{"id":245102,"date":"2021-08-13T19:52:07","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T16:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/107.6.182.27\/en\/?p=245102"},"modified":"2021-08-13T19:53:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T16:53:10","slug":"safita-tower-unique-witness-to-the-authenticity-of-urban-art-in-tartous-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/?p=245102","title":{"rendered":"Safita Tower… Unique witness to the authenticity of urban art in Tartous province"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tartous, SANA \u2013 Safita Tower is located in the middle of Safita city in Tartous province overlooking several castles and fortresses and rising 419 km above sea level.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The tower is considered one of the most significant archeological monuments in the city as it is a witness to the authenticity of urban art in it.<\/p>\n

The tower had several names throughout history, where the Crusaders called it Chastel Blanc which means \u201cwhite castle\u201d because the stones of which were built from white limestone.<\/p>\n

Assistant director of Safita Antiquities Department, Samah Dayoub told SANA reporter that the tower is 27km away from Tartous city and it was built in Roman-Byzantine times on Phoenician foundations overlooking the Akkar plain and the mountains of Lebanon.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe tower was hit by devastating earthquakes between AD 1071 and 1202. and its fortification in its present form is likely due to later times, \u201dsaid Dayoub.<\/p>\n

Dayoub noted to the significance of the tower site in Safita city throughout the history where it formed a natural corridor inside Syria and separated the coastal mountain range, overlooking Akkar Plain, from the Lebanon mountains and formed a passage for the Phoenician Arwad residents in Tartous to Husn Suleiman.<\/p>\n

Safita Tower was built on the highest hill of the city, 100 feet above ground level, in which the basement was used as weapons caches, According to Dayoub.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She added that the ground floor of the tower has a church whose architectural art style dates back to the first half of the 12th century.<\/p>\n

The first floor was dedicated to the accommodation of the knights, consisting of two sections separated by 3 pillars of huge columns in the middle, and a hall divided into four sections of 11 windows for shooting arrows.<\/p>\n

Hybah Sleman \/ Shaza<\/p>\n