The building boom collapsed in Syria too

Some of the half-finished high rise blocs you can see in Syria.

Hotels

Example of the sort of fine hotel patronized by the maker of this blog.

Hama

Hama is famous for its waterwheels (aka naria), which it needed to get water up the steep sides of the valley to irrigate crops.





Looking at them, I couldn't figure out how they caught the water and sent it up. In any case, they weren't in operation. It's fall, the river is low, the harvest is over and the waterwheels were done for the season.

Some old taxis

This is about the only three wheeled taxi I saw.



A Pontiac .... saved from scrap not because a collector like it, but because cars were in short supply.

Krak des Chevaliers

This crusader castle is way up on a hill with walls more then 10 feet thick.

But even if you get up there and breach the outer wall, you still have to get across the moat.

Baghdad 300km!

Not a good shot, but if you look carefully you can see the top green sign points the direction to Iraq.

Hajj

Going on hajj to Mecca is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. These are testimonies on the sides people's houses of having gone. The black cube/box in the pictures is the Kaaba which hajj pilgrims march around seven times.