Dead Cities - Introduction
North of Aleppo, between Aleppo and Hama, the remains of about 600 to 700 abandoned cities and settlements can be found. Some of these date from 5th century BC and most of the cities and settlements became uninhabited in the 7th century AD during the invasion of the Arabs. There's a (currently small) Wikipedia page (new page) covering the Dead Cities. I visited the most famous cities: Al-Bara, Bauda, Serjilla, Ruweiha and Jerada. Unfortunately it was quite rainy that day. The wet mud made everything very slippery. Walking on your own through these cities, climbing remains of walls, meeting people who've settled in old churches or use these buildings for their livestock and in the meantime trying to imagine how life must have been there, centuries ago, is really an extraordinary experience.
Many buildings look like they are about to collapse. Apart from Jerada, I have not seen any restauration work taking place. This is really sad, since these sites deserve a lot more attention from tourists. The Dead Cities rival Petra in Jordan. Apart from Serjilla, there's no admission fee to be paid. I haven't seen any would-be guide or souvenir seller there. That makes the Dead Cities all the more attractive. I did the Dead Cities plus Ebla on one day by organizing a taxi for one day. If you are going to visit the Dead Cities, consider using one extra day, so you can take more time at each site and also make more pictures.
Most buildings, of course, are leaning a little, but not as much as some of my pictures here suggest :)
I made a lot of pictures when I visited the Dead Cities and I really thought that later I would remember the last picture from city x and the first picture from city y. But now, months later, this turns out to be more difficult than I expected. Therefore it is possible that some pictures are from a previous or next city. If you detect such a mistake, please send an e-mail message to fred 'at' fredvos 'dot' org. Thanks.