A day on the edge of the Ghab: Bourzey Castle, the theatre of Apamea and Suqaylabiyah

The Ghab is the flood plain of the Orontes, and the coastal mountains rise like a wall along its west side. This route follows the edge of the plain from north to south. In the morning Qalaat Burzey on the mountain slope, at midday Qalaat al-Mudiq with a village still living inside its walls. In the afternoon come the theatre and colonnaded street of Apamea, and at the end of the day Suqaylabiyah, with the copy of Hagia Sophia that opened in 2022. The loop is about 185 kilometres, and close to five and a half hours of it is driving. It is a long, full day, and it only fits with an early start.

The route

Leave Hama to the northwest, towards Suqaylabiyah. Pass through the town without stopping in the morning and keep the church for the end of the day. Drop down into the Ghab and cross the plain northwards. Qalaat Burzey is 90 kilometres from Hama, about two hours and forty minutes. The castle stands on a rocky ridge 450 metres above the Ghab. The road ends on its west slope, and you walk the last 100 metres up a steep, stony path. From Burzey turn south: Qalaat al-Mudiq is 37 kilometres, a little over an hour. The theatre and the colonnaded street are very close to the castle; it is one kilometre from Mudiq to the street of Apamea, and the theatre sits on the slope in between. From Apamea, Suqaylabiyah is 10 kilometres south, twenty minutes. The way back from Suqaylabiyah to Hama is 47 kilometres, about an hour and twenty minutes.

Timing

Leave Hama at 07:00 and you are on the west slope of Burzey around 09:40. Give it an hour and a quarter. The plan is a triangle: the west side runs 175 metres, the east side 50 metres, and 21 towers are counted along the ridge, with a small church and cisterns between them. Look out over the plain from the ruined tower at the east end; from there you can see why the old road between Latakia and Apamea passed below this ridge. Saladin took the castle in August 1188 after a three-day siege.

Come down at 10:55 and you are at Qalaat al-Mudiq by 12:10. An hour is enough. The name of al-Malik al-Nasir Yusuf is on the gate arch, and that of al-Malik al-Zahir Ghazi on the towers. The Ottoman khan inside the walls has been the Apamea Mosaic Museum since 1982; ask in Hama whether it is open before you leave. Take your lunch break here, with food and water brought from Hama. At 13:10 move to the slope east of the castle. The seating of the theatre is 139 metres across and is estimated to have held more than 20000 people, yet only an eighth of it has been excavated. Look for the terracotta water pipes at the east entrance. At 13:40 climb onto the plateau and walk to the colonnaded street: it is close to two kilometres long, and the columns with twisted fluting are gathered in one section of the row. Give it an hour and a half; towards late afternoon the side light makes the column shafts easy to read.

Back at the car at 15:10, and in Suqaylabiyah at 15:30. The church was built as a small-scale copy of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and opened in July 2022. It is a working church; ask on the spot whether the door is open, and if a service is on, ask before taking photographs. If there is time, look at the Roman olive presses on the hill in the old centre, al-Tell. Start back at 16:15 and you are in Hama around 17:35.

Take care

The access details on this route are dated, and some are unverified. Until December 2024 Burzey was close to the front line in the northern Ghab, and the current state of the road could not be verified. Ask in Hama before you leave, stay on the clear path in the castle and on the slope, and do not carry on north of Burzey towards Jisr al-Shughur. No source from the past year confirms whether the theatre at Apamea is open to visitors. In July 2026, 4000 families returned to the town of Qalaat al-Mudiq; water, electricity and sewage are inadequate. There was tension between Suqaylabiyah and Qalaat al-Mudiq in March 2026 and a reconciliation in April 2026; at the end of July 2026 there was an armed attack in Suqaylabiyah. Ask your driver or a local guide about the situation that day, and leave your route with your hotel.

The south and east faces of Burzey drop straight into a gorge, so keep away from the edge. There is no shade on the plateau at Apamea. Fees and opening hours vary at every stop, so carry cash. The day is long and the drive back has to finish before dark: April to June and September are the best months. From October, as the days shorten, it makes more sense to give Burzey a day of its own.