"I Fell Sick in Lovely Hamah..." a Hamah Travel Page by atufft

My wife ran down stairs and around the corner to the nearest pharmacy to find over-the-counter drugs that would require a prescription in the USA. She found the streets rather empty and worried that a secret policeman may be following her. Fortunately, our highrise hotel had a great view of the Noria park, and beyond the river, the burial ground of 10,000 men, women, and children slaughtered by President Assad's army. Just above that green space on the river is the swanky Apamee Cham Palace Hotel. The next afternoon, after I recovered enough to get on my feet, we walked through the Noria park and around to the museum and Asem Palace. Hamah seemed like a pleasant place to me, but I had to eliminate an excursion to the Crac de Chavalier.

The Norias are wood water wheels that make an mornful moan with each revolution. These irrigation works move water from the river into aqueducts that look very much like the Roman systems built two milleniums ago. The current wheels were mostly built by Arab sultans beginning in the middle ages, and are now protected by the Syrian government for the benefit of tourists. If one is close enough, water splashes a bit off the paddle-like wooden buckets.

The small collection of mostly Arabic artifacts is worth about 20 minutes, I suppose, so we spent most of our time browsing around the eroded antiquities in the garden plaza. The folk museum is worth a watch for those not already familiar with Arabic traditions. Since we had lived in Saudi Arabia for two years, these exhibits mainly served to refine our understanding to Syria. The Azem Palace is more interesting as it has some very ornate stone lace windows in Arabic designs. Near here, I found a 14th century toilet still in use, so I rushed back to the hotel. In the morning before sunrise, I shot an overview of the city from the hotel window, and then packed our bags for Damascus.