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
/ref>

References

Castles in Syria History of Homs Governorate Buildings and structures in Homs Governorate {{Syria-struct-stub

History

See also

References