Shahba is not far from Busra. Another Roman and Nabataean site.
In 244 AD, Philip the Arab, with origins from this small village, became Roman emperor. He decided to reorganize its city-plan. He decorated the town with new monuments and renamed it Philippopolis. Four frescoes of great beauty (4th century AD) are at town's museum.

Here one finds a Greek Orthodox Church that is, the oldest still in use in Syria. Erected in 515 AD on the site of an ancient temple. It is the oldest basilica in the world .Two hundred meters away, one is a second church (Greek Catholic) called the Church of Saint Elias dating from 542 AD.

Includes most of the fertile land in Syria. Along the banks of the Orontes the earliest and most important city-states flourished. From Emesa through Epiphania, Apamea, Ebla and Antrochia.

This area witnessed a flow of many different conquests. Apamea was the capital of the Seleucids, established by Seleucus Nicator, who was Alexander the great` s general and first king of Syria. The Via Traiana links the Orient with Europe.

Is one of the best-preserved castles of the medieval period. With its magnificent towers and strategic position, it was a crusader stronghold that housed up to 5000 men with horses and provisions to withstand a long siege.

Along the Syrian coast, such medieval fortresses are strewn like pearls on a string. The castles of Saladin, Marqab, Sheizar and others still stand to witness a period of great importance.

It took the name of Tortose under the French Crusaders. When the freedom of worship was accorded to the first Christians, pilgrims came here in great numbers to visit the first church consecrated to Mary (the mother of Christ).

Raymond of Saint- Gilles took Tortose in 1102 and then the French Crusaders decided to erect the cathedral of "Our Lady of Tortose" on the same spot as the first church. The Templars kept the fortress and resisted the assaults of Saladin (an Arab Muslim leader). Tortose finally, fell in 1291. Afterwards, the cathedral knew several transformations: a mosque, Turkish military barracks, and finally a museum.

Originally a small Phoenician village, Assyrians, Persians, Seleucids, Byzantines, Crusaders, Turks and finally by Saladin conquered this town. Laodicee, as it was known, had an important role in the Kingdom of Seleucus Nicator.

This site, called Ras Shamra in Arabic, date from the 7th millennium BC. The period during the 2nd millennium BC was an important urban expansion, of which, the discovery of houses, funeral caves, two temples, dedicated to Dagan and Baal and a Palace (15th BC) are proof.

An important intellectual center, a type of cuneiform-writing was invented here, the world's first alphabet. 

Is an oasis in the middle of what is known as the Syrian Desert. It was the capital of queen Zenobia. It was a commercial and a political powerhouse, and always the center of events.

It was mentioned in the records of Mari, as early as, the middle of the third millennium BC. It had connections with all the cities of the area. The independent spirit of the Palmyrians, and the ambitions of their great queen, led them to defy Rome and had all of Syria under their control by 268 AD, to the distaste of the Romans who, during the reign of the Emperor Aurelian, besieged the city. and after, a long struggle, it finally fell in their hands in 272 AD.