📷 Adventures in Travel & Photography: Israel Part 4: Ghosts of the Crusaders
Hello intrepid adventurers!
It's time to share more of our adventures in Israel. Welcome to Part 4.
If you want to check out the previous posts in this series you can find them here:
📷 Adventures in Travel & Photography: Israel Part 1: The Land of Milk and Honey
📷 Adventures in Travel & Photography: Israel Part 2: Wandering the Desert
📷 Adventures in Travel & Photography: Israel Part 3: Oasis in the Desert
Our trip to the north of Israel, of course, was mainly to see the lush, green natural park of Banias Springs (See part 3). But there are a couple of other interesting sights to see.
I just love me a good Crusader castle (who doesn't!). I was devastated at the time that our plans to go to Syria had to be shelved. Syria is the home to Krak Des Chevaliers, which at the time of our travels, was the worlds best-preserved example of crusader castle architecture. Sadly the UNESCO World Heritage site suffered severe damage during the civil war, only a couple of short months after we were in the region.
Nimrod Fortress (known as Qala’at al-Subeiba in Arabic) means ‘Castle of the Large Cliff’ and is still very much worth a visit, though it is off the beaten tourist track and getting closer to the Syrian border - where military presence is not so subtle or discreet.
And also anything called Nimrod has to be worth a look. And after a bit of historical digging around, it turns out that Nimrod is a crusader -era castle not an actual crusader castle.
The castle was built over a 46 year period in the mid 13th century by Saladin's youngest son, Al-Aziz Uthman and is the largest crusader-era castle in Israel. The medieval Muslim fortress sits on the southern slope of Mt Hermon and looks out across the Golan Heights. It stood guard against the enemies coming from the west on a major access route to Damascus.
After the end of Crusader rule in the Holy Lands the fortress was no longer of any strategic value and fell into disrepair until 1517 when the Ottomans used it as a luxury prison for Ottoman nobles. In the 18th century, much of the fortress was ruined during an earthquake.
Staring up at Nimrod from the bottom of the hill it's expansive size is not immediately apparent, but exploring the secret corridors and winding staircases to come out and look across the ridge it seems to stretch endlessly. It is 420m in length with towers running along the walls.
Staring through the loopholes - special windows narrow on the outside bu wide inside, it's easy to imagine archers defending against the infidels as they tried to storm the castle. See, I knew Crusaders were involved somewhere!
These days Nimrod main inhabitant is what looks at first glance to be a giant guinea pig. It is actually a hyrax or rock badger and they are everywhere to be found around the fortress - sunning themselves in little groups.
So if you've made the effort to get up this far north it is definitely worth a stop in to see these amazing ruins and soak in a bit of history. The view from the top of the ridge and the fortress towers is stunning and the furry animals that reside there are just too cute!
I hope this has inspired you to get out and see some more of the beautiful rock we live on. Til the next adventure steem on in love and light.
Location | Nimrod Castle, Israel |
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Camera | Panasonic DMC FZ100 |
Editing | Adobe Lightroom CC & Photoshop CC 2019 |
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Til next time,
Wishing you love and light!
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