Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
87 Places
Safan Reservoir and Hayaka Nature Reserve
The reservoir on the Safan River west of Al-Malikiyah and its Hayaka reserve: 48-49 million cubic metres of water, poplar woods, the border 3 km away, and access.
Qamishli · Natural area · reservoir
Ras al-Ayn and the Khabur Springs
Ras al-Ayn, the border town at the springs that feed the Khabur: Roman Rhesaina, Byzantine Theodosiopolis. Its name, its history and why access today is unclear.
Hasakah · Assyrian — Roman — Byzantine — Islamic
The Jaghjagh River
The Jaghjagh rises in Tur Abdin, runs through Qamishli and joins the Khabur in Hasakah: 124 kilometres long, once the Mygdonius, and dry in town for a decade.
Hasakah · Natural; anciently the Mygdonius, the Hirmas in Arabic sources
Ain al-Arous spring, source of the Balikh
The karst spring 3 km south of Tell Abyad where the Balikh River rises: a clear pool, the shrine of Abraham and a mill from 1908. Access to the site is unconfirmed.
Raqqa · Natural spring; shrine recorded in the Middle Ages, mill from 1908
Al-Safa Volcanic Field: Syria’s Youngest Lava Field
A young 220 km² lava field east of Shahba: at least 38 cinder cones, Safaitic inscriptions cut into basalt, and the place that named the script. No road, no village.
As-Suwayda · Holocene; Safaitic inscriptions (1st millennium BC – 4th century AD)
Safita, the Hill Town Around the White Tower
Spread over three hills south-east of Tartus, Safita grew out of the stones of a Crusader castle: the line of its outer wall, the Castle Quarter, an Ottoman past.
Tartus · Phoenician — Crusader — Ottoman — present
Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali River, Latakia
One of the longest rivers on the Syrian coast, reaching the sea south of Latakia. Ugarit knew it as Rahbanu; steep in its upper valley, a plain river below.
Latakia · Rahbanu at Ugarit (Bronze Age); modern dams
Dreikish Dam and Lake
A 41-metre rockfill dam on the Qais river north of Dreikish, with a lake a kilometre long behind it. Built for drinking water, in a valley ringed by villages.
Tartus · Modern — 1999–2015
Jabal al-Akrad, Latakia Mountains
A forested upland of about 400 km² at the northern end of Syria’s coastal mountains, north-east of Latakia. Life began returning to Salma in 2025; mines remain.
Latakia · Name linked to Ayyubid or Mamluk-era settlement
The Orontes River
The 571-kilometre river that rises in Lebanon and runs north past Lake Homs, the norias of Hama and the Ghab Plain before reaching the sea near Samandağ.
Hama · From the Bronze Age to today
Tishrin Dam and Reservoir on the Euphrates
Tishrin, finished in 1999, is the last Syrian dam on the Euphrates: a 40-metre wall, a 60 km lake over Neolithic mounds, and what is known about access today.
Aleppo · Modern (1991–1999); mounds from the Neolithic to the Islamic period under the lake
The Sajur River, Syria
The 108 km Sajur rises near Gaziantep, cuts across the Manbij Plain and meets the Euphrates in Lake Tishrin: its valley, flow, Palaeolithic finds and falling water.
Aleppo · Natural; settlement in the basin from the Lower Palaeolithic to today