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Shepherds, waterfalls and forests
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Some thirty large cargo-boats rid
e at anchor off-shore. In a vast
half-circle they come in to tie up at the quays under the giant cranes, with pilot boats
and fishing vessels weaving their way in between. Along the corniche boulevard there are
restaurants with covered balconies built out over the sea, with wonderful views of all
this activity. The fish and shell fish - personally selected in the kitchens - taste all
the better eaten here in the sea air, with all the color and excitement of a big port laid
out before us.
Lattakia is one of the lungs of Syria. Most of her imports and exports pass through Lattakia, which is also the end of the overland route from Europe through Turkey.
It is only natural therefore that the Syrian government should have taken particular care to develop the city. Already are achieved: the construction of the rail link with the Ghab, opened in 1976; the of a "duty-free zone" covering 75 hectares (it is the most extensive in Syria, a third of it is already open) the construction of giant refrigerated stores; as well as the development of the port itself and the improvement of its loading and unloading facilities. The city itself reflects this urge to expand. Wide two-lane boulevards have been built to take the increased traffic. A modern functional administrative center now faces the sea from the center of the city.
The port is impressive with its 45 hectares of basins, 1,700 meters of docks, 90,000 square meters of warehouses, and its immense silo that can hold 35,000 tons of grain. There are about one hundred various service vessels. Passengers heading to Cyprus, Beirut, Alexandria and the western Mediterranean embark at the north quay. A huge building houses the Customs and Security services, the Tourist Information bureau and all the amenities of the port side railway station. Nonetheless, facilities are now over stretched by the ever-increasing traffic, and 45,000 square meters have been taken over at Squbin and another 113,000 m2 at Singllin. There are therefore plans to expand structures, improve existing equipment, increase traffic further and to reach a storage capacity of seven million tons.
It is easy to imagine that one day ever car ferries will be calling into port here bringing flocks of tourists in their vehicles. This is all the more desirable as Lattakia has considerable tourist potential, and is now equipped with a modern infrastructure; indeed, it has the best accommodation along the whole coast. Indeed, for the Tenth Mediterranean Games held in Lattakia from 11 to 25 September 1987 (following the decision taken by the International Committee for the Mediterranean Games congress held in Casablanca on 2 September 1983), Lattakia benefited not only from the new infrastructures built to host the different sporting events, but also from the building of new hotels like, for example, the Côte d’Azur de Cham resort and residence. Built ten kilometers from the town center, this hotel complex provides both first class comfort and a 800 meter private beach where visitors can practice all kinds of water sports.
Furthermore, Lattakia is a perfect base for excursions throughout Syria’s coastal regions where beaches, mountains, lush countryside, archaeological sites and traces of the Crusaders all lie within a short distance.
In the city itself there is a pleasant walk along the corniche and the adjacent colorfully planted avenues; it is tempting to linger longer in the magnificent public gardens, right by the sea, with their fine palm trees and clumps of oleanders. There are not many ancient remains: four columns and a Roman arch from the time of Septimus Severus (circa 200A.D.), a triumphal arch on four massive supports at the bottom of an avenue in the south of the city and a regional museum recently installed in the ancient Khan al Dukhan monument.
The countryside is particularly rich and fertile in these parts.
The orchards and market gardens are protected from the winds by great cypress hedges. The citrus groves are especially carefully tended. Irrigation channels and watering systems ensure bumper crops of vegetables. Cornfields alternate with fields of sunflowers over much of the landscape. Where it gets drier olives take over once more.
The first thirty kilometers of the road from Lattakia to Antalya lie thus through very pleasant agricultural areas; as soon as we reach the first foothills of the northern mountain ranges the forests begin. They are evergreen forests of good-sized trees -an extremely unusual landscape in Syria and hence very strictly protected by the authorities. The forests have become a favorite week-end recreation place for the people of Lattakia; every Friday there is an exodus towards the resort of Qastal Moaf, Nabaein and Kassab as well as to the beach at Ras al Bassit.
South of Lattakia the countryside is quite different.
The so-called coast road in fact runs some distance inland and offers few glimpses of the sea. Tourist attractions along the coast are Tartous and the nearby Isle of Arwad. It is also worth stopping at Jableh and the Marqab castle en route. Other interesting excursions include trips into the mountains and valleys to the east of Lattakia, and to the Ras Shamra site of ancient Ugarit, ten kilometers north of the city.
The valley of the Nahr al Kabir -followed for a while by the road to Jisr al Shughour and Aleppo- is almost Alpine in feeling only a few kilometers inland from the sea. The river flows along at a great pace between the wooded slopes, throwing up pebbly beaches beside its deep meanders. Small boys - some of them with astonishing fair hair - lead their herds of goats and cattle, and sometimes flocks of sheep, there to drink. The shepherds enjoy splashing about in the water too, of course, and they also collect any driftwood that happens to be about - wood is a precious commodity all over Syria.
The banks of a tributary of the Kabir, which joint it close to its mouth, just south of Lattakia, are a very similar kind of terrain. Crops tend to give way to stock in these parts. The road along this river valley joins the one along the Nahr al Kabir after making long detours to Haffeh (where there is a turning for Saladin Castle), and then to the charming "holiday center" in the woods, at Slenfeh.
The coastal range rises like an impregnable barrier parallel to the shoreline. Its ridge runs from north to south at a height between 1,200 and 1,500 meters, the highest peak rises to 1,562 meters. There are very few roads across it, suitable for motor vehicles. Right to the last turning before the pass one wonders just how the road will ever make its way across. There are many roads which simply becomes dead ends or dwindle into goat tracks as they reach the top of the ridge.
These are the roads used by hardworking peasants, who often have to rebuild their stone walls flattened by storms and whose lives are a constant struggle to wrest a living from an exceedingly unwilling soil. As this road winds higher and higher it becomes obvious, even to the passing stranger that the land is becoming poorer and poorer and the crops less and less. Leaving behind the fertile orchards at the bottom of the slopes one gradually reaches a landscape where scanty patches of wheat stand out against the white limestone and the bare garrigue. Far below there is the sparkling sea, where an oil-tanker is making its way towards Banias and a cargo-boat is heading into Lattakia.
These were often strategic routes - better suited to the horsemen of days gone by, the Crusaders or the worriers of Allah, than to the motor vehicles of today.
For those fighting men these mountains were witnesses of moments of
glory and moments of defeat - not of speak of long hours of waiting and watching for
friendly troops or a friendly sail, nor of the days spent dragging supplies up the
mountain side to provision the strongholds perched like eagle’ eyries on spurs of the
Ansariya.
They are still there those citadels, that saw two centuries of bitter fighting. Some are now no more than shapeless ruins among the thistles: Mheylbé, Bani Qahtaan, Qsaybeh, Aalayqa, Kahf, Yahmour…others - and they are among the greatest - still stand out against the Syrian sky, arrogant even though sometimes mutilate; among them are Qalaat Salah al Din (known as Saône castle to the Crusaders), Marqab, Safita (Chastel Blanc) and, proudly isolated, Crac Des Chevaliers.
This will certainly assure Lattakia, important already in the economic development of Syria, of a significant role in Mediterranean tourism as a whole.