Day 27 – Büyükkonuk, Kantara, Karpas Peninsula

Our reason for visiting Büyükkonuk is its reputation as Cyprus’ first pilot eco-village, which has benefitted from US, UN and Turkish investment since 2006. Traditional buildings have been renovated, including the Old Olive Mill and a rainwater harvesting scheme at the local mosque is in the planning stages; an 8,000 litre capacity, PVC tank will be used to supply WCs and basins.

This project is being led by our hosts, Lois and Ismail, a Canadian-Cypriot couple, who seem to be very active in the local community, as well as running the wonderful B&B and adjacent craft shop.

 

Lois brings us a delicious breakfast and afterwards introduces us to Ismail, with whom we chat over Turkish coffee. After a while we are joined by two new arrivals, friendly Barcelonans now resident in Stockholm, one of whom is a photojournalist.

Ismail tells us that the mains water is supplied from local artesian wells, now more than double the 45 ft depth required to reach the source. One well has dried up entirely so mains water is only available every other day now. Still, Büyükkonuk extracts more than enough for its own use and is able to sell to other villages. Treatment is basic, crude chlorination by bottle resulting in variable levels of dilution, so most people buy drinking water, which is more carefully treated and delivered by truck.

Depending upon the number of guests the B&B takes up to three deliveries of potable water per week, each of 19 litres and costing 3 YTL (£ 1.30). In comparison the cost of mains supply is 1 YTL (£ 0.40) per m³ for the first 10 m³ per month, rising for higher levels of consumption. Since mains pressure is very low Lois and Ismail use a dry, clay-lined well to hold mains water, pumping it to storage tanks in the buildings.

Across Cyprus water shortages have become increasingly acute, culminating in freshwater imports in 2008, in Greek tankers to the Republic and in Scandinavian designed, floating plastic ‘balloons’ to Northern Cyprus. Desalination capacity has been increased (making use of cheap and dirty, low-grade fuel oil) and in 2011-2012 a freshwater pipeline and electricity supply will connect the island with Turkey. The channel between Cyprus and Turkey is relatively deep so the pipeline will be suspended rather than run along the seabed.

The project is politically contentious with Greek Cypriots reluctant to be dependent upon Turkey in the longer term, assuming reunification at some point. Turkey, which is not generally water-stressed, sees the opportunity to ultimately export water to Israel. The seabed between Cyprus and Israel is much shallower and flatter, making such a pipeline significantly less costly.

We also receive the best explanation yet for the ubiquitous request not to flush paper down the toilet (a bin is usually provided instead). Typically manholes are not constructed with benching and swept bends, and therefore they partly fill with sewage. Paper does not break down as easily as sewage so is more likely to clog up the manholes. The problem is compounded by increasing bleach use, which severely impedes sewage being broken down naturally. Consequently most people have their septic tank emptied annually. By avoiding bleach use, Lois and Ismail are yet to have their tank emptied in 13 years of residence.

Future projects include developing more comprehensive strategies for water and wetlands management. The former could include education, perhaps leading to a reversal in the trend for exotic, non-indigenous, water-hungry garden plants (and the lawn at the new ‘ecolodge’), and integrating intermittently used, existing reservoirs.

It is hoped that the many areas of wetland lost to development (in Büyükkonuk for quarrying and later an industrial estate) can be reclaimed so that, in tandem with a hunting ban in sensitive areas, migrating birds will return, offering potential for more sustainable tourism.

Another vision is an “off-grid” campsite accommodating up to 100 people, featuring only temporary buildings, complete with composting toilets, rainwater harvesting, solar water heating and kerosene fridges.

Ironically there are also plans to route a new tourist highway through the village. However the recently elected new government advocates low-impact tourism, merging the Ministries of Environment and Tourism, so the village may yet be spared.

Later in the morning we visit the amazing Kantara Castle, not as large or well preserved as Crac des Chevalliers, but with even more impressive 360°views. The western part of the castle is not visible at all upon entering but paths through the trees and undergrowth lead to the living quarters and the vaulted basement beneath, originally housing a prison and later two large cisterns, still full of water today. The medieval latrines on the south walls were once flushed by the castle’s sophisticated water system.

 

 

After an inadequate lunch in Kantara we wend our way down to the coast via Yarköy.

Head down past Galatia to Artemis, a new casino resort under construction. Planning consent was conditional upon the development incorporating its own desalination plant, which has been completed. Temporarily, until the resort is fully built out, desalinated water is sold to local residents.

A small tidal lagoon has been converted in to a lake by disconnecting it from the sea, ensuring that it is always full of water but completely transforming the ecology, replacing birdlife with algae.

We head further along the Karpas Peninsula and stop for a swim east of Yenierenköy. Sadly the beach is quite badly littered and there are almost no fish in the sea. Ismail later tells us that in his youth anemones, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and many species of fish were common but sadly, as in much of the Mediterranean Sea, they have gradually disappeared, presumably due to industrial pollution.

After another lame meal in Bogaz (though at least we are spared the cats),we return to the B&B and sit out the back of Lois and Ismail’s house, supping Efes and talking the evening away with our hosts and the Barcelonans.

Day 23 – Lemesos, Galata, Polis

We are late arriving in Lemesos but are grateful to clear immigration and customs quickly. Ignoring the keen taxi drivers we find the bus stop and seven minutes later we are on our way as the only passengers on the No. 30 bus. We realise it’s heading along the sprawling waterfront rather to the bus station as we had hoped, disembark and walk for 10-15 minutes back towards the centre, where we have breakfast.

 

 

At 1100 we have a meeting with Dr Michael Ierides, Secretary General of the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Agency (CYMEPA) and another enthusiastic environmentalist. Originally a shipping industry NGO (a function it retains) CYMEPA’s remit has spread to broader environmental education and since 1994 it has been Cyprus’ national member organisation of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).

Recently elected to the FEE Executive Board, Dr Ierides has responsibility for mentoring JREDS, Jordan’s representative organisation, which we visited. In fact he had been in Aqaba just before us, where he oversaw the Mövenpick hotel achieving the first Green Key accreditation in the country. In Cyprus there are four hotels certified to date, soon to be five, with a target of ten for next year.

CYMEPA is also implementing the Eco-Schools programme, which started at primary level, expanded to senior, and now covers 300 schools. Water is a favourite opening topic, as the water cycle is easy for the children to understand. Typically automated taps and cistern bricks (which reduce the flush capacity) are installed as part of the project.

I am intrigued to know whether CYMEPA operates across the ‘Green Line’ and Dr Ierides tells us that he would and does work with any NGO that supports unification but not with the “so-called government” of North Cyprus.

We talk about Cyprus’ water “shortage”. Dr Ierides’ view is that the main issue is unsustainable agriculture, which accounts for 70 % of consumption (domestic use 20 %, tourism 10 %). Water-hungry cash crops such as pistachio nuts, bananas and tomatoes are grown but frequently ‘dumped’ as Cypriots struggle to compete on the international market:

• Other producers benefit from more favourable climates;
• Since joining the EU in 2004 Cyprus has been subject to the Common Agricultural Policy; and
• Water for agricultural use is not subsidised to the same level as previously. (Even so it costs just 7 pence per tonne and some farmers apparently bottle it and sell it at up to 50 pence per litre.)

In the 1960s, in an attempt to increase water availability, every river and stream on the island was dammed, which is one explanation for the reduction in marine life around the coastal. Even so last summer, after poor winter rains, fresh water had to be imported by tanker from Greece.

This has not been necessary this year as the winter rains were ‘better, and mains water availability has risen from three to four days per week. (A hosepipe ban remains in place though.) Water pressure is low so most houses have two tanks, one at low level filled by the mains from which water is pumped to a rooftop tank that serves the fittings and appliances by gravity. Stored water is not considered potable so most people drink bottled water.

Another culprit, says Dr Ierides, is the trend in domestic swimming pools and lawns, which he says has resulted in increased humidity in Nicosia (we find this incredible). Pools are typically initially filled from water delivered by a tanker, with subsequent evaporation losses made up from a private borehole.

Demand for potable water for domestic use is increasingly being managed, with dual-flush WCs and grants for greywater recycling and private boreholes available. The country’s major infrastructure project is a new desalination plant, to add to three existing facilities. It will run on oil, perhaps converting to gas in the future if Cyprus’ untapped fields are exploited as expected. One has to question the value of an ‘autonomous’ water supply if it creates/perpetuates food and oil dependency.

Solar water heating is almost universal in residential buildings; it would be “stupid not to” have it given the subsidies (the capital cost for a four-person household should not exceed 700 Euros) and the short payback period. It is also common in schools, offices and other building types. The adoption of photovoltaic (PV) cells is less common and no clear subsidy strategy has yet emerged.

It has been a useful introduction to water management in Cyprus and Dr Ierides has also kindly arranged for us to visit the Green Key certified Cyprus Hilton in Lefkosia.We accept the generous offer of a lift to Avis’ “downtown” office, actually conveniently located 4 km from the centre. We want to see a lot of the island, particularly the mountainous interior, during our short stay, and public transport is rather limited, so we have decided to rent a 4WD.

We head north, past one of the dams, and up on to the Troödos Massif, heading for Galata where we have booked three nights’ accommodation through the Cyprus Agrotourism Company.

Except that when we phone the owner to say we have arrived she has no record of our booking. Thinking something is lost in translation we meet her in person but alas the studio is not available until the following night. However she is not about to pass up the chance of some unexpected revenue and takes us to see her friends who run a hotel and will put us up for the night.

We meet this friendly couple, are offered some homemade lemonade, and a long conversation in Greek ensues. We query what is happening and are told to wait. The husband disappears and returns with the phone book and they start discussing whom to phone.

Conscious of time (it’s now about 1600 on a Friday afternoon) we try to make our excuses but our prospective host is still reluctant to let a windfall escape her grasp and suggests we stay at her sister’s house for the first night. We agree to have a look. There’s no-one at home and she takes around the back of the house, where she fruitlessly roots around under stones and plant pots looking for the spare key. Her sister is on holiday and probably has no idea what’s going on.

It’s now 1700, two hours after we arrived and we’ve seen enough. It’s a pity because we want to support the agrotourism company, but our experience has been more aggro-tourism.

We decide to head for the northwest coast, as it is supposed to be less blighted by bad development and it allows us to traverse the interior, which we had intended to do. We consult the Lonely Planet guide, exchange phone calls with a hotel in Polis, where I agree to take a room, and am then lectured on the rudeness of not showing up.

  

It takes two hours to wend our way through the Cedar Valley and Pafos Forest, down on to the coastal plain. We arrive at the hotel but the proprietor has no idea who we are. Thinking it’s an embarrassing error on my part I return to the car, check the guide book and my phone, but the hotel and phone number appear to match, leaving me somewhat confused. So I return to the hotel and show the hotelier the guide book, whereupon he remembers that the number has changed and its new owner, another hotel, is allegedly taking advantage. This clearly isn’t the first time this has happened.

We phone the other hotel, get directions, and upon arriving discover that it is being renovated and isn’t as nice as the other hotel. So we tell the chap there what’s happened and that we’re going back to first place. He is initially reasonable and understanding, but then starts insulting the other hotelier who in the interim had called him, apparently accusing him of poaching his customers. We make our excuses and depart.

The first hotel still has space and the proprietor shows me the “studio”, which seems quite nice and fairly good value, before embarking on a brief character assassination of his rival. We unpack and agree we made the right decision. And though it’s not branded “green” or “eco” you have to pay extra to have the air conditioning enabled.

Day 19 – Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Bustan Qaraaqa

We take the No. 21 bus to Bethlehem, a largely Christian town on the West Bank. It is noticeable that the buses serving the West Bank are old minibuses with no air conditioning, in contrast to the modern buses on the Israeli side.

The bus heads south through Jerusalem’s suburbs and before too long we are driving alongside the infamous, imposing ‘security wall’ and, to our surprise and relief, pass through the checkpoint in to Bethlehem with minimal fuss. The bus terminates in an apparently random location but soon we are in a taxi heading for Bustan Qaraaqa (the Tortoise Garden), a community permaculture project based in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour (Shepherds’ Fields), just to the east of Bethlehem.

We are met by Alice who invites us in and offers us drinks, where we discuss her experiences of life, and in particular, water management, on the West Bank. She says that over the last 50 years, in the name of progress, there has been a trend away from “primitive”, traditional approaches to water management, which has left individual Palestinians dependent on modern infrastructure that they have little control over.

The water supply is regularly cut off for up to a month in Bethlehem and up to three months elsewhere on the West Bank, even in the winter when more rain falls. Water pressure is also frequently inadequate to reach rooftop storage tanks.

There are 200,000 Palestinians not connected to mains water at all. And though 60 % have a foul drainage connection only 10 % of sewage is actually treated, the remainder being dumped in wadis where it contaminates watercourses.

As with most issues in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, there is clearly a significant political dimension to water management, which I do not feel adequately informed to comment upon. The bullet points below simply outline some of Alice’s observations on water and waste infrastructure on the West Bank.

• Fragmented control impedes infrastructure development. The cities and towns are classified ‘A’ (Palestinian civil and military control) but are typically surrounded by countryside designated ‘C’ (Israeli civil and military control, covering circa 60 % of the West Bank by area), so it is impossible for the Palestinian Authority to initiate major infrastructure projects without Israeli consent.
• Israel benefits from the status quo: it is a water stressed country and the West Bank aquifer is a major supply source. Average domestic water consumption in Israel is around 2.5 times that in the Palestinian Territories (50 litres per person per day).
• Israelis do not experience the same interruption of supply, evidenced by the lack of water storage tanks on their houses, which has only just become mandatory under local building codes.
• Most Palestinian farmers wishing to increase their water storage capacity require Israeli consent, which is typically not forthcoming. Many proceed at risk and some have been issued demolition orders, which may or may not be implemented.

In response Bustan Qaraaqa advocates a grass roots approach:

“where governments and development agencies are failing, perhaps individuals and communities can succeed if only they recognise their own power to deal with the problems that are facing them.”

With water delivered by tankers being 4-6 times more expensive than the mains supply, maximising water storage capacity is an ongoing priority. Apparently stagnation is, in reality, not a problem. Water is transferred to clear plastic bottles, left on the roof for a day to be UV sterilised by the sunlight, and then decanted to clay jugs, where it quickly cools off before being consumed.

A new 90 m³ cistern has been added at the head of the wadi, which will help to support a major new tree planting programme next year. Olives, figs, carib, apricots and other fruit is already grown (for subsistence rather than commercially). There are more than half a dozen storage vessels for domestic use, and more are planned.

Consumption is also kept to a minimum at ~ 12.5 litres per person per day for drinking, cooking and ablutions. An old composting toilet has been restored, and water is recycled twice for dishwashing (rinse, wash, soak).

Consequently there is not much greywater but what there is is collected, recycled and used for growing mint, which as well as being tasty makes excellent mulch.

It a fascinating insight to life on the West Bank. Alice also gives us contact details for Marad al Kahuffash, who is running another local permaculture project in Mada village, adopting a slightly more technological approach. One to follow up once we are back, as time is short.

We pay a fairly brief visit to Bethlehem before returning to Jerusalem.

  

The security check on the way back in to Jerusalem is more rigorous, with all passengers disembarking for an identity card/passport check.

In the evening we manage to sample some beer from the Taybeh Brewery, the only microbrewery in the Arab world, which I am sure would make another interesting case study in water management.

Day 18 – Jerusalem

We are staying at the excellent Lutheran Guest House in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. We spend the morning exploiting the free internet connection and then visit the New City, stopping for a good lunch at a vegetarian cafe. on a quiet square just off Jaffa Road.

After lunch and in to the evening we wander the narrow souqs and streets of the Old City before returning to the New City for Israeli beer and wine, followed by bagels.

Although Jerusalem was naturally defensible its major fresh water source ,the Gihon spring, lay beyond the city walls. Hezekiah’s Tunnel, or the Siloam Tunnel , was dug in about when the city came under siege from the Assyrians. It leads from the spring to the Pool of Siloam, curving through 533 m at a gradient of 0.6 %.

According to the Siloam inscription found within the tunnel, it was excavated by two teams, one starting at each end of the tunnel and then meeting in the middle, though it is apparent from that several directional errors were made during its construction. Recent discoveries concerning a related tunnel, Warren’s Shaft, have suggested that the tunnel may have been formed by substantially widening a pre-existing natural karst (dissolution of layer(s) of bedrock).

   

 

  

Day 15 – Amman, Petra, Wadi Musa

We set off from Amman on the 0630 JETT bus and arrive at Petra at 1030. After checking in to a hotel in Wadi Musa, the adjacent town, we return to explore Petra, the amazing Nabataean city built in the 3rd century BC by carving buildings in to the sandstone rock. It is approached through a 1.2 km long Siq that is not a canyon but rock pulled apart by tectonic forces.

   

There is plenty of evidence of the Nabataeans mastery of hydraulic engineering.

“Writing in the first century BC, the ancient geographer Strabo described Petra as "having springs in abundance, both for domestic purposes and for watering gardens." Indeed, the Nabataeans chose this location not only for its fortress of rock cliffs, but also for its available water supply: this part of the desert saw a mere 15 centimeters (six inches) of rain per year. Petra’s local springs flowed enough for some families to fetch water daily, but these alone streams could not support a population of around 20,000 in and around the city.

The Nabataeans developed a sophisticated public waterworks fed by three larger springs located several miles from Petra. Systems of strategically placed rock-cut gutters lined with watertight plaster, combined with terracotta pipelines, followed the natural landscape to feed nearly 200 cistern tanks, many reservoirs and a nymphaeum, or public fountain house. Water was also diverted for agricultural use to support crops and herds, and the Nabataeans developed rules for water allocation to govern its consumption. According to a recent calculation, Petra’s aqueduct system carried about 40 million liters (12 million gallons) of fresh spring water per day—enough to sustain a modern-day American population of more than 100,000.”

Excerpt from http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/stone/water.php 

The technical expertise is described further in C. R. Ortloff’s Petra Water Systems:

“Analysis of Nabataean piping networks indicates that design criteria are employed that promote stable flows within piping, use sequential particle settling basins to purify potable water supplies, promote open channel flows within piping at near critical (maximum) flow rates that avoid leakage associated with pressurized systems and are designed to match the spring supply rate to the maximum carrying capacity of a pipeline…New discoveries related to maximizing water flow rates by internal piping wall surface roughness patterns appear to predate later discoveries in western science by some 20 centuries. This, and other demonstrations of engineering capability in hydraulic system design indicates a high degree of skill in solving complex hydraulics problems to ensure a stable water supply and may be posited as a key reason behind the many centuries of flourishing city life.”

 

Day 14 – Amman, Dead Sea

This morning we have two meetings with NGOs. The first is with Safa Al-Jayoussi of the Jordan Environment Society (JES), which runs various projects including two recently completed relating to water management: Awareness Project in Water (APW) and Water Efficiency and Public Information for Action (WEPIA).

APW is a five-year programme, part-funded by USAID and intended to raise public awareness of water management. “It is designed to implement sustainable “information, education, and communication” campaigns and activities throughout Jordan with the specific targets of decision makers, businesses, public and private organizations, community leaders, women, university students and children.”

WEPIA’s various sponsors include the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Part of the project is the promotion of an aerating device that can be easily retrofitted to taps and other appliances by a layperson. These were initially free, then subsidised, and are still available at 2-3 JD each (£ 1.70-2.55).

Funding is being sought for various other projects. Unlike in the UK where climate change dominates, water management is considered the top priority here.

Water is only supplied to each property in Jordan for one day per week, when the washing and cleaning is done, and the storage tank replenished. Typically a 4,000 litre tank is expected to supply a family for the remainder of the week, though some houses have surreptitiously installed a second tank. (Al-Taibah, a village in Al-Karak, has been cut-off from mains water for three months due to contamination of its water supply.)

Overall 70 % of water is used for agriculture, even though it represents a small proportion of Jordan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), well behind tourism and exporting potash. At Al Kherbeh al Samrah a French funded and operated waste water treatment plant incorporates centralised recycling of grey water for agricultural use.

The major infrastructure project under consideration is a canal connecting the Dead and Red Seas, which will replenish the receding Dead Sea with sea water and in doing so reduce the salinity, allowing less energy-intensive desalination closer to areas of high population density, such as Amman. The project is sponsored by the World Bank and also involves Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

We are also interested to learn that a Jordan Green Building Council is being established. The huge mixed-use scheme at Abdali, currently under construction, is expected to be the ‘greenest’ development in Jordan, meeting the new voluntary, good practice standards being established.

The second meeting is with Dr Fadi Sharaiha, Executive Director of The Royal Marine Conservation Society of Jordan (JREDS).

One of JREDS main roles is as Jordan’s national member organisation of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), “a non-governmental and non-profit organisation aiming to promote sustainable development through environmental education (formal school education, training of staff and general awareness raising).”

As the national member JREDS is responsible for implementing FEE’s five environmental education programmes in Jordan. These are: Blue Flag; Eco-Schools; Young Reporters for the Environment; Learning about Forests; and Green Key.

It is also running a public awareness campaign funded by HSBC, with activities including promoting “eco-diving” with Red Sea diving centres, running the Clean Up the World campaign in Jordan and organising an EcoClub in every school in Aqaba.

Like JES, JREDS has been consulted on the terms of reference for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the proposed Dead Sea Red Sea channel. Dr Sharaiha explains that the energy source for the desalination plant has not yet been determined but could be a nuclear reactor at Aqaba (which would require 100 billion litres of water per annum for heat rejection). An alternative source is Jordan’s shale oil reserves, which could be exploited commercially in the future. We agree that Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) would probably be preferable.

Solar water heating is subsidised and has a 2-3 year simple payback but is not widely adopted in residential buildings; big corporations such as the hotel operators are more likely to recognise the value. In rural areas hot water is generally not used, except for cooking.

Jordan is the fourth most water stressed country in the world. Dr Sharaiha tells us that domestic use averages 15 litres per person per day, though it varies widely, being perhaps ten times higher in urban areas than rural. (Consequently in rural areas grey and black water recycling not viable because volumes are so low.) We find this a little hard to believe, particularly since in urban areas ‘Western’ flush toilets are apparently widespread, and dual-flush WCs are only just being introduced.

Despite the scarcity water is not expensive. Dr Sharaiha’s colleague tells us that the water bill is 7 JD (£ 6.00) per quarter for her two person household and 40 JD (£ 34.25) for her parents’ five person household. Dr Sharaiha, who is a strong advocate of practising what he preaches, spends 8 JD (£ 6.85) per quarter for “four people and a pet”. Apparently this is partly attributable to his following the 1970s Californian mantra, “if it’s yellow, let it mellow”, which seems to cause a little friction with his wife!

(Dr Sharaiha also demands high standards of his employees, refusing to travel in one colleague’s 2.7 litre engine car, and reprimanding his staff for not going to a widely advertised, HSBC sponsored promotion where collect water saving devices were being given away.)

Later in the afternoon we visited the Dead Sea itself, the lowest elevation on the earth’s surface on dry land, at Amman Beach, and briefly floated in its incredibly saline water.

In the evening we visited the westernised Sweifieh district of Amman, depressingly complete with four Coca-Cola branded Hummers.

Day 13 – Amman

After another morning trying to catch up on blogging and email we venture out for some street food and to explore the old city. Originally built on seven hills and now spanning nineteen, Amman has sprawled in to neighbouring Zarqa and the resultant conurbation is home to nearly 50 % of Jordan’s 6.2 million population.

The hilly terrain seems to have engendered a car dependency and the public realm is poorly ‘designed’ and maintained. We take refreshment at a place dubbing itself an Eco-Tourism Cafe for no apparent reason, other than perhaps its electrical metering strategy.

After refreshment we meander through downtown Amman…

…and up to the citadel.

This large water cistern was built during the Umayyad period used to store rainwater. A large column in the centre acted as a depth gauge (only a small disc at its base remains) and a staircase built in to the side provided access to the bottom for maintenance.

Day 10 – Hama, Homs, Crac des Chevaliers, Damascus

En route from Hama to Damascus, we visit Crac des Chevaliers. Our impressions of the remarkable location and castle ruins are somewhat tempered by the development of the adjacent village, the hawkers on the entrance ramp inside the castle and the refuse strewn around the talus (fortification).

The castle was designed to accommodate a besieged army of 2,000 – 4,000 men for five years. To maintain a water supply for this long it relied on:

• One very deep well;
• Nine covered cisterns collecting water from flat roof;
• One Berquilla (an uncovered cistern, from the Arabic birkah), unusually located between the inner and outer walls.

The aqueducts also supplied the moat.

According to Hugh Kennedy, in his book Crusader Castles, “there does not seem to be a single recorded example of a Crusader castle falling through lack of water.”

 

 

Trains from Aleppo to Damascus (via Hama and Homs) run intermittently to say the least (departing Aleppo daily at 0010, 0350, 0540, 1010 and 1645), so we take the road to Damascus, literally rather than metaphorically, although after hearing that Colchester are 5-0 up at Norwich at half-time on the opening day of the season I begin to wonder.

After being subjected to a ridiculous Arabic version of James Bond for the duration of the bus journey we are pleased to arrive in Damascus. After checking in to the Old Damascus Hotel in the Christian Quarter of the Old City we go to the agreeable Art Cafe Ninar for some Syrian beer, Lebanese wine and supposedly Italian food, and I catch the final score (7-1).