Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
Souq al-Manakhliya
A hardware market inside the walls, between the citadel and the Amara quarter. Named for its sievemakers, it now sells tools — and keeps a painted dome.
Damascus · Ottoman and later
Madaya
A hill town looking down on the Zabadani plain: apple and cherry orchards, spring water, and the two years it spent under siege between 2015 and 2017.
Zabadani · —
Heraqla
6 kilometres west of Raqqa, an Abbasid monument raised to mark a victory: a square stone platform, four round towers and a circular wall 510 metres across.
Raqqa · Abbasid
Qara
A Qalamoun town at 1200 metres, halfway along the Damascus to Homs road: a caravan halt, a mosque that began as a temple, and 13th-century wall paintings.
Nebek · Roman — Byzantine — Mamluk
The Idlib Museum
The museum that keeps the Ebla clay tablets, at the eastern entrance to Idlib. Opened in 1987, badly damaged in the war, reopened with two halls in 2018.
Idlib · Modern building — Bronze Age to Islamic collection
The Ar-Rahman Mosque, Aleppo
A contemporary mosque at the north end of King Faisal Street in Aleppo: six minarets, one copper-banded dome, and outer walls faced with stone Quran pages.
Aleppo · Modern — drawing on early Islamic architecture
The Church of the Dormition of Our Lady, Aleppo
A Greek Orthodox church in Jdeydeh, Aleppo, sharing one courtyard with the Forty Martyrs Cathedral. Aleppo-school icons and a restoration still going on.
Aleppo · Mamluk — Ottoman
The Central Synagogue of Aleppo
The synagogue that held the Aleppo Codex for 500 years. Burned in 1947 and rebuilt in 1992, it was damaged again in the war and is closed while repairs go on.
Aleppo · Late antique — Ottoman
Saint George’s Syriac Orthodox Church
The church of the quarter that Syriacs from Diyarbakir built in Aleppo. Modelled on a church in Urfa, this dark stone building had its dome finished in 1951.
Aleppo · Modern
The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Aleppo
The twin-towered Latin church in Aziziyeh, opened in 1937. It was the cathedral of the Latin vicariate of Aleppo until 2011 and the Franciscans still keep it.
Aleppo · French Mandate period — 1934-1937
The Holy Cross Church, Aleppo
An Armenian Catholic church in the Ouroubeh quarter of Aleppo, just north-east of Aziziyah. Consecrated on 24 April 1993, with one dome and a belfry over the door.
Aleppo · 20th century
Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Aleppo
Aleppo’s Chaldean cathedral opened in 1972 beside the Tawhid Mosque. Its two crenellated towers, the two bands of writing on the front, and the times it is open.
Aleppo · 20th century
