The Dead Cities of Syria

Scattered across the vast Limestone Massif , inward the northwest of Syrian Arab Republic , betwixt the Orontes together with Afrin Rivers to the westward together with the Aleppo/Hama highway to the due east , are to a greater extent than than 700 abandoned settlements of Roman together with Byzantium era dating dorsum to the 5th together with eighth centuries. These then called “Dead Cities” —a elevate given past times closed to early on European explorers— be inward a remarkable reason of preservation. Largely intact are buildings together with houses , hundreds of heathen temples , churches together with Christian sanctuaries , funerary monuments , bathhouses , together with more.

These villages or towns were 1 time major agricultural producers of wheat , olives , olive petroleum , grapes together with wine. Then the climate changed. Drought together with increased temperature caused the reason to driblet dead unproductive. At the same fourth dimension , conquest past times the Arabs changed merchandise routes together with these villages lost the bulk of the business. Eventually , the villages were abandoned together with the settlers headed for other cities that were flourishing nether the Arabs.

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Photo credit: Shane Horan/Flickr

One of the largest together with virtually impressive of the “dead cities” is Al-Bara. It is spread over vi foursquare kilometer together with located xc km southwest of Aleppo. Al-Bara was unaffected past times the Muslim conquest inward the seventh century , simply cruel to Crusaders inward the 11th century who held the town until it was conquered past times the Mamluks inward the twelfth century. An earthquake inward 1157 left the town uninhabitable.

The ruins of Al-Bara include ii large pyramidal-roofed , a lay out of churches , a two-story monastery , a Crusader-era fort Qalaat Abu Safian , equally good equally a vino press edifice together with an olive press.

Close to Al-Bara is closed to other “dead city” , Serjilla , famous for its beautiful remains of Roman baths , which shows how prosperous the portion had been. In closed to other abandoned metropolis , Kharab Shams , is a wonderful basilica , 1 of the oldest best-preserved Christian structures inward the Levant , dating to the quaternary century. Yet closed to other well-preserved church building from the minute one-half of the 5th century is located inward the hamlet of Mushabbak.

The villages are right away travel of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“The relict cultural landscape of the villages too constitutes an of import example of the transition from the ancient heathen populace of the Roman Empire to Byzantine Christianity. Vestiges illustrating hydraulic techniques , protective walls together with Roman agricultural plot plans furthermore offering testimony to the inhabitants' mastery of farm production ,” says the description on UNESCO’s website.

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