Khan Sa’sa’

Khan Sa’sa’ is the ruin of a caravanserai on the road from Damascus to Quneitra, and in earlier centuries on to Jerusalem. It stands in the old village north of the town of Sa’sa’, on the bank of the Awaj River. In the Middle Ages this was a halt where caravans stopped for the night and postal riders changed horses. The seraya, the administrator’s building, and the arched gateways are largely intact. Do not expect a prepared monument, though: since the late 2000s people have been building houses inside the walls, and the courtyard has become a neighbourhood.

Before you go

Sa’sa’ lies southwest of Damascus, close to Quneitra. The town is outside the buffer zone, but reports from 2025 describe Israeli ground incursions and road closures in this part of Rif Dimashq. Current access could not be confirmed. Check the situation with a local source before you set out.

What to see

The wall encloses an area of about 150 by 125 metres. It is 4 metres high and in places up to 2 metres thick. The main gate is on the north side. Four watchtowers stand at the corners, the principal one at the northwest. Inside you can make out the seraya, built of hard white limestone with a half-dome and arches, and three caravan courtyards. The well is cut into the rock; its mouth is 45 centimetres across and it goes down more than 35 metres. The large mosque on the south side was restored in 2004.

From inn to endowed complex

A travelogue of 1480 by Ibn al-Ji’an lists Sa’sa’ between al-Murayj and Khan Arnabah as both a khan and a stop on the postal route. According to the historian Katia Cytryn-Silverman, the Mamluk sultan Qaytbay supported the restoration of the existing khan in 1477. Bedouin raids made the road unsafe, so in 1581 the Ottoman government issued decrees: 200 peasant families exempt from imperial tax were to settle here voluntarily, and a weekly market was to be held. Sinan Pasha, governor of Damascus in 1586-1588, built a mosque. His endowment deed lists a mosque, a public kitchen giving free meals to the poor, guest houses, two ribats, shops, a bath house and two stone mills.

Travellers, an earthquake, 1974

Al-Luqaymi, who stayed at the khan around 1731, describes its prayer hall, the Sufi lodge, the fountain, and sitting on the bank of the Awaj. Al-Budayri records that the khan collapsed in the earthquake of 1759. In May 1771 Egyptian forces under Abu al-Dhahab camped here before taking Damascus. The Swiss traveller Burckhardt later found the khan full of travellers. In 1974, during the disengagement that followed the 1973 war, the Israeli army partly demolished the building.

What most people miss

The well. Its mouth is barely a hand-span wide, yet it drops more than 35 metres into the rock. It is the one piece that shows a halt on a riverbank still drew its own water out of the stone.