Helena

Aleppo حلب — itinerary 03b, around the Great Mosque

Only a short walk around the perimeter of the Great Mosque in Aleppo takes the visitor through many eras of the city’s history including a Byzantine-era synagogue converted to a mosque in the Islamic Middle Ages, two important khans (caravanserais) of the early Ottoman period and a twelfth century Zengid palace. For a full description, […]

Yabrud يبرود

This small town on the eastern fringe of the Anti-Lebanon Range 80 kms north of Damascus is notable mainly for the remains of a Roman temple to Jupiter Iabrudis incorporated into the Byzantine church of Constantine and Helena. Emperor Constantine first legalised Christianity. His mother, Helena, followed up with the promotion of pilgrimage to the […]