The Citadel of Homs, also known as Homs Castle or Qalaat Homs ( ar, قلعة حمص), is a historic building now mostly ruined in
Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
, Syria. The citadel was built on top of an ancient
tell southwest of the Old City, with remains dating back to the
3rd millennium BCE. The citadel is locally known as the "Citadel of Usama", named after
Usama ibn Munqidh
Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī (also Usamah, Ousama, etc.; ar, مجد الدّين اُسامة ابن مُرشد ابن على ابن مُنقذ الكنانى الكلبى) (4 July 1095 – 17 Nove ...
.
History
Julia Domna
Julia Domna (; – 217 AD) was Roman empress from 193 to 211 as the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. She was the first empress of the Severan dynasty. Domna was born in Emesa (present-day Homs) in Roman Syria to an Arab family of priests of ...
, daughter of the high-priest
Julius Bassianus
Julius Bassianus (born in the second half of the 2nd century, died 217) was an Arab high priest of Elagabalus at the ''Temple of the Sun'' in Emesa, Syria, where this solar deity was worshipped in a shape of a black stone. The name Elagabalus der ...
, has contributed to improve the city of
Emesa
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
and its citadel during the
Roman Syria
Roman Syria was an early Roman province annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War following the defeat of King of Armenia Tigranes the Great.
Following the partition of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea into tetr ...
era. At that time, the citadel was able to contain accommodation, warehouses and administrative buildings surrounded by semi-circular walls.
However, today the Citadel is in ruinous state as a result of massive demolition started by the Egyptian army of
Ibrâhîm Pasha in the 1830s. This was followed by leveling and extensive new construction carried out when the site was used as a military base by the French army during the
Mandate period and thereafter by the Syrian army.
The Citadel was only abandoned for military purposes in the late 1980s when it passed to the
Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums
The Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM; ar, المديرية العامة للآثار والمتاحف, french: La Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées) is a Syrian government owned agency that is responsible fo ...
.
Excavations at Homs Citadel
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See also
*List of castles in Syria
This is a list of castles in Syria.
Key
List of castles
See also
*List of castles
*List of Crusader castles
References
Sources
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{{Castles in Syria
Syria
Castles
Castles
Syria
Castles
A castle is a type of fort ...
References
Castles in Syria
History of Homs Governorate
Buildings and structures in Homs Governorate
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