Al-Bara

About this place

Al-Bara is one of the Dead Cities of north-western Syria, in the Jabal al-Zawiya about 65 km north of Hama. It is one of the largest and richest of these sites, its stone ruins spread among olive groves and red earth beside a modern town of the same name. It was founded in the 4th century on an important trade route between Antioch and Apamea, and flourished in the 5th and 6th centuries on grapes and olives, wine and oil, helped by plentiful groundwater. After the Muslim conquest it stayed inhabited while other Dead Cities were abandoned, and excavations from 2007 to 2010 uncovered a large mosque with its mihrab intact and a bath complex used in four different phases. You walk among the walls of churches, houses and olive presses of pale limestone, and see its best-known monuments, two pyramid-roofed tombs from the 6th century, with pointed stone roofs over square bases. Ruined monasteries lie on the edges of the site, and in spring yellow and purple wildflowers bloom among the stones. Serjilla is about 4 km away in a straight line, and Apamea about 32 km. Some photos here predate the recent war years. The UK Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to Syria, and British consular help is not available there, so check official guidance before making any plans.