Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
The So-called Palace of Trajan in Bosra
Named after Trajan but built as a Byzantine residence: an 1850-square-metre courtyard house in Bosra, its three-apsed upper hall, and why the name is wrong.
Bosra · Byzantine
Tell Shihan: The Extinct Volcano Above Shahba
An extinct volcano just north-west of Shahba: a paved road climbs to the 1140-metre summit and the Nabi Shihan shrine, with a 300-metre crater on the west face.
As-Suwayda · Volcanic cone; modern shrine on the summit
Tell Qarqur, the Likely Site of Ancient Qarqar
A double mound in the Ghab plain, 7 km south of Jisr al-Shughur: ten thousand years of settlement and the likely site of the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC.
Hama · Neolithic — Bronze and Iron Ages — Mamluk
Tell al-Ash’ari, a Candidate for Decapolis Dion
A mound above the Yarmouk valley, 16 km west of Daraa: a candidate for Decapolis Dion, with its gold earrings now in Damascus. Access today is unverified.
Daraa · Bronze Age — Hellenistic — Roman — early Islamic
Tell Ashtara, Biblical Ashtaroth
A mound 4 km south-west of al-Shaykh Saad: Astartu of the Amarna letters, Ashtaroth of King Og of Bashan. You see the mound and plain; access is unverified.
Daraa · Bronze Age — Iron Age
Tell ‘Acharneh, Likely Site of Bronze Age Tunip
A 77-hectare mound on the Orontes, 35 km north-west of Hama at the south end of the Ghab. Most likely Tunip, the Bronze Age city named in the Amarna letters.
Hama · Early Bronze Age — Iron Age
Taybat al-Imam Mosaic Museum
A museum built over the floor of the Church of the Holy Martyrs, laid in 442, 18 km north-west of Hama. Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the four rivers of Paradise.
Hama · Byzantine (5th century)
Tafas, a Hauran Town North of Daraa
A Hauran town 13 km north-west of Daraa, known for an old mosque built with Roman and Byzantine stone and for the events of 27 September 1918. Condition unverified.
Daraa · Hellenistic — Roman — Byzantine — Ottoman
The Hagia Sophia Replica in Al-Suqaylabiyah
A small-scale copy of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, built as a Greek Orthodox church in al-Suqaylabiyah, 48 km north-west of Hama above the Ghab. It opened in 2022.
Hama · Contemporary (2020-2022)
Souq al-Tawil, the Long Market of Hama
Hama’s oldest market, built by the Ayyubid ruler al-Mansur Muhammad. It runs from al-Dabbagha to al-Murabit Street, with two khans inside and a mosque at one end.
Hama · Ayyubid
Shmemis Castle near Salamiyah
An oval castle on the cone of an extinct volcano just outside Salamiyah, with a 15-metre rock-cut ditch, a deep well, and an Ayyubid rebuilding from 1228.
Hama · Roman-era origins — Ayyubid — Mamluk
The Roman Temple at Slim (Slaim)
A 2nd-century Roman temple in the village of Slim, on the Damascus–Suwayda road: a three-room plan on a podium and a corner pilaster still carrying its cornice.
As-Suwayda · Roman
