Foresee of Syria - Artemis Travel

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Damascus - Aleppo - Palmyra - Bosra - Latakia - Tartous - Homs - Hama - DeirEzzor

Discover Syria

Syria , foot by foot

Syria: grand land of humanity

Syria: historical treasure and unique cultural center

Syria, heritage of civilizations

It is a multi-millennium capital city with almost 5 million inhabitants. It is said to be one of the oldest city of the world continuously inhabited.

With Samarkande, it is undoubtedly the city that has been the most often celebrated by the poets through time.

In the heart of the luxuriant oasis of the Ghouta, irrigated by the Barada River, at the crossroad of all the greats roads to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Arabia, … it is somehow a sum up of the country’s eventful history

	The Pharaoh Thutmosis III conquered Damascus in the 15th century BC.
	Capital of the Aramean Kingdom in the 11^th century BC according to the Old Testament.
	732 B.C. : Taken over by Tiglath Pileser II who was ordered by the king of Judea Achaz.
	Destruction of the kingdom of Damascus by Babylon.
	333 B. C. : Conquered by Parmenion, one of Alexander’s lieutenants who took it from the Persians.
	66 B. C. : Occupied by Pompey, it belonged to the Province of Syria.
	The conversion of St Paul dates back to this period though he was originally sent to persecute the Christians.
	In 635 A. D, Muslim faith fighters besieged Damascus which is Retaken by Khaled Ibn Walid a year later. The city swung from Byzantium and Christianity to the Orient and the Semitic world.
	Damascus became the capital of an empire spreading from the Atlantic coast to central Asia: the Umayyad Empire until this capital was moved to Baghdad under the Abbasids.
	It went through a period of fighting against the Crusaders during the Ayyubid dynasty, with Nuredin and Saladin.
	Taken over by the Mamelukes of Egypt in 1260.
	1516: Controlled by the Ottomans from Turkey (Anatolia) until the First World War.
	1918: Liberation by an Arab contingent under the command of the British Army of General Allenby.
	1920: Emir Faisal, King of Syria for a month before the French occupation under the name of the League of Nations.
	16/9/1941: The independency is proclaimed by the French general Catroux ( taken into effect in 1946).

What to visit

Around Damascus

	The Umayyad Mosque and the tomb of John the Baptist
	The Mausoleum of Saladin
	The Tekiyeh Soulemanieh and its Khan
	The Chapel of St Hanania St Paul’s window
	The Azem Palace, a typical Damascene house of the 18th.
	The National Museum
	The Straight Street
	The Hamidieh souk
	The Nour Ed Din Hammam
	Panorama of Damascus from Mount Quassioun
	Old Damascene houses like the Nassan Palace.

	The Persian-style Mosque of Sayyeda Zeinab.
	The convent of Seydnaya which houses. one of the four icons of Luke featuring the virgin Mary
	Maaloula where the language of the Christ is still spoken
	The tomb of Abel, the humanity’s first murder victim
	The collection of icons in the church of Yabroud
	The 6th century AD monastery and chapel of Deir Mar Mousa in Nabeck
	The Roman temple in Dmeir

Hotels in Damascus:
***** Sheraton, Meridien, Cham Palace, Ebla Cham, Semiramis (and soon The Four Seasons)

**** Carlton, Fardoss Tower, Jelaa, Teshreen, New Omayad, Al Faradis, Plaza, Damascus International

*** Al Iwan, Orient Palace, Asia, Alaa Tower, Albustan

It is Syria’s second largest city in the North at only an hour away from the Turkish border. It is said that Abraham was campig on the acropolis ( where Aleppo ‘s citadel stands now ) and would have milked his cow there ! Quite as old as Damascus, it has always had an important economical and political role in the area and is now a prosperous commercial centre as well as a truly charming oriental city. In Aleppo, there is a big Turkish/Armenian community (mainly Christians) and a large Russian community too.

It remains a popular city for tourists who like to visit the Citadel and the Middle East’s longest covered souk.

	Capital of the Amorite Kingdom of Yamkhad at the 2nd millennium BC.
	It was taken over by the Hittites in 1595 BC and became later a key point on the major caravan road across Syria to Mesopotamia
	Part of the Assyrian Kingdom from 800 to 400 BC, it is known as Halman.
	Taken over by Alexander the Great in 333 BC, it became a part of the Seleucid Empire for 300 years. Aleppo was then an important trading city that Seleucus I partly rebuilt and renamed Berea.
	In 64 BC, Pompey brought it with Syria under Roman domination and it stayed under Roman control as part of the Byzantine Empire. It became a major centre of Christianity.
	The Arab took it over in 637 AD.
	The Muslim dynasties succeeded: the Hamdanites ( Sayf Ed Daula built Aleppo’s citadel ), the Ayyubids (with Saladin ) and the Mamelukes.
	The Mongols pillaged and destroyed it twice ( in 1260 and 1401 ) and in 1517, the Ottoman Empire annexed Aleppo for four centuries. It became a great commercial city then.
	During World War I, it took in the Armenian refugees who fled the Ottoman massacres.

What to visit

Around Aleppo

	The Citadel
	The Great Mosque
	The Madrassa Halawiyeh and the Madrassa Al Fardoss (17th century ‘s old schools).
	The Museum.
	The ‘’souk’’ ( 10 km of covered market ).
	The old town.
	Jdeideh, the Armenian quarter
	The ‘’khans’’ ( caravanserais like the Saboun khan ).
	The Bimaristan.
	Ancient houses like the 15th century. Al Bunduqiah ( Venitian ) Consulate.
	The hammams (public bath houses ).

	Ebla, a 4th millennium BC state-city where 17 000 clay tablets
	The museum of Roman and Byzantine mosaics in Maaret El Numan
	Saint Simeon’s monastery where the hermit used to preach at the 5th century.
	The ‘’Dead Cities’’, around 700 towns from the 4th century AD spread over 2000 km² !
	Kirkbizeh, a 3rd century AD Christian village.
	Sergilla, a very well conserved Christian village.
	The 6th century church of Qalb Lozeh.
	One of greatest Dead Cities.
	The Hittite temple of Ain Dara
	The Roman temple and theatre of Cyrrhus

Hotels in Aleppo:
***** Shahba Cham

**** Amir Palace, Pullman Al Shahba, Planet, Beit wakil,0 Dar Zamaria

*** Baron, Tourism, Faysal, Mandalon, Diwan rasmy

Definitively Syria’s most splendid tourist site! It is a breathtaking Roman city in the desert that once dare to defy Rome … The view of its magnificent remnants, testimonies of a past splendour, turning to pink as the sun sets, remain an unforgettable and incredibly romantic moment for any visitor.

Palmyra was a prosperous city on the silk road as well as a strategic point as guardian of the Roman borders against the Persian threat. It also became famous worldwide through the personal fate of one of its leaders … Who has never heard the story of Queen Zenobia, an extremely ambitious and beautiful woman who – after having extended her kingdom from Egypt to Anatolia - challenged the Roman Emperor Aurelian ?

	Palmyra was an oasis known under the name of Tadmor and an Assyrian caravan town at the 2nd and 1st millenniums BC. It has been mentioned in the Bible as a part of Solomon’s territory.
	During the Hellenistic period, it was a rich caravan city populated with nomads. Greeks reorganised it and named it Palmyra.
	In 41 BC, it has become rich enough to attract the Roman : Anthony attempted to occupy it.
	Palmyra remained independent even after the installation of Pompei in Syria in 63 BC.
	Under the control of Rome and integrated into the Province of Syria under Tiberius, at the 1st century AD, it became incredibly wealthy from the heavy taxation imposed on the caravans transiting.
	Proclaimed free city in 129 AD by the Emperor Adrian who visited it.
	In 212 AD, Caracalla entitled it Colony of the Roman Empire. Palmyra took then a higher military role.
	The leader of Palmyra, Septimus Odeinat, was appointed Consul and Governor of the province of Syria Phoenice. After his suspicious death, his wife Zenobia who claimed descent from Cleopatra ruled the town and extended her kingdom from Egypt to Anatolia. She took the title of ‘’August’’ (which was only used by the emperor of Rome) and had her own money coined. Aurelian, the Roman Emperor, laid siege to Palmyra in 271 and captured the queen as she was reaching the Euphrates.
	In 1089, an earthquake devastated the city. Taken by Khaled Ibn Walid, it played a minor defensive role during the Islamic period.

What to visit

Around Palmyra

	The temple of Bel.
	The Great Colonnade.
	The agora, the thermal baths, the theatre, the funeral temple.
	The tetrapylon
	The temple of Nabu.
	The tombs.
	The temple of Baalshamin.
	The museum.
	The palm grove.

	The sulphurous water springs of Abassieh .
	The castle of Qasr El-Hair Ach-Charqi, an 8th century AD Omayyad observation post in the desert.
	The castle of Qasr El-Hair AL-Gharbi built by the Omeyyad caliphs for their leisures.

Hotels in Palmyra:
*****Palmyra Cham
**** Semiramis palmyra
***Villa Palmyra, Zenobia, Heliopolis, Tower Hotel, Middle East

Former capital of the Roman Province of Arabia, Bosra, the black city, stands in the vast fertile plain of the Hauran. Its magnificent theatre, made from black basalt faced admirably the ravages of time and is said to be the best preserved theatre of the world. It seated 15 000 spectators !

	At the 1st century BC, it was one of the leading Nabatean cities known as Buhora.
	In 106 AD, it became the capital of the Province of Arabia under the Roman domination.
	Official seat and residence of the Legate and on the crossroad of the caravans routes, Bosra flourished. Circa 720AD, the theater was built.
	As the seat of a bishop and with the rise of Byzantium, it played an important role in the history of early Christianity. It also had link with the beginnings of Islam : a Nestorian Christian Monk named Bahira predicated the prophetic vocation of Mohammad as he passed through Bosra with his uncle.
	It became the first Muslim city and its oldest square minarets of Islam are still standing.
	Untill the 17th, it remained a wealthy city, a stopover on the pilgrimage route to Mecca. But when the region became unsafe, pilgrims began to take a route further west.
	The Crusaders failed to take it over but their threat pushed the Ayyubids to convert the theatre into a fortress.
	It survived the Mongol’s invasion but fell into abandon as the pilgrimage routes moved westwards under the Mamelukes.

What to visit

Around Bosra

	The Roman theatre in the Arab Citadel
	The Nymphaeum, a system of water storage.
	The Roman baths and the Arab Hammams (Hammam Manjak, built in 1372 )
	The Kalybea, an unique religious building.
	The Khans ( Khan Ad Dibs )
	Jami Al Arous or Mosque of Omar, possibly the 1st mosque ever built after the death of Mohammad.
	The cathedrale dedicated to Syrian martyrs St Sergius, Bacchus and Leontus.

	The Ayyoubid Citadel of Salkad.
	Al Inat, a great reservoir dug out of the rocks.
	Ruins at Umm Al Qotein.
	Shahba
	Sweida
	Qanawat

Hotels in Bosra:
*****Bosra Cham Palace

Founded in the 3rd century BC, its importance dates back ancient times. Sea-gate to Syria and leading seaport, it is well provided with accommodation. It also is a convenient base from which one can explore the coastal region.
There are beaches, mountains and numerous archaeological sites - in addition to the Crusaders Castles - to visit.

	Originally a small village known by the Phoenicians as Ramitha and as Leuke Akte by the Greeks, its present name comes from a deformation of Loadicea, Seleucus II’s mother in honour of whom she was renamed.
	It only came to prominence in the wake of Alexander’s the Great’s conquest when it was transformed into a major city (Loadicea) of the Seleucid empire. It developed into an important port and became the main supplier of wine during the Hellenistic period.
	At 2nd century AD, the city was briefly declared the capital of Syria by Septimus Severus.
	In 494 and 555, devastating earthquakes badly damaged Latakia. Justinian rebuilt it before it was taken by the Arab army in 638.
	In 1097, the Crusaders took over it and it kept oscillating between Muslim and Christian control for almost a century.
	In 1188, Saladin conquered it.
	Subsequently, the town was administered by Christians from Tripoli, Muslims from Hama and the Ottoman and finally came within the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon in 1920.

What to visit

Around Latakia

	Latakia’s museum which is a former Ottoman Khan and the governor’s residence during the French Mandate.
	The Syrian coast. Water-skiing, jet-skiing and windsurfing are possible.

	At Ras Shamra, Ugarit the 2nd millennium BC capital of the Ugarit Kingdom where the first alphabet in the world was found.
	Saladin’s Castle, a fortress cut into living rock probably by Byzantines and completed by the Crusaders. the rocks.
	The Forest of Slunfeh
	Kassab
	Ras al-Bassit.

Hotels in Latakia:
*****Cham Côte d’Azur, Le Méridien
****Riviera, Qardaha
***Al Qasr, Zenobia

It is a small harbour city still protected by its 12th century wall and the second most important Syrian port on the Mediterranean. It was called Antaradus by the Phoenicians and Tortusa by the Byzantine. Tortusa was to become one of the main supply ports for the Crusaders and a military base of considerable importance. It was held by the Knights Templar during the Crusades.
The old Frank Cathedral, now converted into a Museum, is a jewel of Romanesque art.

	Tartous, the old colony of Aradus (the kingdom on Arwad Island), under the name of Antaradus ( Anti-Aradus : the town facing Arwad ), was converted early to Christianity and became a center of pilgrimage due to a miraculous icon of the Virgin.
	In 1102, the Franks made it one of their sturdiest strongholds between the principality of Antioch and the county of Tripoli, as well as a bishopric. It resisted more than one attempt at re-conquest by the Muslims, and the Templars' taking charge of its defense in 1183 made it an almost impregnable citadel. The Grand Master of the Temple and his knights to push back Salah al-Din's attacks in 1188. It finally fell to Sultan Qalaoon in 1291.
	From the beginning of the Ottoman conquest, the town declined in importance until its port was rejuvenated in the 20th century. caravans routes, Bosra flourished. Circa 720AD, the theater was built.

What to visit

Around Tartous

	The Cathedral, dedicated to Virgin Mary.
	The Fortress of the Knights Templar.
	The old city and its walls.
	The beaches. storage.
	The The isle of Arwad. This is the only island in Syria, and it is located 3 kilometers from Tartus.

	Marqab Castle ("Castle of the Watchtower") where Richard the Lionheart landed at the beginning of the 3rd crusade.
	Many castles : Castle of Kadmous, Castle of Yahmur, Castle of Areimeh. the rocks.
	Amrit.
	Safita.

Hotels in Tartous:
***Grand Tartous , Shahin, Shain tower

Third important city in Syria and strategically located in the centre of the country, Homs is dating back to 2300 BC and was known in Roman times as the city of Emesa. Earthquakes have destroyed most of the historical landmarks. A citadel built above a rocky hill at the south of the city is still standing with its two gates: the gate of Damascus and the gates of Palmyra.

	Emesa was ruled by a line of priest-kings, two of them became Emperors: Elagabalus and Severus Alexandre who ruled Rome from 193 to 211.Four women of Homs also became Roman Empresses.
	Aurelian, who reigned from 270 to 275, used the town as his headquarters.
	After Zenobia’s defeat, the town declined.
	From the 3rd to the 7th century, an important Christian community developed.
	In 636, the Muslim took it over and renamed it Homs.
	In 1516, it passed into the Ottomans’ hands.

What to visit

Around Homs

	The Church Um Zunnar.
	The Mosque Khaled Ibn Walid.
	The Church of Mar Elian.
	The ruins of the underground monastery and chapel of the Syrian
	Aramaic Church.
	The Citadel.
	The old souks.
	The Museum.

	The Crac des Chevaliers.
	The Qattina Lake and the archaeological hill (‘’Tell Al Nabi Mando ‘’) where the famous battle of Qadesh between Hittites and Egyptians took place ( 13th century BC ).
	St George’s Monastery, built at the 6th century by hermits.

Hotels in Homs:
***** Safir homs
**** Homs El Kabir, El Wadi, Fransis

Le Crac des Chevaliers is probably the world's best known Crusader castle. A stronghold of the Hospitalers during the days of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, it maintained a garrison of some two thousand soldiers in peacetime. The castle, built on a magnificent promontory commanding a 160-mile break in the mountains, was of great strategic importance as its site controlled traffic between the interior and the coast, a passage called the Homs gap in the Orontes Valley.This castle was never besieged or taken by force. It only fell through Baibars unique plan involving trickery ( a letter supposedly from the Crusader commander in Tripoli that said they should surrender ).

It is a four thousand year-old Syrian city irrigated by the beautiful Orontes river. The main attraction of Hama is a series of ancient 27-meter-high norias (waterwheels dating from the time of Christ.

	Excavations on and near the citadel hill reveal remains belonging as far as the Neolithic period.
	In the 2nd millennium BC, it was a center of the Hittites.
	Capital of the Aramean kingdom, it fell under Assyrian control in 720 BC.
	Later included in the Persian Empire, it was conquered by Alexander the Great and after his death, was claimed by the Seleucid Kings ( in 200 BC ) who renamed it Epiphania.
	Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Christian Crusaders succeeded one another until Saladin took it over in 1188.
	It passed to Mamelukes, Ayyubids and Ottomans. Aphamea became an important stopping point for pilgrims from Istanbul to Mecca.

What to visit

Around Hama

	The waterwheels
	The 18th century Azem Palace
	The remains of a Roman aqueduc still in use
	The Great Mosque Al Nuri (12th century)
	The Citadel
	The basilicas of Deir Al Salib

	The Roman ruins of one of the most beautiful city of the Hellenistic Orient: Aphamea
	The Hellenistic Citadel of Ash Shamamis in Salamiyeh with its Ayyubid baths and the shrine of the Iman Ismaël
	Anderin, a Byzantine settlement ( Barraks and a 6th century cathedral )
	One of the most beautiful castle built by Justinian : the Castle Ibn Wardan ( 6th century )
	The Catle of Sheizar, founded by a regiment of Alexander the Great’s army
	The Asriyeh Castle which was a station for the caravans and its 1st century Roman Temple
	The Roman ruins of Qalat Mudiq.

Hotels in Hama:
*****Afamia Cham Palace
***Norias, Hama Tower, Sara

Located in the northern part of Syria, this city has an ancient name (Ozara). It crosses the Euphrates river where a number of conquering armies and trade convoys passed. Today the city plays an important economic role in the country, especially after the inauguration of the great Euphrates Dam and the discovery of oil in the nearby areas. It is also regarded as a starting point to get acquainted with the Euphrates historical landmarks and ruins on both is banks. In short, the most wonderful human civilizations were brought up in this area.

	At the 3rd century BC, it was a part of the Akkadian Empire before falling into the hands of the King Hammurabi.
	Then, it went through the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Persians and became a part of the Seleucid Empire.
	After the succession of Muslim dynasties, it was destroyed by the Mongols.
	It was redeveloped in the 20th century for the benefit of the Syrian economy.

What to visit

Around Deir Ez-zor

The Museum

	Mari
	Doura Europos
	Halabia
	Qalaat Al Rahba.

Hotels in Deir Ez-zor:
*****Forat Cham Palace
****Badiat Al Cham
***Mari, Ziad, Oasis El Waha

Damascus - Aleppo - Palmyra - Bosra - Latakia - Tartous - Homs - Hama - DeirEzzor