Mediterranean 6 Days – 5 Nights

Arrival in Damascus

• • • • Meeting at the specified place and time in Beirut
      • Moving to Damascus, meeting the guide at the border
      • Continuing to Damascus and picking up rooms at the hotel

Full day in Damascus

• • • • 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.
      • Souk Al-Hamidiye : The most beautiful souk of Damascus. Its shops display all sorts of goods, especially clothes, fabrics, pastries and handicrafts.
      • The Umayyad Mosque : Located in the heart of the Medina, the mosque is distinguishedby its prayer room, its courtyard and its walls covered with mosaics.
      • 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.
      • Souk Al-Hamidiye : The most beautiful souk of Damascus. Its shops display all sorts of goods, especially clothes, fabrics, pastries and handicrafts.
      • 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.
      • Caravanserai: is the largest caravanserai (khān) in the Old City of Damascus. Situated along Al-Buzuriyah Souq, it was built in 1751. Khan As’ad Pasha has been described as one of the finest khans of Damascus, and the most “ambitious” work of architecture in the city.
      • Straight Street (or in Latin, Via Recta): is the Roman street that runs from east to west in the old city of Damascus. It was visited by St. Paul as recorded in the book of Acts of Apostles and contains several interesting sights from the Roman, Christian and Islamic periods. Under the Greeks, the old city of Damascus was designed after the grid pattern designed by Hippodamus. Under Roman rule, the Via Recta was widened and became a colonnaded thoroughfare (documanus). These columns can still be seen today.
      • 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.
      • In the afternoon:  you will explore Damascus old town, free time.

Damascus- Malloula- Saladin Castle- Lattakia

• • • Breakfast at the hotel
    • Departure to Maaloula:  Whose Syriac name means “entrance”, seems to be hanging on the rocks. Here the Aramaic dialect of Christ, is still spoken.
    • Visit the monastery of Saint Sergius, the gorge and the convent of St.Tekla
    • Continue 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 liberation of the castle in 1188.
    • Over Night at the hotel in Latakia

Lattakia- Al Marqeb Castle- Tartous

• • • Breakfast at the hotel.
    • Departure towards Ugarita 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
    • Continue to AlMarqab Castle:
      He established AlMarqab Castle near the coast and the border with the Emirate of Antioch. It was originally constructed by giants to send messages using smoke or mirrors, along with another castle called Chastel Blanc. The Hospitaller Knights were assigned to the castle in 1186. Made of black volcanic rock, the castle includes a church, meeting hall, barracks, and offices. It endured several sieges and was eventually captured by the Mamluk Sultan Qalwan in 1285.
    • Heading to Tartous
    • Overnight at the hotel

Tartous- Safita- Safita-Krak des Chevaliers

• • • • Breakfast at the hotel
      • Departure towards Safita
        Located 30 km from Tartous, it is a picturesque town in Syria with historic significance. The area has a castle, Castle Blanc, built by the Knights Templar during the Crusades, offering panoramic views of the countryside. The castle was strategically important and served as both a chapel and a fortress. It was restored following damages due to earthquakes and still contains a chapel and a dormitory.
      • Continue to Krack 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 …
        
      • Overnight at the hotel in al-Mishtaya.

AlMeshtaya, Palmyra, Damascus

• • • Breakfast at the hotel.
    • Departure to 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 Rome tremble at some point.
    • The Temple of Bel/Ba’al: Bel/Ba’al was for the Palmyrans what Zeus was for the Greeks. It’s temple is the largest and most majestic building in Palmyra, a unique example of fusion between Greco-Roman and oriental-inspired architecture.
    • Tombs: including towers tombs, tombs underground, Temple tombs and individual tombs.

• • • Back to Damascus & Overnight at the hotel

Damascus, Bosra and back to Damascus

• • • Breakfast at the hotel.
    • Departure to Bosra
      a very ancient city, already mentioned in the inscriptions of Akhenaton, in the 14th century BC. The most important of its monuments is the famous theater (2nd century AD), the one of the most beautiful and best preserved in the world. It is 45 meters long and has a depth of 8 meters. It can accommodate seventeen thousands spectators.

• • • Back to Damascus – Departure to Beirut