Grand Syria
Fourteen days from the south to cities and coast.
Damascus · Bosra · Maaloula · Palmyra / Tadmur · Homs
✦ Six World Heritage properties in context✦ Cities, desert and coast
Price on requestView journey →
Northern Ancient Villages
One of the Mediterranean’s richest surviving landscapes of Late Antique villages, churches, houses and farms.
WHY GO
One of the Mediterranean’s richest surviving landscapes of Late Antique villages, churches, houses and farms.
The Ancient Villages of Northern Syria comprise roughly forty Late Antique and Byzantine settlements grouped in archaeological parks across the limestone massif of northwest Syria. Houses, churches, tombs, cisterns, bathhouses and agricultural landscapes survive together, offering an unusually complete picture of rural life rather than isolated ruins. Every individual site remains subject to current access verification.
What to see
- The Basilica and complex of Saint Simeon Stylites at Qal’at Sem’an.
- Qalb Loze church, subject to current access.
- The village sites of Serjilla and al-Bara, with houses, tombs and rural facilities where accessible.
- Cisterns, bathhouses and fields linking architecture to the ancient rural economy.
What to experience
- Read the landscape as a connected network of villages and farms, not isolated monuments.
- Compare religious, domestic and agricultural architecture across selected accessible sites.
Food
A simple rural stop arranged locally only when conditions allow.
How long to stay
Usually combined with Aleppo when access permits; no individual site is assumed open.
SUGGESTED JOURNEYS
Place it within a route.
Aleppo & the North
Five days of craft, food and northern memory.
Aleppo · Northern Ancient Villages
✦ Citadel and old city✦ Food, soap and craft
Price on requestView journey →