Syria Highlights
Aleppo
An important stop on ancient spice and silk routes, Aleppo has always thrived on trade. Its fabulous khans and labyrinthine souks still comprise the largest bazaar in the world. The imposing Citadel dominates Aleppo's long history as it does the skyline. The Great Mosque, also known as the Gami'a Zakariyeh or the Umayyad Mosque, may lack the grandeur and splendour of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, but being smaller it has a more intimate feel to it.
Apamea
The Hellenistic-Byzantine city of Apamea contains colonnaded streets, walls and a citadel beautifully set in lush farmland, overlooked by mountains to the west. A collection of superb mosaics have been recovered from the site and region, some of which are housed in the museum, a converted Ottoman caravanserai in the modern village of Qal'at Madiq.
Busra
This ancient town is still inhabited, although the government is relocating the population outside the city walls. Settlement dates from the early Bronze Age, but the town rose to pre-eminence in the late 1st century AD when the last king of the Nabataeans moved his capital from Petra to Busra. When the Romans established direct control over the region, Busra was made capital of the Roman province of Arabia. You can easily spend a whole day wandering through the extensive and well-preserved ruins dating from Nabataean, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic times, needing little imagination to picture the living city.
Crusader Castles (Crac des Chevaliers, Qal'at Salahidin, Qal'at Marqab)
Heeding a call from Pope Urban II, waves of zealous Christians took up arms against their Muslim enemies - not just to reclaim lost territories but to gain new ones. Several Crusader Castles still exist. One of the greatest monument to the Crusader era, the Crac des Chevaliers, known locally as Qal'at al-Hisn, sits on a rise above one of the region's key routes, the Homs Gap, a break in the hills which allows easy access between the coast and the interior. Qal'at Salahidin was one of the region's great strongholds, which controlled the northern passage around the mountains. T. E. Lawrence, who tramped through the mountains in 1909, thought Qal'at Salahidin perhaps the finest castle in the country - Crac des Chevaliers was its only rival in his estimation. But where Crac impresses by sheer might, Qal'at Salahidin seduces by being in harmony with its surroundings, seeming to grow organically out of a ridge between two sharp ravines.
Damascus
Associated with luxury and refinement since the Middle Ages, the old city of Damascus fulfils every fantasy about the sensual East. Its new city, on the other hand, is a vital modern capital. The atmosphere in the Umayyad Mosque may be lively and relaxed, but this is one of the most sacred places in the Islamic world. The site has been an important religious cult centre for millennia. The grand Azem Palace, home of the Museum of Popular Tradition, was erected in 1749 for Assad Pasha al-Azem, the governor of Damascus and is an excellent example of Arab-Ottoman domestic architecture.
Along the Euphrates
The Euphrates is one of the great rivers of Asia. Its fertile flood-plain has been settled for millennia, as the huge number and range of ancient sites prove.
Hama
An attractive base for visiting central Syria, this river town straddles the curving banks of the Orontes River. Situated between desert and coast, it was an important caravan post from ancient times through the Middle Ages, when it became famous for silk production. Its citadel, now just a mound in a bend in the river in the centre of town, has yielded finds from as early as the 5th millennium BC.
Latakia
This site flourished because of its safe anchorage, and today it is Syria's main port. Although it has little to show for its illustrious history, it does have an unmistakably Mediterranean and Levantine, rather than Arabic character. Under the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus, Latakia was the capital of Syria and some of the original Roman street plan survives in the older part of town.
Palmyra
The oasis city of Palmyra rises like a mirage from the barren waste northeast of Damascus. Strings of honey-coloured colonnades interspersed with elegant ruins march across the vast plain, partially enclosed by bare hills to the north and west, with a backdrop of brilliant green from the palms and gardens of the springs to the south and east. As a source of water in the desert, midway between the coast and the Euphrates, Semitic Tadmur, as it was known, has been settled since Neolithic times.
Qal'at Samaan
Qal'at Samaan (Church of St Simeon) with its related monastery and pilgrimage centre, is most striking. The hilltop setting is dramatic and the honey-coloured buildings are extraordinary not just for their beauty but for their numerous architectural innovations, such as the carving of acanthus leaves in such a way that they look as though they are rustling in the breeze - a decorative device that began here and was then copied throughout the Byzantine Empire.