Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
Balis (Barbalissos) and its Ayyubid Minaret
At Balis on the Euphrates, a Byzantine tower from the Roman frontier town and a brick Ayyubid minaret of 1210 still stand. Near the Emar mound, but a separate site.
Aleppo · Roman — Byzantine — Umayyad — Ayyubid — Mamluk
The Colonnade of Bacchus in Latakia
Four 8-metre Roman granite columns in Latakia, 200 metres north-east of the Roman arch. For centuries they were walled into a mosque, until a new road freed them.
Latakia · Roman
Arwad Castle and Museum
The stone castle at the heart of Arwad island: a 110 by 58 m plan, a lion-and-palm relief at the gate, a former prison and a museum of Amrit and Tell Kazel finds.
Tartus · Crusader — Mamluk — Ottoman
The Ayyubid Tower of Arwad (al-Burj)
The small fort on the harbour front of Arwad: two storeys, 19 rooms, two round towers and a lion tied to a palm carved at the gate. Today it displays Roman amphorae.
Tartus · Mamluk (known locally as Ayyubid)
Ariha and Jabal al-Arbain
A town south of Idlib where the road turns off for the Dead Cities of Jabal al-Zawiya, known for cherry and fig orchards and the view from 877-metre Jabal al-Arbain.
Idlib · Roman — Byzantine — Islamic — Ottoman
Armanaz, Syria’s Glassblowing Town
A town north-west of Idlib known as the last place in northern Syria where glass is still blown by hand; in the 13th century Yaqut al-Hamawi praised its red jars.
Idlib · Ancient — Crusader — Mamluk — present day
Lake 16 Tishreen, the Seven Lakes of Mashqita
A branching reservoir 30 km from Latakia on the Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali. Islands and ridges split it into seven arms, and pine and oak forest runs to the shore.
Latakia · Modern reservoir
Souq az-Zirb
The east gate of the Aleppo souq, the first covered lane you meet coming down from the citadel. Named after a Mamluk mint, it holds 71 shops and is free.
Aleppo · Mamluk to Ottoman
Villa Rose
A pink stone mansion of 1928 in the Aziziyah quarter, the first building in Aleppo to use European architecture undiluted. Private, seen from the street.
Aleppo · French mandate
The Al-Turantaiyah Madrasa, Aleppo
A madrasa outside the walls, east of Bab al-Nayrab, endowed by Ibn al-Adim, the historian of Aleppo. The plaque at its door gives a different date to the books.
Aleppo · Ayyubid — Mamluk, the sultanate that ruled from Cairo
Til Barsip (Tell Ahmar)
Tell Ahmar on the Euphrates was the seat of Aramaean Bit Adini, then Assyria’s Kar-Shalmaneser. French digs in 1929-1931 uncovered the governor’s palace.
Aleppo · Ubaid — Aramaean — Neo-Assyrian
Tell Rifaat (Ancient Arpad)
The mound at Tell Rifaat, 40 km north of Aleppo, is most likely Arpad, capital of Bit Agusi, which held out for three years against Tiglath-Pileser III’s siege.
Aleppo · Aramaean — Neo-Assyrian — Seleucid