Routes
Tested itineraries, from half a day to a full week.
172 Routes
A day in the Afrin valley: from Ain Dara to Cyrrhus
One day northwest of Aleppo: an Iron Age temple in the morning, a Roman city in the afternoon, a tomb tower turned mosque between them. 94 kilometres by car.
9 hours · 94 km · 3 stops · Moderate
A day out of Damascus: from Mount Qasioun to the Barada valley, on the trail of Abel
From the cave on the slope of Qasioun to the shrine in the Barada valley, two ends of one story in a single day: 105 kilometres, four stops, a car and a steep stair.
9 hours · 105 km · 4 stops · Moderate
Half a day in Damascus: five stops outside the old walls
The Damascus outside the wall: 2000 metres and five stops. The mosque they call the little Umayyad, the Mamluk quarter of Souq Saruja, two museums and Marjeh Square.
4 hours · 2 km · 5 stops · Easy
Half a day in Damascus: six stops from Bab al-Faraj to Aqsab
1300 metres and six stops north of the Umayyad Mosque: two madrasas, a bathhouse working since 985, a lived-in quarter, a city gate, and a mosque outside the wall.
5 hours · 1.3 km · 6 stops · Easy
Half a day in Damascus: from the spice souq to the edge of Midan
1200 metres and four stops from the spice souq below the Umayyad Mosque to the edge of Midan: herb sellers, the lanes of Shaghur, a cemetery mosque, the hajj road.
4 hours · 1.2 km · 4 stops · Easy
Half a day in Aleppo: from Bab Antakya through the souq to Khan al-Wazir
900 metres and six stops from Bab Antakya to the front of Khan al-Wazir: walls set with columns, a lone facade, the oldest madrasa in Aleppo and a working bathhouse.
3 hours · 0.9 km · 6 stops · Easy
A day west of Hama: Deir al-Salib, Abu Qubays and Mhardeh
A Byzantine church, an Assassin castle on a wooded slope, and a many-arched stone bridge over the Orontes. 133 kilometres west of Hama, hour by hour, with warnings.
9 hours · 133 km · 3 stops · Moderate
Jdayde to Aziziyah: Aleppo’s two faces outside the walls
From an Ottoman quarter of narrow lanes to a nineteenth-century grid, in half a day: a cathedral, a merchant house, two squares and four minarets. Two kilometres.
3 hours · 1.6 km · 5 stops · Easy
Half a day in Aleppo: four stops from the clock tower to the citadel square
2100 metres and four stops around the citadel of Aleppo: a quarter mosque with an octagonal minaret, a Sufi khanqah, an Ayyubid tomb and a deeply carved facade.
3 hours · 2.1 km · 4 stops · Easy
A day northwest of Aleppo: the early churches of Mount Simeon
Five early churches northwest of Aleppo on one route: 100 kilometres, an apse dated to 372, a basilica left standing on its columns, and a hill with three layers.
9 hours · 100 km · 5 stops · Moderate
Half a day in Aleppo: the Armenian churches from Aziziyah to Midan
2600 metres and four stops from Aziziyah to Midan: a church from 1923, an Ottoman waqf of 1652, and a round church that repeats the plan of Zvartnots.
3 hours · 2.6 km · 4 stops · Easy
A second day from Tartus: Khawabi, Qadmus and Baniyas
If the first day was the coast, the second climbs: Khawabi among olives, Qadmus on its rock, then the port town of Baniyas. 133 kilometres, hour by hour.
9 hours · 133 km · 3 stops · Moderate
