Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
Al-Rumi Mosque (Mankalibugha)
A Mamluk mosque in the old city of Aleppo, just south of Bab Qinnasrin. Its minaret has no twin in the city, and it was damaged in the fighting here too.
Aleppo · Mamluk
Duraykish
A hill town in the mountains east of Tartus. Its name comes from Latin and means “three caves”; what it is known for is the mineral springs to the south.
Tartus · Ottoman — present
The Temple at Dumeir
In the middle of a town on the desert edge north-east of Damascus stands a temple dedicated to Zeus Hypsistos in 245. All four of its walls are still up.
Damascus · Nabataean — Roman — Arab-period fortification
Chagar Bazar
A twin-topped mound in the wheat fields of the Khabur plain. Max Mallowan dug here with Agatha Christie beside him, and she wrote those seasons up in her own book.
Qamishli · Halaf — Old Babylonian — Mitanni
Jabiyah, the Ghassanid Capital
A mound between the Hauran plain and the Golan, with nothing left standing on it. Capital of the Ghassanids, then the main Muslim camp in all of Syria.
Daraa · Ghassanid — Rashidun — Umayyad
Terqa (Tell Ashara)
A mound on the Euphrates 64 kilometres north of Mari. The city that took over the middle Euphrates when Mari fell, and the village standing on it today.
Deir ez-Zor · Early Bronze — Iron Age
Tell Fekheriye
A mound at the head of the Khabur, two and a half kilometres east of Tell Halaf. The city of Sikkan, a bilingual inscription and the Washukanni argument.
Hasakah · Neolithic — Assyrian — Roman
Tell Arbid
A mound 30 metres high in the Khabur triangle. A third-millennium city between Nagar and Urkesh, its Ninevite 5 temples and terracotta chariot models.
Qamishli · Early Dynastic — Mitanni
The Al-Shadhbakhtiyya Madrasa
One of the earliest Ayyubid madrasas still standing in Aleppo. Built by a freed Indian slave who deputised at the citadel; its marble mihrab survives.
Aleppo · Ayyubid
Shaqqa (Maximianopolis)
A Roman town on the basalt plateau of the Hauran, raised to city rank in 287. The halls of the Qaysariye, a church of Saint George, a kalybe, and the site today.
As-Suwayda · Roman — Byzantine
The Al-Rukniyya Madrasa
An Ayyubid madrasa on the lower slope of Mount Qasiyun, dominating the square of the Rukn al-Din quarter: ribbed domes, a square minaret, its founder’s tomb inside.
Damascus · Ayyubid
The Al-Umariyya Madrasa
The school built by the refugee family who founded the Salihiyya quarter. Once 360 rooms and the largest in Damascus; only the ground floor survives today.
Damascus · Zengid — Ayyubid