# The Dead Cities/Forgotten Cities of Ancient Syria



## Brian G Turner (Feb 12, 2015)

Never even knew about these astonishing ruins - just found them by accident:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1348/



> Some 40 villages grouped in eight parks situated in north-western Syria provide remarkable testimony to rural life in late Antiquity and during the Byzantine period. Abandoned in the 8th to 10th centuries, the villages, which date from the 1st to 7th centuries, feature a remarkably well preserved landscape and the architectural remains of dwellings, pagan temples, churches, cisterns, bathhouses etc. The relict cultural landscape of the villages also constitutes an important illustration of the transition from the ancient pagan world of the Roman Empire to Byzantine Christianity. Vestiges illustrating hydraulic techniques, protective walls and Roman agricultural plot plans furthermore offer testimony to the inhabitants' mastery of agricultural production.



There's a bit more further detail on Wikipedia, but not much:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Cities


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## thaddeus6th (Feb 12, 2015)

Probably a year or two ago now there was a piece related to the war in Syria and also this subject. Families were sheltering in subterranean Byzantine ruins. It's easy to forget that Christianity was in Syria long before Islam, but the war and (perhaps most of all) the insanity of ISIS has reduced their numbers rapidly.


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