And its a nice castle... A couple of sections are pretty well preserved and it looks like some significant effort is being put in to restoration too...
It seems that the main structure was built around the end of the 17th century which to my mind is not that long ago... only three hundred years old or so... And that made me think about the advent of gunpowder and cannons in warfare... Hmmm Im pretty sure that Europeans got hold of gunpowder from the Chinese (mongol raiders) much earlier than 1700...Yeah the naval forces of England, Spain and Portugal were pounding each other with cannon in the 1600s for sure! But this castle would Im pretty sure be reduced to just so much rubble within a few hours of any sort of cannon barrage...So my only conclusion is that while Europeans had artillery and used it a lot at the time, the technology had clearly not made it overland into the heart of Africa (though in reality we are pretty far North on the continent here) for a couple more hundred years... or that this region was in fact politically stable and the castle never saw any significant military action :)
But it makes some nice pictures :)
And the old church had some interesting old paintings of a certain medieval style...
The Hanged man... One of my favorite medieval images.
Some poor chap losing his head.
And on I ride again... into Sudan.
