Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
22 Places
The Museum of Popular Traditions in Deir ez-Zor
Clothes, tools and silver jewellery of the Euphrates valley in 19 rooms of a 1930 government house. Not the archaeology museum; check that it is open before going.
Deir ez-Zor · Building 1930 · museum founded 1957
Deir Atiyah Museum
A museum spread over rough-stone buildings on a hill above Deir Atiyah: a Palmyrene altar, a Byzantine lintel dated 509, and weapons from the 18th century on.
Nebek · Founded 1982; collection from the Hellenistic period to the 20th century
Taybat al-Imam Mosaic Museum
A museum built over the floor of the Church of the Holy Martyrs, laid in 442, 18 km north-west of Hama. Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the four rivers of Paradise.
Hama · Byzantine (5th century)
The Shahba Mosaic Museum
A museum set up in 1962 inside a Roman building at Shahba. Its Tethys, Orpheus, Ariadne and Dionysus, and Aphrodite and Ares mosaics stay where they were laid.
As-Suwayda · Roman
Hama National Museum
Hama’s archaeology collection has been in this building since 1999. Five halls hold a Latamne hand axe, an Aramaean lion, a musicians mosaic and a Nuri minbar.
Hama · Palaeolithic — Islamic period
The Daraa National Museum
The basalt-clad museum at Daraa’s eastern entrance holds finds from the Hauran, Bronze Age to Islamic times. Completed in 2005; whether it is open is unclear.
Daraa · Building 1992-2005; collection from the Bronze Age to modern times
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 Syrian Military Museum
Opened in 1959 in the west wing of the Tekkiye complex in Damascus. Its halls, the fighter jets parked in the garden, the space capsule, and the doubt since 2011.
Damascus · Ottoman building — a museum since 1959
The October War Panorama
The round museum at the northern entrance to Damascus opened in 1998. Its rotating-platform canvas, the carved panels at the door, and its state after 2024.
Damascus · Contemporary — 1998
The Jaqmaqiyya Madrasa and Calligraphy Museum
A Mamluk madrasa facing the north gate of the Umayyad Mosque, now the Museum of Arabic Calligraphy, with a roofed courtyard and its founder’s tomb niche.
Damascus · Mamluk, the sultanate that ruled Syria and Egypt from the 13th century
The Suwayda National Museum
Basalt sculpture from the Jabal al-Arab, mosaics from Shahba and Nabataean coins under one roof. What is inside, how long it takes, whether it is open.
As-Suwayda · Modern building, Nabataean to Islamic collection
The Raqqa Museum
The regional museum, housed in an Ottoman government building of 1861. What happened to its collection, what is left of it, and what to ask before you go.
Raqqa · Building 1861 · museum founded 1981