AI generatedDead Cities
Syria · Idlib Governorate · 550 m
Short description of Dead Cities
The Dead Cities (المدن المنسية) are some seven hundred Byzantine settlements on the limestone hills between Aleppo and Idlib, left standing when the trade that fed them moved away. Whole villages remain without roofs but with their walls, churches, olive presses, bath houses and tombs. Serjilla is the most complete, a bowl of houses and a tavern around an empty square, and Al-Bara adds pyramid roofed tombs among olive groves. UNESCO lists forty of the villages. Nothing is fenced and there are few signs, so a visit is a walk through open country with stone all around.
AI edited
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Recommended length of stay
Travel seasons at a glance
Best time to visit: April – May or September
- Jan
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All highlights and sights
- Serjilla village and its tavern
- Pyramid tombs of Al-Bara
- Byzantine churches without roofs
- Olive presses cut in stone
- Ruweiha village
- Walk between the villages
- Olive groves of the limestone massif
- Bath house of Serjilla
- Sunset over the empty stone villages
Ways to get there and away
- Airports nearby:
- LTK Latakia International Airport (Latakia) · 70 km southwest
- ALP Aleppo International Airport (Aleppo) · 75 km northeast(recommended)
- HTY Hatay Airport (Antakya) · 75 km north
- Nearest seaports:
- Banyas Port · 85 km southwest
- Mersin Limanı Yolcu Salonu · 212 km northwest
- Nearest railway station:
- Hama (Hama) · 68 km south
Ports: © OpenStreetMap contributors