Day Trips from Damascus

Bosra, the Nabataean and later Roman capital of Arabia province, shelters the world's most intact Roman theatre, 15,000 seats sealed inside a 13th-century Arab fortress and therefore spared the quarrymen. Around it lie a Roman arch, baths, colonnades and a Byzantine cathedral, all hewn from the same volcanic basalt. Visitor numbers are a fraction of Petra's or Jerash's, for most travellers that alone is a selling point.

Maaloula is one of three villages on the planet where Western Aramaic, the language of first-century Galilee, still drifts through the alleys. Houses painted blue and ochre grip pale limestone cliffs in the Anti-Lebanon. Two monasteries anchor life: hilltop Mar Sarkis and gorge-bound Mar Takla, whose cliff cleft has been a pilgrimage trail since long before Christianity.

T.E. Lawrence dubbed Krak des Chevaliers 'perhaps the best-preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world', and it is hard to contradict him. The Hospitaller fortress crowns a 650m ridge in the Orontes Valley, double walls, towers and moat still intact after nine centuries. Inside: Gothic loggia, great hall, chapels, storerooms, working mill, enough for a three-hour wander. It is a long haul from Damascus. But for medieval military architecture nothing in the region touches it.

Palmyra, the desert caravan hub that once linked Rome and Persia, grew rich enough to challenge emperors. The Great Colonnade, Valley of Tombs and Arab citadel of Qalaat Ibn Maan still carry voltage despite ISIS damage of 2015-2017. Temple of Bel and Arch of Triumph are partly gone. Much else endures. Watching the columns flame orange at dusk remains one of the region's well-known moments.

The Barada Valley hill towns, parked at 1,300m in the Anti-Lebanon, have cooled Damascene heads for centuries. Zabadani is the larger, threaded with orchards and riverside paths, its Ottoman summer houses now gently peeling. Bludan, a few kilometres higher, is quieter, cooler, and in spring its apricot and cherry blossoms justify the short haul uphill.

The most unusual excursion from Damascus: a ghost city frozen in 1974. When Israeli forces withdrew from Quneitra after the disengagement agreement, they left the city largely demolished, and Syria preserved it as a monument. The abandoned hospital, church, and main street stand as they were left, roofless, bullet-scarred, and quietly haunting. The UN Buffer Zone starts at the edge of town, and on clear days Mount Hermon is visible to the southwest.

A 6th-century monastery carved into a volcanic cliff face above Nebek, transformed from the 1980s onward into a center for Christian-Muslim dialogue by Jesuit priest Paolo Dall'Oglio. The original Byzantine frescoes (11th-12th century) are among the finest in Syria, vivid colors, figures in good condition. The 20-minute hike up from the valley floor is a pleasant prelude, and the community of monks and long-term guests gives the place a living quality rather than a museum feel.

At 2,814m, the highest peak in the Anti-Lebanon range sits on the Syrian-Lebanese-Israeli trijunction and has been a sacred mountain since antiquity. The Syrian ski resort on the lower slopes is modest. But in winter the drive through snow-covered villages is atmospheric in its own right. In summer and autumn, the mountain offers hiking through alpine terrain at elevations you won't find elsewhere in Syria, with views that on clear days extend to Damascus.