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Banias

The beautiful town is at 55km south of Lattakia it is an old Phoenician
town and harbor. Was known during the Hellenistic period under the
name of ”Palania”.
It is surrounded by green orchards and has many beautiful beaches.
The mountains, with their green woods, rise abruptly above it. It has
become now an important industrial town, with huge oil refinery, and
oil export and import terminal.

Al-Marqab Castle:

Know by the crusaders under the name of “ Al-Marqab’, it stand 6 km
south east of Banias on a high hill, at an elevation of 500m. above the
sea level, but directly overlooking the sea. A huge and strong
fortress, looking from the sea as an immense ship, it has 14 towers in
addition to the keep. The road to it through olive and pomegranate
trees with many turns, is very picturesque. Gothic style vaults are
used to support the ceiling of its big rooms. The castle was able to
house more than one thousand soldiers with enough supplies to
withstand five years and was directly connected to the sea by an
underground tunnel. It was one of the last crusaders strongholds,
liberated by the Mamluk Sultan Kalawoon in 1285 AD. some
inscriptions in Arabic, celebrating this victory may be found in one of
the towers. The whole castle is in a relatively well-preserved state.

Missiaf:

At 50 km east of Banias, but separated from it by a high mountain
range through which passes a picturesque road, its elevation is
400m. above the sea level. As befits its name ( which means “summer
resort”), it lies in a very beautiful countryside at the end of the
mountain and the beginning of the plain . it has a huge citadel
surrounded by orchards of pomegranate, fig almond trees.