Our first location for the day was to Nimrod Fortress in the far north of the Golan Heights. The fortress sits on a 2600 ft peak on the southern slopes of Mt Hermon. Half of the mountain lies within Lebanon, the other half in Syria, although much of it is occupied and claimed by Israel as part of the Golan Heights. The fortress is less than six kilometers away from the border of Lebanon. From Had Nes, we headed north along road 888 (g'day, China!), then west on road 91 for a short distance before heading north again on 90 which hugs the east side of the Hula valley for the rest of the way. To say the scenery along the drive was beautiful is a serious understatement. This place is simply off its proverbial face when it comes to natural beauty. We only saw the snow capped peak of Mount Hermon a couple of times, and for very brief moments at that, before being obscured again by the fast moving low clouds again. It took around an hour to reach the fortress and once proving to the admission office that our tickets really were valid, parked the Mitsubishi on the edge of a cliff, checked my insurance, and walked away.
Today was overcast and very chilly. For once (and the only time in Israel), we suddenly felt quite under-dressed. There were clues that this would be the case in the final 5 minutes of our drive with a number of traders selling woolly hats and scarves on the side of the road from the back of their cars. The cold didn't last too long however, as a walk around Nimrod is essentially walking on a never ending staircase.
Nimrod Fortress
So - history time. The Crusaders were defeated at the Horns of Hittin by the Ayyubid army, and were soon on the back foot. There were subsequent attempts by the Crusaders to take the Holy Land back, but this didn't work out too well and they were only able to acquire some select places on the coast of the Mediterranean sea and around Galilee. The Muslims however were on a winning streak and took over the Banias region, which included the area we are in now.
Construction of the fortress began in 1227 and was used to control the major road between Tyre and Damascus. This was a high priority as they learned a German army had arrived and it was believed they would try to take Damascus sooner or later. This wasn't actually what the Germans had in mind, but the fortress was gradually expanded and improved all the same. The Crusaders eventually did launch an offensive in 1253, however they were unsuccessful. The Mongols, on the other hand, were particularly gifted at waging war and the fortress was destroyed by them on their 'rape and pillage' conquest seven years later.
Despite winning the battle here, the Mongols were soon stopped nearby at one of the most important battles in history (the Battle of 'Ein Jalud) by the Mamluk's and went off to rape and pillage other places instead. When the Crusaders surrendered and were ejected from the Holy Land in the late 13th century, the fortress's status declined. In the 15th century it was used as a prison for rebels, but was soon abandoned and only used by shepherds and their animals to shelter in.
The fortress itself conforms to the topography of the area and measures 420 meters in length and varies between 50 & 150 meters in width. It is surrounded by a virtually impregnable wall fitted with 21 large towers with only three gates, two on the south side and one on the west. The fortress is essentially divided into two parts - the Donjon (or keep) which takes up around a quarter of the space and the lower courtyard along with its various buildings, walls and towers.
We started from the southwest tower. This place offers a stunning view over Galilee, the Hula Valley and the slopes of Mt Hermon. This particular tower was enlarged during its life and has a pair of circular stair cases which lead down to two more levels to embrasures for archers (think ancient pillbox). The very thin opening in the wall (around 4 inches) would make it almost impossible for any effective return fire.
Right next to the southwest tower was the main water source for the fortress, a massive 9 x 25 meter room, 7 meters in height. The water was brought here by a series of channels throughout the fortress. Unfortunately, this reservoir has had one of its walls breached by shepherds a few hundred years ago, however this does provide for a very interesting glimpse of the interior and also, if you're lucky, of its new occupiers, the salamanders.
Next to the reservoir is a large public drinking fountain called the Rahat. There is an inscription above the main basin which dates back to 1240AD when it was reconditioned.
From here we continued further west along the western wall to the 'beautiful' tower, aptly named because it's... beautiful. This is a semi-circular tower which juts out of the wall. The inside of the tower was built as an octagon, however two of the walls were later combined turning it into a heptagon. The ceiling is vaulted and shows off the incredible construction quality.
We passed over the old moat, now mostly filled in, to get to the Donjon. This moat separated the two sections of the fortress and was accessed by a wooden bridge. Just outside the bridge next to the footpath, we found a large flat stone with holes grooved out of the top surface. This was used as a board for a popular game called Manqala and played by the soldiers when they weren't too busy fending off the pesky Crusaders or the rapey Mongols.
The Donjon was the original fortress and served as a separate entity to the rest of the larger fortress, being a place they could continue to defend against an attack if the rest of the compound was overrun. This was in itself a very large and powerful structure, with four tall walls and towers on each of the corners. There was only one entry point in the north west. It looks fairly underwhelming, until you take a walk on top and you get an impression of how valuable this extra level of defence could have been. Water cisterns, a ceremonial hall and other rooms have been unearthed within the Donjon.
From here, we walked to the northern tower, close to where we had started. This is the largest tower still on the site and has a huge central hall with more of the embrasures for archers. This huge tower was the building that became the prison in the 15th century. There are two ways to get back to the entrance and we chose the 'secret passage', rather than the more mundane path. This passageway is 27 meters long and leads to the outside of the fortress via a secret entrance hidden by rocks. It has tall arched ceilings and in some places, some of the stones have been displaced following an earthquake.
For visitors who have time or fitness that I don't possess, there is a hike to a large ancient swimming pool. While this was tempting to visit, it lies in completely the opposite direction as the car park and would have added at least another hour onto our time. As we still had two more places to visit, we opted to move on instead, however it can be seen from the top of the Donjon as seen in the photo below.
"The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety." - Psalms 18:2
Mount Bental
Our next major location was Gamla nature reserve, however as I have a fascination with modern history, I had also planned to stop off at the Oz 77 Memorial at Mount Hermonit on the way to check out some of the old wrecked army tanks that were used during the incredible battle during the Yom Kippur war. Unfortunately, our sat-nav system instead directed us to Mount Bental - a similar place, but without the tanks.
From either Mount Bental or Mount Hermonit, there are almost endless 360° views into Syria and the Golan. The main tank battle took place between these two mountains in an area now dubbed the Valley of Tears. This was one of the largest tank battles in history which took place when Syria and Egypt simultaneously invaded Israel on Yom Kippur in 1973 with their objective to take back territory lost in the Six-day war six years prior.
The Syrian's launched their offensive with ~1600 tanks (sources vary) including state of the art T-62's and backed by 1,000 pieces of artillery. By comparison, the Israeli's had 160 tanks but managed to hold onto the ground. The Syrians retreated when a small number of Israeli reinforcements arrived believing it to be a much larger force than it really was. By the end of the battle, the Israeli's had only 7 operational tanks left. There was another offensive launched by Syria in southern Golan at the same time, with similar overwhelming numbers but the same result. Heavy casualties were suffered on both sides.
While there are no tank memorials at Mount Bental, the old fortifications still remain including an intricate system of bunkers dug into the mountain. I would have loved to have had a walk inside, but they are now permanently locked. Old machine gun mounts are still in place. Asides from the magnificent view into Syria and a cafe called Coffee Annan, after the former UN leader, there is little else on the mountain itself.
The drive itself from Nimrod Fortress was most interesting. The scenery was not as stunning as on the way up (it would be very hard to compete with the Hula valley), however there was always something of interest to see. One of the most sombre sights was an old mosque with a large section on the verge of collapse. The minaret had hundred of bullet holes around the window and one could clearly imagine a sniper sat inside knowing he was in his last moments. Brutal stuff.
Every few hundred meters there is an old Soviet built rusted out army tank or transport truck in the middle of a field, or an old abandoned concrete military installation built into the side of a hill. I wanted to stop every two minutes to photograph something, but stayed disciplined. On my next visit to Israel, there are many places in this part of the world that would certainly merit more time.
As we were leaving Mount Bental, our friends in Nazareth, Sergio and Rhoda, called and said they would love to meet up with us in Gamla, but would be arriving around an hour after we would.
More photos of Nimrod Fortress are shown below.
A lion carved into a rock. This was created by the Baybars, the army who succeeded in expelling the Mongols
A look along the southern wall facing east
The remains of a square tower, built in the later period of 1260 - 1277AD
A view from the Northern tower along the northern wall. The Donjon is visible at the top
A view of the Northern tower facing west
A look at the most eastern tower showing the slopees of mount Hermon. The snowcapped peak can be seen at the far left of the photo
A view of the western side of the fortress from the Donjon
View or the southern wall facing east
The public drinking fountain near the Southwest Tower
Continue to Part 19 - click here