Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
100 Places
Tell Hadidi (Ancient Azu)
Azu, a 135-hectare Bronze Age town on the west bank of the Euphrates: a Tablet Building burnt in the 15th century BC, Yaya’s will and links to Emar and Ekalte.
Aleppo · Early Bronze – Late Bronze Age (around 3300–1200 BC); Roman and Islamic remains
Tell Aran, Site of Ancient Arne
Tell Aran, southeast of Aleppo, is the largest mound in the region at 30 metres high, and probably Arne, first capital of the Aramaean kingdom of Bit Agusi.
Aleppo · Iron Age — Aramaean
Sarmin, the Ismaili Soap Town East of Idlib
Sarmin, east of Idlib: an Ismaili mission house, Crusader rule from 1106, soap Ibn Battuta saw sent to Cairo, two old bathhouses, rock-cut caves, Roman cisterns.
Idlib · Roman — Crusader — Ayyubid — Mamluk — Ottoman
Salqin, an Olive Town above the Orontes Valley
A town 46 km north-west of Idlib, at 460 metres above the Orontes valley: Surani olives, spring-fed orchards and a ruined castle listed by Ibn Shaddad.
Idlib · Ancient tradition — medieval castle — present day
