Monuments of Syria أوابد سورية
A Window on Syria's Past by Ross Burns
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The site of Bronze Age Emar, Byzantine Barbalissos and Islamic Balis once sat well above the waters of the Euphrates but the construction in the 1970s of the dam and hydro-electrical facilities along the river inundated much of the site. Some areas which had housed remains from Bronze Age Emar up to the Islamic centuries were […]
A small wayside church, five kilometres to the west of the Monastery of St Simeon. This is one of the most perfectly preserved Byzantine churches in Syria. It lacks only a roof and internal fittings to be complete. It was not located in an inhabited area and probably served as a chapel for pilgrims on […]
This small Roman temple dates from the early phase of the Roman occupation of Syria but was rebuilt in the late second century AD. Dedicated to a local manifestation of Zeus, it stood within an enclosure and backed onto a small lake. Mushennef lies on the eastern flanks of the Jebel Hauran. For further description, […]
Legendary ‘caravan city’ of Rome’s Eastern trade (the ‘Silk Route’) Palmyra was known for many centuries to European audiences as simply a place of legend. The first European expedition to explore its ruins confirmed at the end of the seventeenth century that the legends were true and that much of what had been a prosperous […]
This gallery records the tower tombs which were destroyed in the Valley of the Tombs, Palmyra, apparently as a result of explosions set by ‘Islamic State’ in the days leading up to 2 Sep 2015. The first panel notes the tombs which had been destroyed as of 2 Sep 2015. The second panel is extracted from my […]
Scene of the Battle of Qadesh, 13th century BC. Little of historic interest remains on the mound now occupied by the modern village but the visitor will gain an appreciation of the sequence of events that led to the historic clash between Egyptian and Hittite forces in the thirteenth century BC. The outcome of the […]
The inner reaches of the Syrian coastal Mountains (Jebel Ansariye) are studded with castles built in inaccessible locations by the Ismaelis. During the Crusader period, this sect — an offshoot from Shi`ite Islam — built up their presence in these mountains to escape pressures from the orthodox Sunni powers of the Syrian interior, on the […]
