Dead cities

In December we visited several of what are called, “Dead cities” around Aleppo. They are so-named because most of them have been abandoned as centers of civilization for centuries. They date to the Byzantine era, when they were extensions of the great Christian city of Antioch and part of ancient trade routes.

The most astounding thing to me about this region of Syria was the sheer number of rocks. We enjoyed climbing around in these ruins, guessing what each building was used for and finding ancient patterns engraved in the stones.