A day in the northern massif: Harim, Qalb Lozeh and Saint Simeon

Say Dead Cities and most people think of Jebel Zawiya in the south — Al-Bara, Serjilla. The northern massif asks for a day of its own and tells a different story: church architecture stops here and crosses into Europe. The route starts in Idlib and ends in Aleppo, with three stops and 146 kilometres in between. Because it runs one way you do not double back, and the evening opens in Aleppo.

The route

Northwest out of Idlib: Harim is 45 kilometres on, an hour and a half, right against the Turkish border. The climb to the castle goes through the town and the flank of the mound is steep. From there Qalb Lozeh is very close — 12 kilometres, half an hour — but the road climbs Jebel al-Ala and the last part is narrow. The church stands inside the village among the houses with no sign on it, so you will end up asking. The long stretch comes at the end: Saint Simeon is 50 kilometres, an hour and three quarters, the road dropping off the mountain and out onto the plain. The final climb starts from the village of Deir Semaan at the foot of the hill; pilgrims walked the same way. Aleppo is 39 kilometres further, an hour and a half.

Timing

Leave Idlib at 08:00. Give Harim an hour: half of it goes on getting up and down, and the ground at the top is smaller than it looks. Be at Qalb Lozeh around 11:00; forty-five minutes is enough, because the building is one thing — a front, an interior, an apse. The basilica went up around 460, and the two towers on its west front count as the earliest known example of the Romanesque arrangement. Move on after midday and enter Saint Simeon by 14:00 at the latest: four basilicas, the octagonal court and the baptistery take an hour and a half, the stone heats up in the afternoon and there is no shade. Leave as the light turns west and you reach Aleppo in the early evening.

Take care

All three stops involve walking and all three have stony ground. The path at Harim is steep, the site at Saint Simeon has no shade, and the gate at Qalb Lozeh is barred and may be shut when you arrive — ask in the village and it opens. Qalb Lozeh sits in the middle of a Druze village that is still lived in; keep quiet and stay out of the courtyards. These are mountain roads, and fog and rain slow both of them in winter. The border line is close to Harim, so take care with photographs around there. The day is one way, so bring your luggage with you; you are not going back to Idlib.