Our next stop was Misyaf, home to one of the best-preserved Assassin castles. It is an imposing place, right in the center of the town. Its crumbling walls merge into the limestone outcroppings that form the foothills of the Jebel an Nusayriyah, the mountains that line the Mediterranean coast. The Assassins were a Shiite Muslim sect that emerged out of the political and religious fragmentation of the 11th Century. Out of their ongoing territorial struggles emerged a policy of murder, murder not just as a method of political expediancy, but as an act of devotion.




I'm a grey area kind of guy, I'm generally able to see some part of the middle ground between two extremes. Among the frustrations/benefits of being a stranger in a strange land is that one is, more often than not, allowed to experience things entirely on one's own. So even though I had no guide helpfully explaining every brick to me, I was able to wander through this rambling castle and explore it on my own, arriving at unexpected views or winding stone passages at random.


Apparently there was a Hellenistic site located nearby that was used as a source of building materials. This recycling program leads to many incongruities such as this Corinthian column embedded in a Medieval castle wall.