Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
16 Places
Al-Shadhbakiyya Mosque, Damascus
A Mamluk mosque of 1453 in Qanawat, Damascus: black-and-white banded stone, a muqarnas portal, a courtyard pool and the founder’s grave, a block south of Tankiz.
Damascus · Mamluk — Ottoman and 1986 repairs
The Hilaliyya Zawiya in Aleppo
A Qadiri Sufi lodge in Aleppo’s Al-Jalloum quarter, rebuilt in 1790, that has trained the city’s qudud and muwashshah singers for four centuries. Still active.
Aleppo · Ottoman
The Great Mosque of Latakia
Latakia’s Ayyubid mosque, dated 1210 by the inscription over its entrance: a prayer hall under five domes, a stone minaret and a madrasa added on its west in 1422.
Latakia · Ayyubid — Mamluk
The Al-Saliba Mosque in Latakia
An Ottoman mosque named after Latakia’s old al-Saliba quarter and recorded in a 1749 decree: a four-domed prayer hall behind concrete extensions added from 1952.
Latakia · Ottoman
The Al-Mashati Mosque in Latakia
A small mosque on Yarmouk Street in Latakia’s old al-Saliba quarter: a Crusader-era church that became a mosque after Saladin took the city back in 1188.
Latakia · Crusader — Ayyubid
Sheikh al-Batrani Mosque, Latakia
A mosque in Latakia’s al-Kamiliyah quarter where a small Mamluk-era vaulted hall survives inside the 2005 and 2015 extensions, and how to tell old from new.
Latakia · Mamluk (most likely 14th–15th century); extensions in 2005 and 2015
The Al-Bazar Mosque in Latakia
An Ottoman mosque in the middle of Latakia’s market, dated 1824-1825 by its door inscriptions and merged with the neighbouring Al-Omari Mosque in 1899-1900.
Latakia · Ottoman
The Al-Fattahi Zawiya in Latakia
A Mamluk Sufi lodge from 1291 in Latakia’s al-Saliba quarter, with an octagonal stone minaret added in 1746 and a newer mosque of the same name next door.
Latakia · Mamluk — Ottoman
The Al-Khidr Mosque and the Tomb of Mar Jirjis in Bosra
A small mosque in western Bosra with an inscription dated 1134, a square minaret 17 metres tall and the tomb of Mar Jirjis beside it: what the sources describe.
Bosra · Burid; minaret 13th century
The Al-Hamawi Mosque
An Ottoman mosque of 968/1560 below the north-east side of the Aleppo Citadel, with its own school, fountain and tomb around it. Entry is free, at prayer times.
Aleppo · Ottoman
The Mevlevi Lodge of Aleppo (Mawlawiyya Takiyya)
A 16th-century lodge of the whirling dervishes outside Aleppo’s north-west walls, with a hall for the sema, a square laid out in 1834 and a past as the order’s seat.
Aleppo · Ottoman
Abu al-Darda Mosque, Damascus
A small prayer hall set into the north wall of the Citadel of Damascus, with a shrine to the Companion Abu al-Darda. The tomb is Ottoman; it opens at prayer times.
Damascus · Ottoman (shrine 1733)
