Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
Kafr Buhum, Orthodox Town near Hama
A Greek Orthodox town on a plateau above the Orontes valley, 9 km south-west of Hama. The Monastery of St George, a manuscript dated 1805 and 18th-century icons.
Hama · Roman-Byzantine origins; Ottoman — present
The Roman Temple of Isriya (Qasr Isriya)
A Roman temple standing alone on the steppe 100 km east of Hama: a carved east doorway, Corinthian capitals and an Apollo statue found in 1993. Current status.
Hama · Roman
Roman Palace at Inkhil (Qasr Zain al-Abidin)
A Roman-era basalt mansion in Inkhil, north of Daraa: a reception hall split by a great arch, a stone-beam ceiling and rooms that were lived in until 1992.
Daraa · Roman
The New Clock Tower of Homs
The clock tower seen as the symbol of Homs, funded in 1951 by the emigrant Karjieh Haddad: a black-and-white stone shaft with four clock faces over Clock Square.
Homs · Mid-20th century
Huwwarin (Ancient Evaria) Ruins near Homs
A desert-edge village 80 km southeast of Homs that was Byzantine Evaria. Two of its seven churches still stand, and caliph Yazid I died and was buried here.
Homs · Late Roman — Byzantine — Umayyad
Al-Hawa Cave (Umm al-Rumman Cave)
A basalt tunnel south of Suwayda, 2 km north of Umm al-Rumman, formed by two stacked lava flows. Not open to tourism; never enter without light or a guide.
As-Suwayda · Geological (volcanic)
The Walls and Gates of Homs
Only a short stretch of the Homs city wall survives, with two towers on its east side. The seven Abbasid-era gates live on as quarter names such as Bab Tadmur.
Homs · Ayyubid (with far older origins)
National Evangelical Church, Homs
A Presbyterian church on the western edge of Homs Old City, founded by American missionaries in the 1850s. A rocket burned it in 2012; it reopened at Christmas 2015.
Homs · Ottoman — American Presbyterian mission
Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Homs
The Syriac Catholic cathedral of Homs, built in 1912 in al-Hamidiyah: black basalt walls, arches banded black and white. Rockets pierced its roof in the war.
Homs · Early 20th century
The Covered Souqs of Homs
A maze of roofed lanes running from the Great Mosque of Homs towards the old citadel: grocers, cobblers, knife-sharpeners, and the evening as the busiest hour.
Homs · Mamluk — Ottoman
The Old Clock of Homs
A public clock put up in Homs in 1923, still engraved with the name of its maker, Abdullah Kishi. It stands where Hamidiyah Street begins; reinstalled in 2022.
Homs · French Mandate
Al-Hamidiyah, the Old Christian Quarter of Homs
The old Christian quarter north of the Homs citadel, where Mamluk buildings in black and white stone are still shops and homes, with Umm al-Zunnar nearby.
Homs · Mamluk — early 20th century