The road climbs, undulating over hill after hill and winding its way through the olive groves. All of a sudden a pink and white town comes into view in the mildest of the greenery and the flowers, huddled on the top of a small hillock above which rises a proud-looking square tower.
These are the houses of Safita, houses built of good stone, some of them covered with a terrace, others with a roof of tile. And there, standing quite upright, is one of those sturdy keeps which the Frankish conquerors erected at vantage points everywhere, thinking. In their vanity, that in this way they would shelter the annexed lands from surprise attack.
This keep fell, together with its neighbors, Chastel Rouge (Qalaat Yahmour) and Arima (Qalaat al Aryama), for the first time under the assault of Nour ad-Din, and then finally in February 1271, just before Sultan Beybars laid siege to Crac des Chevaliers.
The present-day town stands on the site of the fortress, which was surrounded by double wall, the first of them almost perfectly oval in shape. It is therefore no surprise as you walk about the streets to come upon some vestiges of medieval architecture: remains of towers, part of a glacis, a vaulted room…
The two-story keep
The keep, 28 meters high, is a two-story structure: on the ground floor, a fortified church; above it, a large room 26 meters by 12 divided into two parts by a line of three pillars. For defense purposes, deep stairway leads up to the terrace, which is still partly crenellated. The view carries far into the distance. From this watch tower, the defenders could communicate by fire or signal with the other castles and even with Crac which is as much as 15 kilometers away as the crow flies.
One exceptional point worthy of note: the castle chapel has never been deconsecrated. The majority of the population have remained Christian of the Greek Orthodox faith and nowadays services are still held here.
Dreykish, 10km north of Safita on the Misyaf road, is a bigger market town whose name will soon be familiar to all travelers in Syria now that water, renowned for its virtues and its purity, flowing from abundant springs here, is being bottled and marketed.
Hosn al Sleiman (14km beyond Dreykish, in the direction of Misyaf, to the right of the road) is the Arabic name of the site of the ancient Baetocécé. In the heart of wild mountains cut through by ravines, the inhabitants of Aradus (the present Isle of Arwad) had built a temple to Bel and Astarte.
South of Safita, two sites bring the tourist back to Crusader times again.
Arima, today Qalaat al Arayma (15km south-west of Safita), a forward strong-point for Chastel Blanc and for Crac, was a fortress of lesser importance, though situated on a spur at the confluence of two water-ways. The walls are almost completely in ruins. Only two towers half eaten away by the shrubbery conjure up the combats of the 12th and 13th centuries. At the time of Nour ad-Din’s lightning re-conquest, the place fell in 1149. The lord of the castle, a certain Bertrand, was carried off into captivity. Recaptured by the Templars, the Arima fortress was finally liberated during the decisive battles of 1271.
Chastel Rouge or Castrum Rubrum, today Qalaat Yahmour (20km west of Safita on the Tartous road, then 1km to the left), had a history very similar to that of Arima. Like Arima, Chastel Rouge was a quite small fortress, but the 15-meters high keep, placed in the center of an enclosure 34 meters long on each side, is still impressive. The site is certainly an ancient one. Tombs dating from Roman times have been discovered not far from the castle…