Aleppo Off the Beaten Path Tips by call_me_rhia

The museum to end all museums! Impressive, stunning, exceptional mosaics found in the dead cities in the area and placed here, in the wonderful 16th century Ottoman Khan Murad Pasha. Great art and great architecture... what more would one want? Entrance (January 2003) was 150 Syrian pounds) and keep in mind that museums close on Tuesday. Photos are not allowed. Ma'arat an-Nu'aman is a lively market town about 45 minutes south of Aleppo.

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North of Aleppo, about 40 minutes away, you can find the basilica of saint simeon, one of the archaeological must-sees in the area. Saint Simeon lies in the middle of a rocky lunar-like landscape , and it's built around a column.... the same column upon which saint simeon is supposed to have spent 40 years of his live. Fact or legend, lunatic or visionary, it doesn't quite matter. However, should you look for the famous pillar, you'll soon discover that it's now a shapeless boulder - recognisable by the fact that several people stand in front of it to have their picture taken. Disheartening! But the place is worth a visit anyway. Admission (Jan 2003) was 150 Syrian pounds.

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Serjilla... a very eerie Dead Cities, possibly the most spooky one. The landscape all around it is quite barren and bare, with plenty of rocks scattered all about... when I was there a mysterious mist set in - the place turned charmingly ghostly - really a perfect weather to explore a Dead City. In the area south of Aleppo there are over 600 such cities - all Bizantine in origin, all abandoned in haste for no apparent reason, all worth a visit, too. It's hard to get there by public transportation, unless you are prepared to hitch-hike or walk for a significant stretch: a taxi is recommended.

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Al-Bara is the largest of all the abandoned bizantine cities known as dead cities. Unlike Serjilla, this one doesn't have a real center... it's scattered all about a 6 kilometres area, and it kind of sits surrounded by olive trees, plantations, recent houses and villages, and rocky outcrops - the past and the present living side-by-side. What is interesting here are the pyramid tombs (inside, though the fenced doors, you can still see the carved stone sarcophagi), many villas, a few monasteries, many simpler houses and buildings. Hard to visit, in the sense that there's not an established route, but very interesting and worthwhile. It's about 5 kilometres away from Serjilla.

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