Harim Castle

The castle sits on top of a mound above the town of Harim, raised over centuries by the settlement beneath it. The Amuq plain opens to the west and the Antioch to Aleppo road runs below: the whole story of the place is in those two facts. Anyone who wanted the road had to take this hill first.

Getting there

Harim is in north-western Idlib, right against the Turkish border, close to the Bab al-Hawa crossing. You climb to the castle from inside the town; the slope is steep and the path is stony.

How long it takes

An hour. Half of that is the climb and the descent; the ground to walk on top is smaller than it looks from below.

What to see

On the north-east side a large ditch is cut into the rock: 25 metres long and 8 metres wide. The castle was square in plan, and part of the wall and some of the towers have collapsed. On top are watchtowers, thick wall lines, the remains of a bath house, and hidden passages running down to the spring inside the mound, which supplied the town with water. Past the entrance you can still read the passages branching left and right and a row of twelve shops.

Who built it and who took it

The Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Phokas founded it shortly after 959. The Crusaders took it in 1097 and held it for forty years. It fell to Nur al-Din Zengi in 1149 after the battle of Inab, and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem took it back in 1158. In 1164 Nur al-Din besieged it again and destroyed the relief army in front of Harim, capturing the prince of Antioch and the count of Tripoli. Saladin’s son al-Zahir Ghazi rebuilt the castle. In 1260 Hulagu’s Mongol army wrecked both the town and the castle; most of the stone standing today is later than 1164.

Its condition now

The earthquake of February 2023 hit Harim hard. There is damage in the town and on the mound, and some roads can be closed. This is not a maintained heritage site: no railings, no signs, no lighting. Check the local situation before you travel.