Syria Full Tour

Syria in 12 days

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Day One: Arrive to Damascus airport, transfer to the hotel.

Day Two: Depart Damascus for Maalula to visit an early church and the village where Aramaic, the language of Christ, is still spoken. Drive through Yabroud where human remains from 1000 000 years ago were found in caves. Visit the city of Homs to see the Mosque of Ibn Walid, an Arab hero who brought Islam to Syria, his mausoleum is housed in his mosque. See also the Church of the Virgin’s Belt to view this Christian relic. Onward to the magnificent Crac des Chevaliers, a superb crusader’s castle that held 4000 soldiers. Lunch at Al Kalaa restaurant with its held 4000 soldiers. Lunch at Al Kalaa restaurant with its great panorama of the castle. On to Hama, a pleasant town famous for its giant waterwheels which irrigate the area around the Orontes river.

Day Three: To Aphamea, a Roman city with an exquisite colonnades street stretching nearly 1.5 miles and bordered by Roman houses, a bath, an agora and large cathedral.

Through mountains and forests to Lattakia, a modern town of Mediterranean coast. From here, a shot drive to Ugarit, home of the world’s firat alphabet. Dating from 1400 BC, this city had its own water and sewage system.

Day Four: Leave Lattakia for the steep climb to Saladin’s Castle, a seemingly impregnable fortress. Perched on the top of a hill, its only entrance was over a drawbridge balanced on a 90 foot high slim monolith of rock. Driving through the northwest of the country, discover a few of the 300 Dead Cities, once powerful olive growing towns, now abandoned, but with many remains of Roman and Byzantine buildings. The best preserved, and maybe most interesting to wander round is Serjilla with its tavern, basilicas and necropolis. Another climb up to the Church of St. Simeon, the monk who decided to leave the material world behind by spending 36 years on top of a column of 50 feet. After his death, the local bishop had a magnificent church erected in his memory, the largest church in the world at the time and a Baptistry to accommodate the flocks of piligrims. On to Aleppo for overnight, a meal at Delta Restaurant.

Day Five: A full day tour of Aleppo, a vibrant merchant city., including its awesome citadel first built in the Bronze Age but used mainly by the Mamelukes. The complex contains a restored throne room, 2 small mosques and an Ottowan barraks now now serving as a café with great views over the city. The museum entrance is guarded by the famous wide eyed statues from the excavation of Tell Halaf dating to 800 BC. It housed interesting finds from the cities of Mari and some of the writing tablets from Ugarit. In Aleppo, a visit must be made to the old city with its labyrinth of souks(bazaars) and the Christian quarter where some of the old houses have been beautifully restored into hotels, restaurants and bars with a unique character. We dined at Yasemeen House and drank at Beit Wakil, both lovingly restored. A visit to the great mosque nearby is also worthwhile especially to see its 1000 year old minaret.

Day Six: Leave Aleppo and east stopping briefly to see the Assad Dam from the 1970’s. On to Resafe, or Sergiopolis as it was later called after the martyrdom of Sergius, a convented Roman soldier. This was a huge walled city although not much remains now except for some enormous water cisterns and 3 basilicas. Following the Uephrates River you will arrive at the twin sities of Halabia and Zalabia. Hawks swoop over the ancient citadel of the famous Queen Zenobia who stayed here during her rebellion against the romans. On to Deir Ezzor, a small town mainly inhabited by locals and foreigners working on the oil fields.

Day Seven: Drive down to the south east corner of Syria to visit Mary, this ancient site dates from Mesopotamian times and its most famous resident was King Zimrilim (1770BC) who constructed a magnificent Royal Palace. Not much remains of the place which was occupied by so many civilizations but one can trace the outlines of temples, the palace, a ziggurat and a library where 15000 stone tablets were found. Returning by the same route, stop at Dura Europos which was founded in 280 BC and later became an important Roman garrison. The whole city was surrounded by a 35 foot high wall and entered by the imposing Palmyra Gate. Inside the remains of temples, an early church (223 AD) and a synagogue can be seen. The synagogue was covered by an exquisite wall fresco which is a “must see” at the National Museum in Damascus. Back to Deir Ezzor to visit their excellent museum and lunch at a local restaurant before the drive through the desert to Palmyra. On the way, you will see Bedouin tents.

Day Eight: A full day is needed to see the marvelous ruins of Palmyra starting with the amazing tower tombs. These were built by the wealthy families of Palmyra and could hold up to 300 bodies. The tombs contained busts of the dead or even full size statues of them reclined on a chaise longue in their best clothes. The main street of Palmyra stretches over a mile and is bordered by an agora and tariff court where the caravans that passed through would pay their dues and trade, there is even a special route for the camels beside the main street as they couldn’t cope with the paved way of the main road. The main street also has a bath complex, a theatre, a small senate building. At the end of this street is the magnificent Temple of Bel complete with pagan carvings and zodiac sighs, Hellenistic ceiling designs, Christian frescoes and a mihrab for Muslim prayer! This city was the home of the legendary Queen Zenobia and amongst the decorated columns, which are a hallmark of Palmyra, are the red basalt ones she brought back from Egypt. The museum of Palmyra houses some of the most beautiful of the funerary busts and statues, row upon of lifelike faces each telling a story of the life and personality of the Palmyrenes. At sunset, drive up to the Arab Castle above the site for views over the desert and the site itself backed by the oasis which brought Palmyra into existence.

Day Nine: A two hour drive through the desert to Damascus. After checking in, stroll down to the National Museum where you will need around 3 hours to study the finds from sites all over Syria and get a wonderful overview of all the places you have seen. Next to the museum is a complex built around the Tekkiye Mosque, built by the most famous architect Sinan, a school for Whirling Dervishes, and a school for Islamic teaching built by Sultan Selim II, which has now been converted into a handicraft market where wares are both made and sold in tiny shops. The Army Museim is also here with old Soviet jets and even a space capsule dotted amongst the mosgue buildings.inner with the well-to-do locals at Al-Kemal restaurant. Day Ten: A full day at Damascus startinf with a drive up Mount Qassion for a panoramic view of the whole city. Dtive down past the President’s apartment and the diplomatic area to see the great Ummayad Mosque. This complex includes the tomb of Saladin, both the original from the 12^th century and the new one presented by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1898. The tomb of Hussein, the Shiite Prophet is surrounded by pilgrims from Iran and inside the mosque the tomb of St. John the Baptist is visited by Christians and Muslims alike. The interior of the mosque is quite plain but the floors are covered with hundreds of the most beautiful carpets. The courtyard of the mosque itself is huge and painstakingly covered in mosaics of green and gold which glitter blindingly in the sunlight. Through the winding and narrow old city streets you come to the Azem Palace, residence of the Ottoman governor of Damascus in the 1750’s. It is now the Museum of Popular Arts&Tradition and each of the ornately decorated wood panelled rooms aroind the central countryard houses a different aspect of life in old Damascus such as schooling, marriage, the pilgrimage to Mecca, entertainment and the mother in law’s room! In the centre of the countryard is a fountain where one can be cooled and imagine the opulent life that went on here. After strolling some of the innumerable bazaars here, one heads down Straight Street, a through fare since ancient Greek times, to the Chapel to St. Ananias, the saint who is said to have cared for and instructed St. Paul after his blinding conversion. Just by the chapel, outside the city walls is the window where St. Paul escaped in a basket lowered by fellow Christians as he fled the Jews. In the same area, a meal at Casablanca in an old house would be atmospheric. Day Eleven: Leave Damascus and drive south to visit the town of Bosra. This town first gained importance as part of the Nabatean kingdom, in fact it was made its capital at one time over Petra, it later became Roman but also contains imported monuments of Christianity and Islam. The town is usual in that it is still inhabited. Living amongst the ruins with their house walls formed of columns and capitals. The main attraction at Bosra is certainly the theatre which is enclosed by a tortress as the town was threatened by Crusaders later in its life. Apart from the theatre, visit the Mosque of Umar which is said to be one of the earliest mosques in the Islamic world. The prophet Mohamed passed through Bosra and a mosque was erected to commemmorate this, it is supposedly the first place where Islam & Christianity came into contact as Mohamed talked to the monk Bahira here. From Bosra, drive through the town of Suweida where Roman ruins form part of the modern town and on to Kanawat to see the small but pretty remains of a Roman town which, as in Bosra, is still enmeshed into the modern settlement. The final stop is Chabha with its wonderful museum of mosaics found in a Roman villa and preserved beautifully. This town became extremely wealthy when one of its sons, Philip the Arab, became Emperor of the Roman Empire in 244. He had many great buildings erected but not much survives apart from a small theatre and a mausoleum for his father. Return to Damascus through several Druze villages looking out for the traditional white beards of the old men and long white scarves of the women.

Day Twelve: Free time until your transfer to the airport.

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