Al-Tall

A town 14 kilometres north of Damascus, on the southwest flank of the Qalamoun range, stepped up the middle of the Menin valley. The houses sit between 900 and 1200 metres; the ground below them is left to the gardens. It is the centre of the al-Tall district in Rif Dimashq, and together with the neighbouring village its administrative area covers 4800 hectares.

Getting there

14 kilometres north of Damascus, half an hour. The road up to Saidnaya and Maaloula runs through it, which is why al-Tall is usually a town people pass without stopping. It works as the first break of a day heading north; Menin is 5 kilometres further on, Maaraba to the south.

How long it takes

An hour and a half, taking in the shrine, the centre and the stretch where the channel runs.

What is there

The present town grew over the remains of three older villages: Qusaymiyya, Butayha and Qawasir. The name comes from that pattern of settlement — people built their houses on the high hill at the head of the Qalamoun chain and left the valleys to farming. Inside the town is the shrine of Sheikh Qasim, known well beyond it. Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi passed through in AH 1105, mentions the shrine, and writes that the correct form of the name is Qusam.

Columns and worked stone belonging to three layers of the Stone Age have been found on the town’s land, but no proper excavation was ever carried out. What lies under al-Tall is still an open question. Local accounts say the earthquake of 1759 levelled Maaraba and al-Tall; the fabric you see today belongs to what came after it.

What most people miss

The channel cut into the rock. It comes from the direction of Menin, appears in the sources as Nahr al-Mar’a, carries fresh water from the upper branches of the Barada eastward, and crosses the town’s land. Cut stone, open air. You have to ask in the centre where it runs; there is no sign.