Qalaat al-Madiq

The ruins of Apamea run along a plateau above the plain, and the citadel stands on the hill at its western end. It is not empty. A village lives between the walls — houses, shops, narrow lanes. This is one of the few castles in Syria where life inside the walls never stopped.

Getting there

55 kilometres north-west of Hama, an hour by car. The citadel is about a kilometre west of the Great Colonnade at Apamea, so the two fit comfortably into one visit.

How long it takes

An hour and a half: the gate, the line of the walls and the lanes inside. Add half an hour if the museum in the khan is open.

What is there

The citadel sits on a hill that pushes out into the plain, and the name comes from that: it looks over the narrows, the madiq, between the hill and Jabal Shahshabu opposite. The name of al-Malik al-Nasir Yusuf is carved on the arch of the gate, and the towers carry the name of al-Malik al-Zahir Ghazi, son of Saladin; the walls you see are Ayyubid work. Inside, the lanes are narrow and they belong to a living village — keep that in mind with a camera. Under Ottoman rule a mosque, a madrasa and a caravanserai were built within the walls.

What most people miss

The khan. Built in the 16th century for pilgrims coming down from Anatolia, it was turned into the Apamea Mosaic Museum in 1982; at its centre is a paved courtyard with a well reached by steps. The first mosaic you meet in the east wing shows Socrates with six sages beside him. Whether the museum is open changes from year to year, so ask before you leave Hama.