Saladin Castle

East of Latakia, inside pine forest, on a narrow ridge held between two deep ravines. What sets this castle apart is not its walls but the gap in front of them: to cut the ridge off from the land, a ditch about twenty-eight metres deep was carved into the rock, and one column of stone was left standing in the middle of it. The bridge rested on that column.

Getting there

About thirty kilometres east of Latakia. The road leaves from the town of Al-Haffah and the last kilometres wind through forest; an hour by car. Public transport does not reach the castle, so people take a taxi from Al-Haffah.

How long it takes

An hour and a half. The castle is long and narrow: you enter at one end, walk to the other and come back the same way. Rush it and you see nothing beyond the ditch and the keep.

What is there

The Byzantine core sits at the eastern end. In the middle stands the Crusader keep, its walls up to five metres thick and the best-preserved part of the site. To the west are Ayyubid and Mamluk additions: a mosque, a bathhouse and the remains of a palace. The ground between them is full of cisterns and storerooms. The castle was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2006 together with Krak des Chevaliers.

What most people miss

Walk to the northern edge of the ditch and look down: only from there does the rock needle show its full height. Most visitors cross the bridge without turning back to look at it.