i had planned to write
stories in the order they happened
as it stands
i'm severely backlogged
this comes from not spending enough time
in internet cafes
and spending too much time
visiting the local sites and walking aimlessly
go figure, eh? ;)
at this particular moment,
i am in the sleepy little town of karak
where everything closes shortly after sundown
(just before or about 5pm)
and i mean EVERYTHING
restaurants were closing a little later
(6pm to 6:30pm)
and luckily this internet place
(the only one in town, as far as we can tell)
is open till midnite
other than that,
nada
streets are empty of cars and people
and other than the odd stack of caged chickens
the streets feel abandoned
that's fine by me however
as i got all my food just before the shops closed
had a nice meal
and spent the day
visiting the best darn castle i've ever seen in my life
it's called karak castle
(*wink*)
and one of the reasons it's now my favourite castle in all the world
is that one is able to truly explore this ancient castle
explore it's upper walls,
the inner chambers
the dungeons
the tunnels under the church
walk up secret staircases
search for hidden rooms
climb into small doors or holes in the wall
and find more passages and rooms to explore
one locked door we were able to find
a museum guard who had the key
and he unlocked it for us
which opened up a whole other section of the castle
within the lower walls
with vaulted chambers and an 80 metre long hallway
it was amazing!
i've visited prettier castles
i've visited older castles
i've even visited castles with more history
even tho this one is as rich and thick as they come
however,
none of the previous castle i visited
would allow one such abandon
(at times recklessly so)
to explore so much!
they are currently restoring parts of the castle
including one of the main towers (the NE corner)
and as we went into one of the rooms in the tower
we saw planks of wood extending out a large window
with scaffolding beyond
where workmen under the supervision a foreman
were mortaring in newly worked blocks of stone
that other men were cutting and shaping in the dry moat below
the coolest thing is,
we were invited out onto the scaffolding
to see the work in progress!
linda being the engineer in the group
(and more importantly,
not scared to death of heights
like some certain other wimps... *inno*)
after watching him adjust the plank
which was about 8 inches wide... max!
i decided that my ponderous weight
would probably cause it and all the scaffolding
to go crashing down into the valley below
and thus,
in order to spare much damage to such a noble project
i decided to remain inside the tower
and content myself with taking photos of linda and the foreman
(yeah! content myself, eh! yeah! *wink*)
oh, by the by,
we'd met a hungarian guy at breakfast
in the tower hotel
our home and abode for the 2 days in karak
who joined us for part of our explorations
which made for excellent conversations
and more humans to for me to use
as silhouettes and models
in different parts of the castle
very cool :)
this new hungarian friend
eric by name,
and calling the land of the swiss his home,
spent the first 3 or 4 hours with us
and then proceeded to finish karak castle on his own
while linda and i took a lunch break in town
to return later to watch the sun set
but before we parted
we'd found the stables
the crusaders gallery above
the barracks opposite the massive kitchen
and the oven rooms beyond
we'd found the old nabatean relief
predating salah-ah-din and the crusades by many hundreds of years
we'd peered over the edges of the wall
(or in linda's case
walked fearlessly to the edges of the roof
where there was no guard rail)
to see the steep slopes
and the glacis wall
including the infamous drop
where the crusader reynauld de chatillon
would toss hapless victims over the edge to their deaths
making sure they'd stay conscious
by encasing their heads in wooden boxes
(if you don't know what a glacis wall is
then google it... they're pretty cool *wink*)
ok,
so here's a bit of a history interlude for all interested and not
this castle was ruled by the bad-ass reynauld fellow
(mentioned above)
who was so down-right evil
that this guy called salah-ad-din (or saladin)
got mighty ticked off
united all the arabs
and decided to kick the crusaders out of their homelands
(like i said,
he was a lil upset, eh)
anyways,
saladin laid seige to the castle of karak twice
which had never fallen before
and finally broke through
(tho i'm not sure if his brother was commanding
in the very end
cuz he had something else to deal with...
seiges take a while
and things come up eh?
that's life...)
he personally executed reynauld
when he let every other crusader commander leave
with their troops
after they surrendered
if they promised not to come back
nice guy eh?
almost sounds like a canadian or something :)
anyways,
reynauld de chatillon was despised
by his own people as well as his enemies
especially when he broke truces
by killing, raiding, kidnapping, murdering, looting
and disobeyed his own commanders
as he believed he was powerful enough
(and safe enough in karak)
to do whatever he wanted
on the other hand,
saladin was respected and honoured by both sides
for his chivalry and honour
when he laid seige to the castle the first time
there was a wedding going on
and when the bride (stefanie something or other)
sent out feast food for the arab commanders
saladin inquired as to area of the castle the newlyweds were in
so that he could direct catapult fire and bombardment
away from that area
in order to allow the new couple to have a nice wedding night
is that just cool or what?
ok,
back to the castle this morning
the maze of tunnels
with doors and arrow slits and holes in the roof
(murder holes,
ventilation holes,
chimney holes,
lighting holes,
etc holes)
and interconnecting chambers
the ambient light
was a photographer's dream
add to that 2 people
who were patient enough to be models
and hours of fun were to pass by quickly
in posture and in pose :)
with the lonely planet in one hand
bookmarked to the map of karak castle
and my camera in the other
we wound our way through
finding every little interesting nook and cranny listed
(except for the greek inscription that was... somewhere!)
as well as quite a few that weren't mentioned
from passages and chambers
to the odd hidden staircase
that said,
without the LP's detailed directions
it would have been hard to find
the one hidden staircase that was in plain view
you have to see it to realize how cool that is :)
ok,
it also helped that 3 jordanian guys
in leather jackets
marched straight into a dead end niche
as we were looking for the staircase
and "disappeared"
only to appear on the next tier above
and then finally on the very highest part of the ramparts
there are seven levels in karak
but not all of them are connected directly
and as linda described
some areas now look like a rabbit's warren
as the top part of the main court
looks like hills with hobbit holes in them
as many of the rooms had vaulted ceilings
which gives the area a hilly look
it's kind of weird
to be standing on a hill
strewn with rubble and weeds growing haphazardly
and look down into a hole
that is a ceiling light hole to a large chamber
with a hole in the floor
that is a ceiling light hole to ANOTHER chamber below that
with a hole in the floor...
you get the idea :)
and if you're scared of heights like me
(i prefer to use the word acrophobic
just like eric,
tho i'm way WAY worse)
suddenly,
the ground, the hill
all feels so transparent...
and high!!!
:P
we parted ways with eric around noon
as he had other castles to visit
and another town to hit
while we were spending the night in karak again
and besides, we were hungry
we left the castle knowing we could return
after the gatekeeper ok'd it
by asking if we still had our tickets
half a roast chicken later
and a bunch of tasty baklava downed with tea
(or water in linda's case
as she's recently given up drinking tea...
it DOES stain the teeth quite badly after a while eh)
we returned in time
to catch the sun moving into the western sky
and the light approaching that golden colour
that heralds the day's end
we started off in the museum
and afterwards were able to find
the right guard with the right key
to unlock the gates into another long staircase
that was within the wall and extended under the musem
now when i say "within the wall",
realize that the wall is like 12 metres wide here at least
(that's like 40 feet eh!)
and we were went exploring the 80 metre long passage
with a high vaulted ceilings
and a whole bunch of arrow slit walls
and a beautiful domed roof
with a big hole in it to let light in
very cool :)
when we emerged back into the sunlit world
the sun was just above the horizon
and a bird flew by
it had tapered wings
and looked like a sparrow
if a sparrow was about 50-100 times as large
as it normally was
my first thought was "falcon!"
and after taking a few photos
of this beautiful bird
riding the air currents
and darting around
we both agreed that this indeed
was a falcon
very cool!
he (or she?) was swooping around
and would go into dives down the castle wall
tucking in his wings
and accelerating so fast
it was hard not to gasp
in amazement and wonder!
we watched the falcon drift and glide
swoop and dive
as the sun turned the castle walls golden orange
little sparrows were the prey of the day
and to watch the life and death aerial acrobatics
of predator and prey
was absolutely rivetting
we watched the sun sink below the hills
the sky turn colour
and surely the last 2visitors in the castle
the thought finally occurred to me
that we may be locked in
luckily,
when we found our way back to the gate
(after a few "last" photos, of course!)
a man appeared
let us out
with a smile on his face
probably in response
to the huge glowing smiles on our own faces
what a way
to end the day!
beautiful eh? :)
