Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
South Dana: the Pyramid Tomb and Qasr al-Banat
A pyramid-roofed tomb dated 324 on Jebel Zawiya, the earliest securely dated of its kind, and 500 metres north the Qasr al-Banat, still standing three storeys high.
Idlib · Late Roman — Byzantine
Al-Fronloq Forest Reserve near Kessab
Pine and oak forest in the hills north of Latakia near Kessab, protected since 1999. The 2025 wildfire burned its southern part, but the core zone survived intact.
Latakia · Reserve, 1999
Tomb of Abu al-Ala al-Maarri, Maarat al-Numan
The poet al-Maarri lies in Maarat al-Numan, in a plain grave inside the courtyard of a cultural centre built around it in 1939. What to see and what to check.
Idlib · 11th century (burial) — 1939 (cultural centre)
Al-Dawayat Cave, the Cave of Lights near Mashta al-Helu
A cave 2 km north-east of Mashta al-Helu, lit through seven holes in its roof. A shepherd found it in 1914; the main hall covers 2400 m² under a 17-metre ceiling.
Tartus · Geological formation; found in 1914
Deirouni Chapel on the Jebel Barisha
A monastic chapel standing alone on the slope below Baqirha. The mouldings that loop over its window arches and end in spirals are all still in their place.
Idlib · Byzantine
Deir Sunbul, a Dead City on Jebel Zawiya
Four kilometres east of Ihsim on Jebel Zawiya: 115 ruined houses, five churches, two-storey mansions, a lamb carved in relief and a 6th-century basilica.
Idlib · Roman — Byzantine
Deir Seta, a Dead City with a Hexagonal Baptistery
About 25 kilometres from Idlib: the only hexagonal baptistery in the Dead Cities, an early 6th-century basilica, and an Islamic cemetery with a gravestone of 1431.
Idlib · Byzantine
Mar Elias al-Rih Monastery
A Greek Orthodox monastery on a windy hill near Safsafa, southeast of Tartus. Rebuilt in 1806, it keeps icons dated 1809 and 1817 in its lower church.
Tartus · Byzantine origins — present building 1806 (Ottoman)
Dehes, the Dead Village That Changed the Debate
On the Jebel Barisha plateau, the village whose excavation changed how the Dead Cities are read: two basilicas, a well-kept baptistery, a stylite relief and presses.
Idlib · Byzantine
Darkush, the Town on the Orontes Bend in Idlib
Darkush, 27 km north of Jisr al-Shughur, sits where the Orontes leaves a limestone gorge and turns: a Roman boatbuilder’s inscription, an old bridge, orchards.
Idlib · Roman — Crusader — Mamluk
Dar Qita, a Dead City on Jebel Barisha
On Jebel Barisha, a church of Saints Paul and Moses dated 418, its baptistery of 515 and a church of Saint Sergius from 537. Door inscriptions date the village.
Idlib · Roman — Byzantine
Jisr al-Shughur, the Bridge Town on the Orontes
A town on the Orontes and the Aleppo–Latakia road, with a Roman bridge rebuilt by the Mamluks in the 15th century, a caravanserai of 1660-1675 and old stone houses.
Idlib · Roman — Mamluk — Ottoman
