All six UNESCO sites in Syria: a 7-day route

Syria has six sites on the World Heritage List. The old city of Damascus was inscribed in 1979, Bosra and Palmyra in 1980, the old city of Aleppo in 1986, Krak des Chevaliers in 2006 and the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria in 2011. All six have been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2013. Seeing them in one trip is possible, but not quickly: 987 kilometres and 7 days. This route orders them the way the roads allow, not the way the list does.

The road

It starts in Damascus, the first site inscribed and the point the country’s road network fans out from. The old city is walked; the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque is the centre of the only stretch you cover on foot. From Damascus it is 136 kilometres south to Bosra across the flat Hauran plain. The road from Bosra to Palmyra runs back through Damascus: 374 kilometres in all, and it eats a whole day.

From Palmyra you turn west, 211 kilometres through Homs to Krak des Chevaliers. Then north: 169 kilometres from Krak to Serjilla by way of Hama and Maarat al-Numan. The last leg is short, 91 kilometres from Serjilla to Aleppo. The route ends on the bridge into the Aleppo Citadel.

Timing

Day one belongs to the old city of Damascus. The Umayyad Mosque is open 08:00–20:00 outside prayer times, and the courtyard is empty early in the morning. Day two is Bosra and back: reach the basalt theatre in the first hour of daylight, because the seating has no shade and the stone heats up after midday. Day three is the crossing from Damascus to Palmyra; arrive at the ruins in the late afternoon and the light comes in from the side.

Spend the first two hours of day four at Palmyra, then set off for Krak. Day five is the castle: it is open 09:00–17:00 and the inner courtyard moves into shade after mid-afternoon. Day six is the Dead Cities; the bath house and the andron at Serjilla have lost their roofs but kept their walls, and morning light opens up the colour of the stone. Day seven is Aleppo: the citadel costs 1500 SYP and takes two hours, with the souq and the Great Mosque just west of it.

Take care

Krak des Chevaliers was not inscribed alone in 2006; it shares its listing with Saladin’s Castle, which lies east of Latakia and off this route. The Palmyra leg crosses desert, so fill up in Homs or Damascus. No fixed entry tariff could be verified for Bosra or Palmyra — check the fee on arrival. All six sites carry war damage and repair work is under way, so allow for a section being closed. In high summer neither Palmyra nor Bosra offers shade, and in winter fog settles on the mountain roads in the north.