Syria: Heartland of the Fertile Crescent

Day 1 - Damascus
First an overview of the city from Jebel Kassiun, then we enter the bustling city itself.  At the center is the Omayyad Mosque, which replaced a Byzantine Church, which replaced a massive Roman period temple of Jupiter (remnants still visible), which almost  certainly was built on the spot of an ancient Aramaean temple  of Hadad.  Nearby are Saladin’s grave, a seventeenth century Ottoman governor’s mansion that also served briefly after World War I as Feisal’s headquarters, and the sprawling Suq al-Hamidiye.  We remain in Damascus for the night.
Day 2 - Lebanon
Today we drive from Damascus across the Anti-Lebanon Mountains into Lebanon, visit Ba`albek and cross back into Syria to spend the night in Homs..  Ba`albek was an important cultic center called Heliopolis (“city of the sun”) during Hellenistic-Roman times.  A major temple was erected there during the third century CE and dedicated to the so-called “Heliopolitan triad” -Zeus/Jupiter, Aphrodite/Venus and Hermes/Mercury.

Leaving Ba`albek, we continue north through the Beqa`a (the valley between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains) back into Syria.  The drive takes us near of Tell Nebi Mend, ancient Kadesh, at the source of the Orontes River.  This is where Egyptian and Hittite armies fought a major battle in 1260 BCE, the Egyptians under Ramesses II and the Hittites under Muwatalli.
Day 3 - Crac des Chevaliers
Our main interest for the day is Crac des Chevaliers, the famous Crusader castle built to guard the Homs Pass.  We will have lunch there and spend most of the afternoon.  After exploring the castle, we drive north along the Syrian coast to Ladakiya.
Day 4 - Ladakiya to Hama
Ladakiya (ancient Laodicea built by Seleucus I and named after his mother) is a modern port city. Our interest will be in the ruins of its predecessor, Ugarit, that was situated slightly further north and flourished during the Late Bronze Age.  Excavated by the French off and on since 1929, Ugarit has produced rich artifactual remains and thousands of written texts pertaining to ancient Canaanite society and to international affairs during ancient times.  Having seen the rich finds from Ugarit in the Damascus Museum, now we will explore the site itself before driving east, across the mountains, to the Orontes River valley.  High in the mountains we will stop at Qalaat Saladin, another spectacular Crusader castle.  By late afternoon we will reach Apamea and walk among the ruins of this ancient Roman city.  Then we continue on to Hama for the night.
Day 5 - Hama to Aleppo
Hama (biblical Hamath) flourished as a major city contemporary with the ancient Israelite and Judean monarchies and consequently is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible.  See especially I Kings 8:65; II Kings 17:24 and Isaiah 36:19.  The Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ruled 175-164 BCE), renamed the city Epiphania after himself.  It is famous for its norias, huge wooden waterwheels that lift water from the Orontes to irrigate the surrounding fields, and infamous for an incident that occurred there in 1982.  Leaving Hama, we drive north, our first stop for the day being the mosaic museum at Mar`at en-Nouman.  This museum contains a priceless collection of Roman Period mosaics, all of them housed in a sixteenth century caravansarai.  The main stop for the day is Tell Mardikh, the ruin of an ancient Bronze Age city named Ebla.  An Italian team has been excavating at Tell Mardikh since the mid-1960s, and in 1974 discovered hundreds of cuneiform documents written on clay tablets.  Ebla, in its day, was one of the major cities in the Fertile Crescent.  This will be another very full day; we probably will not reach Aleppo before dark.
Day 6 and 7 - Two days in Aleppo
Aleppo is mentioned in records from the middle of the second millennium BCE (Mari and Hittite archives) when it was capital of an Amorite kingdom known as Yamkhad.  Its magnificent citadel witnesses to the city’s prominence under the Islamic caliphs.  Destroyed by the Mongols, Aleppo recovered under the Mamluks and is the commercial center of northern Syria today.  The highlights of our visit will be the Aleppo suq, citadel and museum.  From Aleppo, we will make an excursion to Qalaat Semaan, where Saint Simeon spent more than thirty years on a platform erected on top of a stone pillar, and Ain Dara, the ruins of ancient Neo-Hittite city.
Day 8 - Aleppo to Deir ez-Zor
Departing Aleppo early in the morning, we drive east to the Euphrates River and then follow it to Deir ez-Zor.  This will take us deep into the interior of Syria, and along the way we will visit two interesting and historic places: Resafe, and Halabiyya.  At Resafe and Halabiyya we will walk among the ruins of two fortified cities that protected the eastern Roman frontier, and then the Byzantine frontier, against the Persians (Sassanids).   Both ruins are unusually well preserved, but it is the geographical setting that makes them so spectacular.  The Resafe ruins appear unexpectedly deep in the desert, while Halabiyya overlooks the Euphrates.  Our hotel at Deir ez-Zor (sometimes spelled Deir Ezzor) also overlooks the Euphrates.
Day 9 - Dura-Europas, Terqa and Mari
Today we will continue to follow the Euphrates downstream and visit two of the most important archaeological sites in Syria: Mari and Dura Europas.  Mari is the oldest, dating from the Bronze Age, and in the Damascus museum we will have seen two rooms of artifacts excavated at the site. These include ancient clay tablets with cuneiform writing.  Dura Europas was built by Seleucis I and continued to flourish through the third century CE.  Also in the Damascus museum we will have seen frescoes from a Jewish synagogue at Dura Europas.  On our return to Deir ez-Zor, we will stop at Terqa, the site of another Bronze Age city contemporary with Mari.
Day 10 - Deir ez-Zor to Palmyra
This morning we set out across the desert to Palmyra and should reach there by mid-day.  Palmyra was a wealthy oasis and caravan city situated deep in the Syrian desert.  During the second and third centuries BCE, when Palmyra was on the frontier between the Roman empire and Parthia, Palmyra’s merchants controlled most of the trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.  Palmyra’s most famous ruler was Queen Zenobia, during whose reign   Palmyrene armies threatened to take over the whole eastern Roman empire.  Because of its wealth, Palmyra was a splendorous city with massive architecture; and because it is situated deep in the desert, this architecture has been unusually preserved.  Palmyra will be a
highlight of the trip.
Day 11 - Palmyra to Bosra
After enjoying Palmyra, we drive via Damascus to Bosra in time to explore its ruins in the late afternoon.  Bosra is mentioned in Late Bronze Age (18th dynasty) records from Egypt.  Trajan made Bosra the administrative capital of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea that he created in 106 CE and then built a major highway, the Via Nova Trajana, from Bosra to Aila (Aqabah).  Mohammed is said to have visited Bosra while still a young man and to have encountered the revered Nestorian Christian monk, Bahira, who predicted his future greatness.  The main street of Bosra combines the ancient with the modern in a unique way.  The street itself dates from the late Roman period and wherever one looks on either side there are architectural remains from Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic times.  Especially well represented are the Byzantine and Ayyubid periods.  Yet this is also the main street of a currently active Syrian town with a primarily agricultural economy, so many of the surrounding architectural remains from various periods are in use by the contemporary farmers. Walking among the ruins at Bosra, therefore, we can observe at close hand a contemporary Syrian town with its people going about their normal everyday affairs.
Day 12 -Bosra via Shabha to Damascus
We return to Damascus, stopping along the way at Shabha, home of a third-century Roman emperor, Philip the Arab (ruled 244-49 CE).
Day 13 - Departure
Return to the United States
Itinerary at a Glance

Day 1 - Damascus
Day 2 - Lebanon
Day 3 - Crac des Chevaliers
Day 4 - Ladakiya to Hama
Day 5 - Hama to Aleppo
Day 6 & 7 - Two days in Aleppo
Day 8 - Aleppo to Deir ez-Zor
Day 9 - Dura-Europas, Terqa and Mari
Day 10 - Deir ez-Zor to Palmyra
Day 11 - Palmyra to Bosra
Day 12 - Bosra via Shabha to Damascus
Day 13 - Depart Damascus