Sahr al-Lajat, a Roman Sanctuary and Village

Sahr is a Roman-period sanctuary and village at the northern tip of al-Lajat, the basalt lava field about 60 km south of Damascus. In Arabic it is known as Khirbat Sahr. Between 1998 and 2001 a joint team of researchers from Syria, France and Germany excavated here. The results were gathered in a volume of 473 pages published by Ifpo in 2017, and the whole volume is devoted to the sanctuary and the village around it. Whether the site is reachable and safe today could not be confirmed; this page reports published descriptions and is not a recommendation to visit.

Where it is

On the northern edge of al-Lajat, 7 km south-east of Al-Masmiyah, ancient Phaena. Local people call al-Lajat Bahr al-Lajat, the Lajat sea. Sahr lies in the al-Sanamayn district of Daraa governorate.

How people reached it

No road, ancient or modern, leads to the site. A 2nd-century Roman road that cut across al-Lajat from north-west to south-east is half an hour’s walk away. According to the excavation team, people only ever reached the site on foot, by horse, donkey or camel. They needed someone who knew the way. The starting point was the village of Al-Masmiyah or the hamlet of al-Taff on the northern edge.

What the excavations found

The title of the excavation report names both sides of the place: the sanctuary and the Roman-period settlement. Among its keywords, the report describes the settlement as a “pastoral village”. For the plan and dating of the temples, the source is this volume, Hauran IV; the open abstracts this page relies on do not give that detail.

The small theatre

The Arabic Wikipedia article on al-Lajat describes a music theatre, or odeon, at Sahr. It is 20 metres across. It has seven rows of seats, divided by three stairways. Three lower passages lead down to the orchestra. The same article says there was a second theatre in al-Lajat, at a place called Sur, but that nothing is known about it.

What not to miss

To understand Sahr, start with the book rather than the site. Ifpo’s Hauran IV volume is the only full source for the plan of the sanctuary and the results of the dig; its chapter with the general description of al-Lajat is open access.

Current state

No source from the last twelve months mentioning Sahr could be found. Illegal digging continues on the Daraa side of al-Lajat: according to Snack Syrian on 27 November 2025, a pit collapsed at Kom al-Rumman during unauthorised digging for gold and antiquities. The site has no road, lies in the middle of broken basalt, and its present state is unknown. Do not go without a guide and local advice.