Bourzey castle is called also Mirza castle, ( ar, قلعة ميرزا). It is located at the border of
Syria coastal mountains and
Ghab valley
The Ghab Plain ( ar, سَهْلُ ٱلْغَابِ, Sahl al-Ġāb, literally: Forest Plain) is a fertile depression lying mainly in the Al-Suqaylabiyah District in northwest Syria. The Orontes River, flowing north, enters the Plain near Muhradah, ...
, 25 km away from
Jisr al-Shughur
Jisr ash-Shughūr ( ar, جِسْرُ ٱلشُّغُورِ, jisr aš-šuġūr, , also rendered as ''Jisser ash-Shughour'' and other spellings), known in antiquity as Seleucobelus ( el, Σελευκόβηλος, translit=Seleukóbēlos), is a city in ...
, at altitude 450 m. The inscriptions and mentioning of the castle relate it to the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
era in 11th century. Architecturally it has triangle shape, the western façade is 175 m, the eastern is 50 m. The southern and eastern façades are adjacent to deep gorges, but the western façade is the least steep. There is 21 towers and a small church on the surface.
After Byzantine rule the castle passed to
Ayyubids, who built additional towers in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
style.
Mamelouks came later to fortify the southern towers.
The castle has several arrow bastions, underground rooms, water reservoirs. The road to the castle ends at the western slope. One needs climbing the mountain (~100 m) to reach the castle.
Sources
Official site of Hama governorate - Syria
External links
{{Castles in Syria
Castles in Syria
Byzantine forts
Byzantine sites in Asia
11th-century fortifications