Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
Hit (Ancient Eitha)
Ancient Eitha, north-east of Shahba, was Herod’s main base in al-Lajat: a two-storey Roman villa, an inscription of 232 and a church of Saint Sergius from 354-355.
As-Suwayda · Herodian base; Roman; Byzantine
Khirbet Massakeb Sanctuary
A rural sanctuary of the 2nd century BC on the ancient road between Suwayda and Si’, with seven standing stones, a bull’s-head gate and a towered enclosure.
As-Suwayda · Hellenistic to early Roman
Khirbet al-Umbashi
A Bronze Age herders’ village in the black lava desert 36 kilometres east of Shahba: over 100 hectares, a walled quarter, a dam and a disputed great burning site.
As-Suwayda · Early and Middle Bronze Age
Hibran: Roman Temple and Reservoir
A village at 1400 metres south of Suwayda: a plundered Roman temple with inscriptions of AD 47 and 155, a priest of Allat on record, and a basalt-shored dam lake.
As-Suwayda · Roman
The Al-Hasanayn Mosque, Hama
A small two-domed mosque below the citadel of Hama, rebuilt by Nur al-Din after the earthquake of 1157. A six-line inscription at the entrance records the work.
Hama · Zangid rebuilding, 12th century
Harran, Suwayda: The Harran Inscription and the Nabi Ayyub Well
A village 26 km north-west of As-Suwayda, home of the bilingual inscription of 568, among the oldest Arabic writing, and of a well reached down 80 steps.
As-Suwayda · Byzantine; Ottoman; Druze village
Kharaba Roman Bridge
A three-arched Roman bridge in black basalt over the Wadi Zeidi, 6 kilometres north-west of Bosra: its measurements, where to look and its place on the Hauran roads.
Bosra · Roman
Khan Burhan and Souq Burhan, Hama
A late Ottoman khan and its adjoining souq in al-Hadir, on the east bank of the Orontes in Hama. The gate stone gives the Hijri year 1298; restored 2006-2007.
Hama · Late Ottoman
Khan Rustem Pasha, Hama
An Ottoman caravanserai on al-Murabit Street in Hama, built in 1556 by Rustem Pasha, grand vizier to Suleiman. A domed prayer room stands mid-courtyard.
Hama · Ottoman — reign of Suleiman the Magnificent
Hama National Museum
Hama’s archaeology collection has been in this building since 1999. Five halls hold a Latamne hand axe, an Aramaean lion, a musicians mosaic and a Nuri minbar.
Hama · Palaeolithic — Islamic period
The Cathedral of Saint George, Hama
The Greek Orthodox cathedral of Hama, completed in 1839, south-west of the citadel mound. A dome ringed by 16 windows and a bell tower that narrows in stages.
Hama · Ottoman — 19th century
The Gadara Aqueduct (Qanat Fir’awn)
A Roman aqueduct from a dam at Dilli through Daraa to Gadara in Jordan, with the longest known tunnel of the classical world. What survives on the Syrian side.
Daraa · Roman
