Paltos at Arab al-Mulk

A small peninsula where the Nahr al-Sinn river meets the sea, between Jableh and Baniyas. The land south of the river is still called Baldat al-Malik: Balda is the Arabic form of the Greek name Paltos. Founded as a colony of Arwad, the island city off Tartus, the town was a bishopric under Rome and Byzantium, and the Crusaders held a fort here called Belda. No recent source shows how much of the ruins can be seen today; for now the value of the place lies in its history rather than its stones.

Where it is

The ruins lie next to the village of Arab al-Mulk, on the south bank of the Nahr al-Sinn, in the area called Baldat al-Malik. They are not marked separately on any map; you need to reach the village and ask for Baldat al-Malik. Access, land ownership and the state of the ruins all need to be checked on the spot.

What the ancient authors say

Arrian names the town as a colony of Arwad. Strabo lists it among the coastal towns of the Arwadites and places it beside the river Badas. Pliny and Ptolemy also give its name. A tradition going back to Simonides of Ceos holds that Memnon was buried near Paltos. In 43 BC Gaius Cassius Longinus camped here with his army while besieging Dolabella in Laodicea, today’s Latakia. In AD 194 the border between two Roman provinces ran through Paltos.

Bishops and coins

Under the Severan emperors the town struck its own coins. In the late 1950s a Danish expedition found coins of Constantius II, Arcadius and Justinian I. Known bishops include Cymatius, a friend of Athanasius; Severus in 381; Sabbas at the Council of Chalcedon in 451; and John, expelled by the Monophysites in 518 and brought back by Justin I. In 528 Justinian I joined Paltos, Laodicea, Gabala and Balanea in the province of Theodorias; from the 6th century Paltos was an independent archbishopric.

From the conquest to the Crusaders

In the 630s Ubada ibn al-Samit conquered the town. Muawiya had Jableh repaired with stone from Paltos. Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote in 1229 that the town lay in ruins. The remains of a fortified tower dated to the 11th century are recorded at Baldat al-Malik. The fort the Crusaders called Belda or Beaude passed to the Knights Hospitaller in the 1160s and, with Barin and Qurfays, came under Marqab. Baybars took it in 1271.

From the 19th century to today

Descriptions from the late 19th century speak of extensive ruins of Paltos south of the river and a large khan, a caravanserai, to the north. In 1878 Bzhedugh Circassian refugees were settled in the area. No published study records how much of what those descriptions saw survives today.

What most people miss

The mouth of the river. From this spot you can read the peninsula the ancient authors described. You can also see the two banks that 19th-century travellers told apart: the town to the south, the khan to the north. Little is left standing, but it shows why a port town grew here.