back in civilisation, of sort – reasonable food, reasonable people and reasonably priced beer. Depending how we go crossing the border, and also allowing for the one hour time change, we will maybe head to Silifke, although it seems more likely that we will be stopping tonight in Adana.

 Day 76    Sat 9 August         ADANA – SILIFKE (KİZKALESI)

Departure time: 8 am               Tach reading:  136,518                  Distance run: 258 kms

 Reasonably short journey today along the Turkish Mediterranean Coast. We will stop an hour or so in the coastal city of Mersin to shop and hopefully change some money then press on to the BP Mocamp at Kızkalesi. Tom wants to have some work done on the coach, mainly to correct the steering noise which, no doubt, you have heard over the last couple of days.

Kızkalesi Castle walls looking towards the Mainland

    Kızkalesi is 27 kms from Silife and the name means the ‘Maiden’s Castle’. This site is that of ancient Armenian Corycus and both castles, in the bay and on the mainland are of Armenian origin, although Crusader and Byzantine additions are evident on the mainland castle. The name Kızkalesi has its origins in the legend of the King of Corycus who had a daughter of extreme beauty of whom it was prophesised at her birth that she would die from the bite of a snake.

        Ataturk introduces the alphabet,     
Tekirdaǧ

To avert the catastrophe, the king had a castle built for her on a little offshore. The prophesy proved to be true when the princess died from the bite of a snake accidentally introduced in a basket of fruit sent over by her father. The same story is also told of Kızkalesi, a 18^th century tower on an islet off Seraglio Point in the Bosporus in Istanbul. The two castles here, part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, held out until 1375, when they were captured by the Karamanoğlu Turks.      A point to note is the spelling of Kızkalesi. You will note that the first ‘ı’ is undotted, while the second is. In the Turkish alphabet, introduced by Kemal Atatürk to replace Arabic script,  there are two ‘i’s’, representing different sounds.  ı – undotted is pronounde as the second vowel sound in ‘partial’; i - dotted is pronounced as in ’bit’ – the capital is always dotted. Also you will see ‘ç’ and ‘ş’. These are pronounced ‘ch’ as in church and ‘sh’ as in ship respectively – consequently the correct Turkish spelling is ‘şiş’ (sheesh) kebab.

 Day 77    Sun 10 August        KİZKALESI – AYDİNCİK

Deaparture time: 7am              Tach reading: 136,776                      Distance run: 334kms

 TODAY NEVER REALLY HAPPENED (pax comment)

Choosing to ignore the above inane and stupid remark (and it wasn’t even Lindsay who wrote it!), I will continue with today’s commentary.  Today was really planned! Tom and I decided that, as London is creeping (the key word) closer, we would show you what Overland travel is really like. Admittedly we may have gone wrong somewhere near Silifke, and upon nearing the town with the charming name of Mut,

  Managed to find this photo of Mut on Wikipedia!  

we decided that we didn’t really want to go to Konya, so decided to follow our Turkish tourist map.. First by heading to Ermenek in the Taurus Mountains, then by heading south on a marked major road to Anamur. The Mut to Ermenek road may have been steep, but it was reasonable, but as for the other, it was formed on the paper of the Turkish tour map only! After much pushing by the pax, praying & cursing by Tom and myself and having Turks, who didn’t know where we were going, directing us. Gülnar, the place on everyone’s lips all afternoon, was as welcome as an oasis in the Sahara as we approached it at sunset.  

Poor old OMJ besides having a liberal coating of fine white dust – both inside and out – had brakes that were not working properly, no telmar, alternator broken and a driver in the first stages of lung cancer having smoked 10 packets of Turkish cigarettes in the course of the day. Even after Gülnar, on the tarseal, the day wasn’t over and one more push was required. Finally we reached the coast road and free camped in a lay-by near the town of Aydıncık.

 Quotes on the Day:

              Juliette to Long John: “Can I have some of your fly???”

       Tom caught on the hill (with dodgy brakes):  “Get out of the way, you fucking idiot!!”

             Frank at 5.30pm: “When’s lunch?”

Day 78 Mon 11 August          AYDİNCİK – SIDE

Departure time: 7.30am                      Tach reading: 137,110           Distance run: 246kms 

    After breakfast we will leave our little camping spot and head to Anamur, stopping on the way for a swim at one of the sandy beaches. We will stop in Anamur while Tom has the brakes fixed, before we proceed on, along this rugged stretch of coach to Alanya. 

The harbour at Alanya on the Turkish Mediterranean Coast

This area of Turkey, particularly around the town of Gazipaşa, is the centre of the Turkish banana industry and it was at Gazipaşa that banana culture was first introduced, the climate beneath of Taurus Mtns, which blocks the cold winters, being particularly suitable for this fruit.  Alanya, in the days of the Greeks & Romans, was a pirate stronghold which was destroyed by the Roman General Pompey in 68 BC. Today it is dominated by a great ruined castle which was built by the Seljuk Turks in the 13^th century. 

OMJ & pax getting a well-needed wash just out of Side

We will have a brief stop at Alanya, then press on to the seaside town of Side, also an ancient pirate stronghold cleared out by Pompey. Side has the remains of an ancient Roman city and a well-preserved Roman theatre, all of which are very close to the Neptun Motel where we camp.  The Zeppelin Disco is on the seafront not far from the Neptun. It is quite an unreal experience staggering back to the Neptun, through the ruins, with a skin full of Efes beer local wine or perhaps something a wee bit stronger.

The Roman theatre in the centre of Side

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are

Overland to London - Siege of the Syrian Embassy, Amman

 

The old city of Amman for the Citadel

Day 69 Sat 2 August 1980      AQABA – DAMASCUS (hopefully)

     As a result of our meeting last night, it has been decided by a majority vote to cut short our stay in Aqaba and spend the extra time on the Turkish coast at Side. This arrangement does suit Tom and I, and I hope those who wished to stop the day in Aqaba aren’t too disappointed. I feel the Turkish coast will be ample compensation.

          The drive today and tomorrow will be long, both in distance and in time, as we do have two borders to go through between Aqaba and Adana. Provided we can get an early start, we should be able to reach our objectives without arriving too late (all being well!) [Ha].

          Today we plan on stopping to shop for this evening in Jerash, just before the Syrian border. Hopefully we won’t experience any problems at the border (Famous last words!), but even so please destroy all receipts, stamps, coins etc. from Disneyland.

 Comments: Kathmandu – London via Amman, via Amman, via Amman, via Amman,                                                                                             via Amman ……

 Sam answered: “I was thinking that we’ve spent 12 hrs on the bus today & we’re still going backwards.”

 HAPPINESS is having a Syrian visa! [Half the fun though is trying to get one].

 Day One of the Sundowner’s P48 Syrian Visa crisis

 Day 70 Sun 3 August            AMMAN

    Thanks to the kind Syrian border officials, we have to stay in Amman to get new visas (they say our current visas, in Arabic, which I obtained in Ankara, are just for one visit & will not be moved on this), and our frustrating vigil outside the Syrian embassy begins. 11.30 sees Mr Neil and Mr Tom emerge from the scrummage outside the embassy, still with passports and no forms – embassy, it turns out, ran out of visa forms last Thursday. Mr Neil and Mr Tom are not saying too many nice things about the Syrians at this stage! Be prepared to wait! At least this campsite at Suweilih is clean. 

Day Two    -  “LET’S NUKE THOSE BUNCH OF CAMEL JOCKEYS!” (pax comment)

Day 71 Mon 4 August           AMMAN

Day 2 at the Syrian embassy. Finally, after ‘accidentally’ clouting a couple of Arabs, ejecting two forcibly with the help of an Italian, from the melée, bruised down one side and successfully resisting the efforts of a guard to remove me from the gate, I eventually gained admission to the embassy and got the 31 visa forms. Thanks to our scribes – Carol, Jane and Simon – we completed the forms, only to have the nice man refuse to accept them and tell us to come back tomorrow!

Day Three  of the Syrian Embassy siege

Day 72    Tue 5 August         AMMAN

           Day 3 Syrian embassy. Today the queue was even ‘orderly’ with each person being admitted in turn. This time we lodged our applications, and now must collect passports on Thursday. Allah willing, we should be away that afternoon.

 Day Four Syrian Embassy siege

 Day 73    Wed 6 August        AMMAN

Today, by way of a change from the charming city of Amman, we will go on an excursion to the town of Kerak, about 150 kms from Amman, overlooking the Dead Sea. Kerak is another ancient settlement. It is mentioned in the Bible as Qir Moab, but it was  during the days of the Crusades, as Crac des Moabites, that it reached the peak of its importance when the seigniory of Kerak and Montreal (present day Shaubak) became part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Christian feudal state after the French model, which lasted from 1099 to 1187. 

The town of Kerak, within the city walls of the Crusader castle

        Around 1136 Payem, the cup-bearer of King Fulk of Jerusalem, rebuilt the fortress and much of what remains dates from that period. In 1183, while the castle was occupied by Renaud de Châtillon, the Saracen Saladin (Salah-ud-Din) laid siege to the town. On 20 November 1183, when Saladin attacked Kerak, a marriage was about to take place between 11 year-old Isabella, daughter of Queen Maria Comnena of Jerusalem, and 17 year-old Humphrey of Toron, stepson of Renaud de Châtillon. Despite the siege, the wedding ceremonies continued and Lady Stephanie, wife of Renaud, in true medieval spirit of chivalry, sent dishes from the bridal feast to Saladin. Saladin, in turn, asked in which the tower the young pair were housed then ordered that it should not be bombarded by his siege engines, nine great mangonels that were in continuous action.

Town of Kerak from the Castle

   Kerak withstood the siege this time, but in later years Renaud de Châtillon attacked Moslem pilgrims in breach of a truce. Saladin never forgave him and in 1187, after the decisive Battle of Hattin near Tiberias which spelt the end of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Renaud was captured and after refusing  to change religions, was personally beheaded by Saladin. Guy of Lusignan, another captive Crusader whose life Saladin spared, witnessed the execution and was reputedly told by Saladin:  “It is not the want of kings to kill kings, but that man had transgressed all bounds, and therefore did I treat him thus.” After Saladin’s death in 1193, his younger brother, al-Adil took possession of Kerak.  

                    Arches & halls in Kerak Castle                         

 In later years Kerak was a bone of contention between the rulers of Egypt and Syria and for a time became a refuge for deposed Mamluk (or slave) Sultans of Egypt, several of whom met violent deaths in the castle. After the capture of the area by the Ottomans, Kerak drifted into obscurity. The main bulk of the castle is Crusader in origin with additions being built by the Mamluks and the Ottomans. Perhaps a word or two should be written about the Crusades, that period of religious wars were the baron knights of Europe reached the peak of their glory and popular imagination about the exploits of the Crusaders has been stirred ever since.

 The Crusades

          In the middle 11^th century, the weakening Byzantine Empire, long regarded as the Protector of the Sacred Places of Christianity, was being assailed, and losing ground, to the advancing Seljuk Turks from Central Asia. Also, the regeneration of the church and intensified religiosity fed the fires of indignation over the fact that Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre was in the hands of Barbarians (Moslems). Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus, in 1095, sent a request to Pope Urban II for help in recovering lands lost to the Seljuks, and after the Synod of Clermont in late 1095, Urban II convinced the knights and princes of the West that a holy war, or Crusade, was justified. Jerusalem became the password and the White Cross became the symbol. First to set out, in 1096, was a disorderly rabble under Peter the Hermit, a priest of  Amiens. After much fighting and looting (massacring Jewish communities in the Rhineland) on the way they reached Constantinople in August 1096. 20,000 men, women and children were ferried across the Bosporus only to be massacred or captured by the Seljuks  at Nicomedia (present day Izmit).

Montreal Crusader Castle, Shaubak, Jordan

     The next year the 1^st Crusade, led by men like Godfrey of Bouillon, Baldwin of Flanders, Raymond of Toulouse and Tancred, set out and within two years had defeated the Seljuks in Asia Minor, had captured Antioch (Antakya), besieged and captured Jerusalem and established the Kingdom of Jerusalem under the kingship of Godfrey of Boillon. A principality  was established at Antioch and earldoms at Edessa (modern Urfa) and Tripoli (in Lebanon)  

    Semi arch in Montreal Castle, Shaubak   

   In 1144, the conquest of Edessa led to the 2^nd Crusade (1147-49) under the leadership of Conrad III and Louis VII of France. The Crusaders were defeated at Dorylaeum and undertook fruitless campaigns against Damascus and Ascalon.

          In 1187, Saladin conquered Jerusalem and defeated the Christians at Hattin which led to the 3^rd Crusade (1189-92) under the leadership of Richard I Cœur de Lion of England, Philip II Augustus of France and Frederic I Barbarossa who drowned crossing a river in Asia Minor after winning a brilliant victory over the Seljuks at Iconium. Richard I and Philip II captured Acre and Richard concluded an armistice with Saladin, a coastal strip between Tyre and Jaffa was ceded to the Christians and pilgrimages to Jerusalem were to be allowed.

The 4^th Crusade (1202-04) was called by Pope Innocent III with Egypt as its objective. The Crusaders first had to conquer Zara in Dalmatia for Venice before the Venetians would assure transportation, then the Doge Dandolo of Venice directed the Crusaders to Constantinople which was conquered twice, the second time with merciless plundering and slaughter.

Children’s Crusade (1212) with the naïve intention of peacefully converting Moslems to Christianity. Corrupt merchants transported thousands of boys and girls from Marseilles to Alexandria where  they were sold into slavery.

The 5^th Crusade (1217-21) led by Andrew II of Hungary and Leopold VI of Austria. After an inconclusive campaign in Syria, the Crusaders besieged and captured the port of Damietta in Egypt and after an abortive march on Cairo, were forced to surrender by the Sultan of Egypt and leave Egypt.

The remains of the keep of the Crusader castle of Wu'eira, overlooking Petra

    The 6^th Crusade (1228-29) led by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who had been excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. He obtained Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth from the Egyptian sultan by treaty.

In 1244 Jerusalem was reconquered by the Moslems

The 7th Crusade (1248-56) was led by St. Louis IX of France against Egypt, now the strongest Islamic power. The Crusaders took Damietta, but then Louis was captured  along with a large portion of his army and ransomed against a third of France’s annual revenue.

The 8^th Crusade (1270) was again led by St. Louis IX of France, this time to Tunis where he died of dysentery along with a large portion of his army. This was the last organised Crusade against the Moslems, and the Holy Land was definitely lost to Christianity with the fall of Acre in 1291

Day Five  of the Syrian Embassy siege

 Day 74    Thu 7 August         AMMAN - DAMASCUS

Departure time: 8.30                 Tach reading: 135,704       Distance run: 231 kms

   

 Byzantine & Ottoman ruins on the Citadel,
Amman

 Again chaos at the Syrian Embassy, with Tom making little headway, despite scaling the compound walls,  but the womanly charms of Swiss Terry gained immediate access to the precincts of that notorious building, but again to no avail – no passports before one pm. Even though Terry’s ‘fainting’ spell gained admittance to the embassy building we didn’t get the passports. Just after one, I was called out in the street by an Embassy official and given a bunch of passports. There were a few nasty moments when I realised i had been given only the Canadian and Australian passports,  however shortly afterwards another official turned up with the rest - sigh of relief! A whistle saw Tom back over the compound wall and a ‘very poorly’ Terry suddenly miraculously recovered to the complete bamboozlement of a couple of concerned Syrian officials and we were finally off, en route to Syria.  Then complete chaos on the border – this seems to be a way of life with the Syrians. 4 hours on the border then on to Damascus, arriving at the camp ground at 11.30pm.  Many thanks to the cooks for being able to provide a good quick makeshift meal on the coach.      HEAR!  HEAR!

Pax comments:     I suffered withdrawal symptoms when I left Amman …

                              I cried for days after I left Amman

                             My life is so empty now that I’ve left Amman …

                             I mean, there was just so much to do there …

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.