Destination: Syria

LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION

Itinerary: Architectural Gems Tour

If you love snooping into other people’s homes, then Syria and Lebanon are your dream destinations.



Damascus’ Old City has hundreds of historic houses and palaces. Some are now museums, cafés and restaurants, while many are currently undergoing restoration and being opened to the public. Maktab Anbar, Azem Palace and Beit Nizam are all very special. Also, marvel at the magnificence of the Umayyad Mosque, one of the most notable buildings of Islam and an architectural and decorative wonder.

Aleppo’s elegant merchant mansions and Ottoman palaces are increasingly being converted into magical boutique hotels and restaurants. Beit Wakil, Dar Zamaria Martini and Diwan Rasmy give you the opportunity to admire a gilded ceiling from your bed or listen to a trickling fountain from your dinner table.

Lebanon’s magnificent Beiteddine Palace, a combination of Arab and Italian architecture, is considered to be the greatest achievement of 19th-century Lebanese architecture. Nearby, the Mir Amin Palace is now a luxury hotel. A short distance away, the village of Deir al-Qamar has some of the best-preserved examples of 17th- and 18th-century provincial architecture in Lebanon. On the waterfront at Sidon, a beautifully restored Ottoman khan is now a restaurant, appropriately named the Rest House.

Travelling to Syria?
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