Day trips from Aleppo

Aleppo itself fits into two days. From the third day on the trips begin, and they do not all run the same way: the limestone plateau northwest, the Afrin plain north, the Euphrates east, the Dead Cities southwest. This page gathers the distance, the hours and the state of the road for each of them.

What these trips assume

A car with a driver. No regular public transport reaches any of these sites and most are unsigned; the driver needs to know the area. The second assumption is that there is no shade: nearly all the stops below are open ground and nobody is selling water at any of them. The third, and the most important, is how quickly the information ages. The north and east of Aleppo changed hands several times during the war; roads, checkpoints and permission to visit vary by area, and what you read goes stale fast. Ask locally before you set off.

Saint Simeon and Deir Semaan

About 40 kilometres from Aleppo towards Daret Azzeh; the road winds and takes close to an hour and a half. On the hilltop, in the middle of an octagonal court, stands a worn block of rock — what is left of the pillar a hermit lived on for thirty-seven years in the fifth century — with four basilicas built around it. It went up half a century before Hagia Sophia.

Down the slope is Deir Semaan, the town that fed and lodged the pilgrims, with its two-storey pilgrim hostels still standing. The two stops are part of one another and together want three hours. To be on the hill by nine you leave early; the stone heats up towards midday and no shade is left on the site. Among the ruins at Deir Semaan there are houses used for livestock, so do not walk into courtyards uninvited.

Ain Dara: it joins the same day

It is 21 kilometres north of Deir Semaan, about an hour by car — the distance looks short, but the road is mountainous. On a mound looking over the Afrin valley stands an Iron Age temple: footprints close to a metre long cut into the paving of the entrance porch, and basalt lion reliefs. Look at the ground before you walk in; the prints are there.

The temple was struck from the air in 2018 and the front facade collapsed entirely; the site also has looters’ pits, so keep away from the edges. Access conditions can change, so confirm before you go. The day that links all three stops is 111 kilometres and nine hours, with 50 kilometres back to Aleppo.

Cyrrhus

It lies 70 kilometres northwest of Aleppo, around two hours by car. The ruins of Cyrrhus, founded by Seleucus Nicator, are here. Two Roman bridges still stand and are still in use: the road to the site crosses one of them, so the first Roman thing you see is the bridge you drove over.

The theatre stands outside the walls, and on the hill behind it is a Byzantine fort that has barely been excavated. The hexagonal tomb tower is a kilometre south of the main site and is what gave the place its present name: it survived because it was turned into a shrine. Most visitors see the bridges and turn back, and the tower is what they miss. It does not combine with Saint Simeon in one day; the directions are different and the hours do not stretch.

Qalaat Najm on the Euphrates

This trip needs a warning at the top of it. The castle is on the right bank of the Euphrates, 30 kilometres east of Manbij, with the Tishreen reservoir now up against its foot. Do not assume it is somewhere you can visit from Aleppo in a day. Manbij and this stretch of the river changed hands several times during the war, the castle was last fought over in 2016, and roads, checkpoints and permission all shift. Ask locally before you set off, and do not go alone or without telling anyone.

If it is open, this is what you get: a ramp and a gate that turns four times, a palace whose four wings open onto a central court, a bath attached to it, and a mosque with a double arcade facing the river. Walking the site takes an hour and a half. Time it for late afternoon; the castle is on the west bank and the water takes the light at that hour.

The Dead Cities: can they be done from Aleppo

They can, but the day stretches. The Dead Cities route on this site starts from Idlib: al-Bara, Serjilla and Qalb Lozeh, 180 kilometres and ten hours in all. Starting from Aleppo lengthens the drive at both ends. The practical answer is one of two things: either move the start very early and squeeze it into a single day, or sleep on the Idlib side and spread it over two. A shorter alternative is Ebla, 55 kilometres southwest of Aleppo beside the Damascus road, where the mound is visible from the tarmac and signposted.

Which season, which hour

Spring and autumn are the season for all of these. In winter mud and fog on the plateau stretch the drive; in summer there is no shade at any of them and midday is not an hour to spend on site. The order of hours is fixed too. Saint Simeon in the morning, because the stone heats towards noon; Ain Dara in the afternoon, because the temple faces southeast and the front takes light then. Qalaat Najm late in the day, and Cyrrhus in spring, while the plain is green and the oleanders are out around the bridge. Carry water and a hat every time, because none of these places sells either.