Homs-Sana
Last year, Al-Hosn Castle returned to the map of tourist attractions as a result of the repeated restoration and rehabilitation projects that it is witnessing, as the number of visitors reached about 15,000, including Arab and foreign delegations.
The castle, registered since 2006 on the UNESCO World Heritage List, was subjected to sabotage attacks and thefts from terrorist organizations throughout 2012 and 2013 before the Syrian Arab Army restored security and safety to it in March 2014.
After that, the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums began carrying out extensive restorations of the castle, from conducting aerial surveys via a drone to building a three-dimensional model with clear accuracy of the castle building.
The ongoing restoration and rehabilitation work in the castle aims to restore its historical and archaeological site, as Naima Muharram, the director of the castle confirms to a SANA reporter, noting that last year witnessed the implementation of some items of the project to rehabilitate the tourist and cultural path in the castle, which is funded by the Ministry of Tourism.
This project includes removing the iron manger for the facade of the ticket window, replacing it with a wooden one, preparing about 24 identification boards for the castle tracks, lighting the first stable, installing a metal manhole for the Tower of the King’s daughter, announcing its investment as a restroom and cafeteria, in addition to cleaning and weeding works for the visit line, and implementing protection chains for some sites.
Moharram pointed to the importance of the memorandum of understanding signed in June of last year between the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums and the Saint Ephrem Syriac Patriarchal Authority for Development to implement a project to restore the Al-Zahir Baybars towers and the church and their surroundings.
In turn, the engineer Hazem Hanna, head of the engineering division in the castle, stated that the memorandum of understanding includes three phases. Work began in the first phase related to the restoration of the facade of the Al-Zahir Baybars Tower, the restoration of the vault of the tower and its surroundings, the door leading to Sultan Qalawun Tower, the staircase adjacent to the facade of Al-Zahir Baybars Tower, and the two arches in the western outer wall near the tower.
As for the second and third phases, they include the installation of wooden doors and windows for the church tower, the restoration of the northern curtain near the tower of the daughter of the king, and the strengthening of the northern wall of the second stable overlooking the moat of the castle.
It is noteworthy that Al-Hosn Castle is one of the largest castles in the world and the most important and largest of the medieval castles. It is characterized by its overlooking location, decorations, inscriptions and design. Its first construction dates back to the 15th century BC, then it was exposed to many building works with the Mardasids, the time of the Crusades, and then the Mamluks.
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