Gods of Syria

7 Days

Day1

Arrival – Transfer to Damascus – overnight at the hotel

Breakfast at the hotel.
Departure towards Maaloula, a village famous for its houses dug in the rock like beehives and especially because it still speaks Aramaic, the language of Christ! Lunch.
Continues to visit Ugarit, a coastal town north of Lattakia.
Ugarit became famous thanks to the discovery of tablets of the oldest consonantal alphabet known to date. The first habitat, a large fortified village, dates back to the 8th millennium BC. The two immense palaces, later constructions, yielded archives and literary archives, attesting to an astonishing diversity of languages and five writing systems, including the consonantal alphabetical or Ugaritic script which dates from the 14th century BC.
Dinner and overnight in Lattakia.

Breakfast at the hotel. And check out.
Drive towards the Saladin Castle.
Beautiful citadel built by the Franks in the middle of the forests, on a rocky peak. It allowed to control the roads coming from and going towards Lattakia. The history of this stronghold is long: the Phoenicians had already fortified the place, Alexander the Great seized it, as well as the Byzantines a few centuries later. It is the Crusaders who, in the twelfth century, will give the castle its current appearance. At the time, it was called “Château de Saône” (named after a crusader). Its current name was only awarded in 1957, commemorating Saladin’s seizure of the place in 1188.
Amrit was a Phoenician port located near present-day Tartus in Syria. Founded in the third millennium BC, Amrit (was the northernmost important city of ancient Phoenicia and a rival of nearby Arwad. During the 2nd century BC, Amrit was defeated and its site largely abandoned, leaving its ruins well preserved and without extensive remodeling by later generations.
Dinner and overnight in Tartous.

Breakfast at the hotel.
Departure towards Safita Tower, is located on a site where remains of the Phoenician settlement were discovered. It’s square is a chapel dedicated to St. Michael and serving the Greek Orthodox community of the city.
Continuation to the Crack des Chevaliers, the most famous fortress of the Middle Ages. The crusaders made it the basic element of their system of strongholds on the coast. It is so vast and so impregnable that it has become the symbol of a whole era of bloody struggles between Muslims and Crusaders …
Dinner in Al-mishtaya at restaurant, overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.
Palmyra: The one that the Romans baptized Palmyra (the city of palms) and that the Syrians call Tadmor (miracle in Aramaic) is the most important oasis of the Syrian desert. Located 240 km from Damascus, Palmyra is the city of all superlatives. It arises in the midst of golden sands that extend to infinity. An oasis of columns, remains and palm trees that testifies to the splendor of this city that made, one day, tremble Rome …
The temple of Bel: It was for the Palmyrenes what Zeus was for the Greeks. Its temple is the largest and most majestic building in Palmyra, a unique example of fusion between Greco-Roman and oriental-inspired architecture.
The theater and the big colonnade: It crosses the city on more than one kilometer by which the caravans arriving from the desert passed.
Tombs: including tombs towers, tombs dug, tombs temples or individual tombs.
Departure to Damascus, dinner at restaurant – overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. Visit:
The National Museum: Its visit provides an overview of the civilizations that have succeeded in Syrian soil. It contains statues, seals, jewelry, masks, mosaics, tablets and weavings from the most important sites in the country.
The Umayyad Mosque: Located in the heart of the Medina, the mosque is distinguished by its prayer hall, its courtyard and its walls covered with mosaics.
El-Azem Palace: Not far from the Great Mosque, in the labyrinth of the souk is the palace El-Azem. It is considered as the sumptuous model of the Damascene house whose exterior simplicity and sobriety do not suggest anything about a beautiful and rich interior, with many varieties of flowers, fruit trees and water jets.
Saint Ananian Church: It is of particular importance because it is attached to the memory of Saint Paul. Before his conversion to Christianity he had a vision here that blinded him for several days and gave him an unshakeable faith.
Souk Al-Hamidiye: The most beautiful souk of Damascus. Its shops display all sorts of goods, especially clothes, fabrics, pastries and handicrafts.
Dinner in a restaurant then night in Damascus.