Dead Cities Day trip en route to Hama from Aleppo

On my way from Aleppo to Hama on the eastern border of Syria, I decided to do a trip via a few famous Syrian stops, the dead cities and St simeon. Organised a spot in a shared taxi (minibus thing) with a few others to do the trip. Stopped first at St Simeon, a sight that commemorates St Simeon who at age 13 became staunch christian and took himself to a monestry at age 16. On one occasion, he commenced a severe regiment of fasting for Great Lent and was visited by the head of the monastery, who left him some water and loaves. A number of days later, Simeon was discovered unconscious, with the water and loaves untouched. When he was brought back to the monastery, it was discovered that he had bound his waist with a girdle made of palm fronds so tightly that days of soaking were required to remove the fibres from the wound formed. At this, Simeon was requested to leave the monastery.He then shut himself up for one and a half years in a hut, where he passed the whole of Lent without eating or drinking. When he emerged from the hut, his achievement was hailed as a miracle. He later took to standing continually upright so long as his limbs would sustain him. After one and a half years in his hut, Simeon sought a rocky eminence on the slopes of what is now the Sheik Barakat Mountain and compelled himself to remain a prisoner within a narrow space, less than 20 meters in diameter. But crowds of pilgrims invaded the area to seek him out, asking his counsel or his prayers, and leaving him insufficient time for his own devotions. This at last led him to adopt a new way of life ... atop a pillar. In order to get away from the ever increasing number of people who frequently came to him for prayers and advice, leaving him little if any time for his private austerities, Simeon discovered a pillar which had survived amongst ruins, formed a small platform at the top, and upon this determined to live out his life. It has been stated that, as he seemed to be unable to avoid escaping the world horizontally, he may have thought it an attempt to try to escape it vertically. For sustenance small boys from the village would climb up the pillar and pass him small parcels of flat bread and goats milk... He stayed there for 30 years... until 459 when he died.. pretty amazing... the remains that are in the pictures are mostly of the church they built around his pillar that he lived atop of, but the remains of the actual pillar are still there too, see the 2nd to last picture, the circular looking rock in the middle of the archway is the remains of his pillar.

From there it was on to the Dead Cities, there are about 700 cities abandoned by the Byzantines throughout Syria as the silk road became less and less frequented and boats started to be used for trades ... the people just left the cities, absolutely deserted. The region of the Dead Cities once supported an immense and prosperous population, rich in olive groves and was the hinterland of the great Christian city of Antioch. The towns and villages lack the grid plan of ancient cities; the "Dead Cities" instead seem to be settlements that developed organically in the countryside. After the Islamic conquest of the Byzantine world, the political and demographical center moved from Antioch to Damascus and this region, which depended on Antioch for its prosperity, went into decline. Its inhabitants moved away, leaving behind ghost towns. In the absence of invasions or natural disasters, these towns and villages remained remarkably well-preserved over the centuries. Amazing. But hot ... Was exceptionally hot today actually, in the high 40’s .. suffered greatly in the heat but was pretty cool seein the dead cities. Travelled for the day with an American fella whose family is Indian, was nice to chat to him and meet people as in love with india as I continue to be. Starting to feel a bit nervous about coming home … and excited too I guess.

Photos - The first 5 are taken from the Dead Cities, and the last 4 are from the St Simeon Site.