On the way to the north, we made a short stop at Qatrana Castle, located in one of the few towns along the Desert Hwy. It was a former stop on the pilgrim road between Damascus and Mecca. The castle, built in 1531 by the Ottomans, has been nicely restored. But again, it’s slowly...
It took us around an hour to climb steep hills and narrow roads from Amman to the small but impressive Qasr Al Abad. It is one of the very few examples of pre-Roman construction in Jordan. Mystery surrounds the palace, and even its precise age isn’t known. However, most scholars believe...
It took us a while to find the correct gravel road leading to the Al Bithnah fort, strategically located on one of the old passes through the mountain range in Wadi Ham. The fort was constructed from stone, mudbrick, and palm-wood planking around 1745 due to the Wahhabi incursions...
The rough road brought us through a nice wadi to the small Al Hayl fort, built around 1830. This well-preserved fort is tucked deep into the jagged Hajar Mountains near the village of Al Hayl, about 13km southwest of Fujairah. It’s an excellent example of traditional architecture...
It’s well worth climbing the zigzagging staircase (🎟️free) to this twin-towered hilltop fortress to enjoy the sweeping 360-degree vistas of the Rak area, a vast date-palm oasis, and the Hajar Mountains. Built in the early 19th century, the fort was the site of the last battle...
We made a short stop at Al Kamil Wal Wafi. It has two main towns, which are Al Kamil and Al Wafi. Al Kamil is home to an extraordinary museum, which was unfortunately closed. This private castle houses the personal collection of Sheikh Khalfan Al Hashmi. His great-grandfather owned the...
The historic town of Nizwa, with its giant fort and high-walled souq, lies on a plain surrounded by a thick palm oasis and some of Oman’s highest mountains. It was the seat of factional imams until the 1950s. Nizwa, or the ‘Pearl of Islam’ as it’s sometimes called, is still a conservative...
We arrived in Bahla late in the afternoon and parked just in the middle of town next to one of the oldest fortresses in the country, the 13th-century Bahla Fort. It is located 40 km away from Nizwa in the Hajar Mountains. It was built by the Bani Nebhan tribe, who dominated the area from...
West of Karbala, in the desert, are the ruins of Al-Ukhaidir, a Sasanian-style fortress constructed by the Abbasid caliph As-Saffah’s nephew Isa ibn Musa around 775 AD. It is a large, rectangular fortress with a unique defensive style and represents Abbasid architectural innovation...
Nokalakevi is an ancient Colchian fortress (🎫10 GEL) built on the banks of the Tekhuri River in Western Georgia. It’s been mooted as one of the (many) places to have housed the Golden Fleece. The oldest layer dates back to the 8th-7th centuries BC, although traces of life in this...