Summer 2002 -- RL 299W/499W Special Topics:
Cradle of Christianity: Early Christianity in Syria & Asia
A Study Tour of Ancient Syria & Lebanon (with Sts. Peter, Paul, Matthew & Co.)

TRAVEL ITINERARY (last update: 08 April 2002)
With brief comments about the significance of each site and what will be visited

• Day 1(Tuesday, June 11) Arrival in Damascus
  • Damascus (Dimashq ash-Sham--or simply Ash-Sham) is Syria's capital and largest city. It has been inhabited for five millennia.
  • First of four nights accommodation in Damascus.
    
    
• Day 2 (Wednesday, June 12) Damascus
  • Explore the "Old City," including the St. Ananias Chapel, St. Paul's Chapel, and stroll along the ancient Via Recta (the "Street called Straight" where, according to Acts 9: 8-25, Paul stayed in a house following his dramatic conversion to Christianity).
  • Also see the Umayyad Mosque, Islam's second most sacred site. It is built on the site of a ninth-century BCE temple to the god Hadad, rededicated by the Romans to Jupiter, and made into the Church of St. John the Baptist in the fourth century CE. It became a mosque in 673 CE.
  • After an early lunch at the Umayyad Palace Restaurant, visit the Azem Palace, a stunning example of Damascene architecture. Built in 1750 for the Governor of Damascus, it was sold to the French in 1920 and turned into the Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions of Syria. This is Syria's best and most extensive museum. The exhibits are classified as pre-Classical, Classical, and Islamic. One of the museum's treasures is the synagogue from Dura Europos (a site which we will visit on Day 11). There are also rooms in the museum dedicated to archaeological finds from Apameia (Day 6) and Palmyra (Day 12), as well as an extensive Byzantine Christian art collection.
  • There is free time for bargaining in the souq.
  • Dinner in the Christian Quarter. Overnight at the same hotel in Damascus.
    
    
• Day 3 (Thursday, June 13) Day trip South of Damascus
  • Travel by bus to Ezra'a, which has two of Syria's oldest, still functioning churches: the (Orthodox) St. GeorgeBasilica and the (Catholic) Church of St. Elias. Both date from the sixth century. The former contains the tomb of St. George (of St. George and the dragon fame!) and an inscription dated CE 515 revealing that the church stands on the site of an earlier pagan temple. St. Elias' church has been much altered over time.
  • Drive on to Bosra (ancient Bostra, also Bustra) which, arguably, has the best-preserved Roman theatre in the world. After a picnic lunch, explore the theatre and its open-air museum and the extensive Roman site (including the Roman baths), as well as the ruined seventh-century (square) basilica of St. Sergius, the Arab fort, and the fourteenth-century Turkish baths.
  • Dinner in the Old Town. Overnight at the same hotel in Damascus.
    
    
• Day 4 (Friday, June 14) Daytrip to Lebanon
  • Leave early to drive 2-1/2 hours to Baalbek. This trip includes a border crossing into Lebanon. A 48-hour transit visa is obtainable at the border.
  • Here we will see one of the most impressive sites from the ancient world. Originally named after Ba'al, the Phoenician god, the Greeks called Baalbek the "City of the Sun" (Heliopolis). The partial remains of the Roman Temple of Jupiter give an indication of its immense size, dwarfing the better-preserved Temple of Bacchus. Two of the columns of Baalbek were taken by Constantine for use in the Hagia Sophia Basilica in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Visit the excellent archaeological museum on the site.
  • Continue to the Kassara Winery, set in caves close to Zahle, for a brief visit and, for those so inclined, a wine tasting.
  • Drive to Anjar for a late lunch of fresh lake fish. Visit the archeological site of Anjar and its eighth-century Omayyad Palace.
  • Return to Damascus via Qassin Mountain for a spectacular view of the city and for some last-minute shopping in the souq.
  • Dinner at the hotel rooftop restaurant. Overnight at the same hotel in Damascus.
    
    
• Day 5 (Saturday, June 15) Damascus--Aleppo
  • This is going to be a long but exciting day. Leave early to drive to the ancient town of Maalula, where Aramaic (Jesus' language) is still spoken.
  • Visit the Monastery of St. Sergius where there is a small Byzantine church with a unique circular (and perhaps originally pagan) altar.
  • Also visit the (modern) Convent of St. Thecla built on the site of a shrine to St. Thecla, of the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla fame. "Thecla's grotto" is inside the monastery, its sacred water is reputed to cure flatulence!
  • Drive through Homs (ancient Emesa), the birthplace of Julia Domna (wife of Emperor Septimius Severus) whose daughter, Julia Mammaea (wife of Emperor Alexander Severus) invited the Christian teacher Origen of Alexandria to visit her in Antioch. Little remains of this once important city--but there is a "tell" (an artificial mound) showing where the ancient citadel once was.
  • Continue to Hama (ancient Epiphania, named after Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes) for lunch.
  • After lunch drive on to Afamia (ancient Apameia, named by Seleucus I in honor of his wife). In the third century CE, Apameia was the most important center of Neo-Platonism, a philosophic/religious movement which both competed with and influenced Christian thought and practice. At one time, around 500,000 people lived in Apameia. The extant remains are not extensive, but the beautiful colonnades made of columns with twisted fluting, the remains of the theatre, the Byzantine cathedral with exterior frescoes decorating the apse, and the mosaic museum are worth a brief visit.
  • Continue to Serilla, the best of a large number of so-called "Dead cities." These are Byzantine settlements abandoned in the seventh century but wonderfully preserved by the desert sands.
  • Dinner in Aleppo's medieval Christian Al Jdeide quarter. First of two nights accommodation in Aleppo (ancient Beroea).
    
    
• Day 6 (Sunday, June 16) Aleppo
  • Optional walking tour of the Al Jdeide quarter after breakfast.
  • Worship at the Antiochian cathedral.
  • Lunch at the Alkaram Restaurant with local Christian dignitaries.
  • In the early afternoon, travel to Qualb Lozeh, where the ancient church is one of the best preserved early examples of Syrian-Byzantine architecture. It was probably built c.460 CE, at a resting point along the way pilgrims took to see St. Simeon Stylites the Elder, or, later, his pillar (see below).
  • Continue to Deir Samaan (ancient Telanissos) where, in the fifth century, there was a monastic community. This community was made famous by one of its monks, a man named Simeon who joined the community c.410-12. (Hence the local name "Deir Samaan," i.e., "Monastery of Simeon.") From 422 until his death in 459, as a kind of "living martyrdom," Simeon sat on a pillar on a hill above Telanissos. A small part of the pillar is still visible. During his lifetime, thousands of visitors came to seek advice from or be blessed by this holy man. After his death, he was buried in a tomb next to his pillar (his body was subsequently taken to Antioch and finally to Constantinople). Between 476 and 491, a huge ecclesiastical complex was built around the pillar, including four separate basilicas arranged in the form of a cross. A tenth-century Byzantine fortification surrounding the complex, some of the walls of which are still extant, has provided the complex itself with its modern Syrian name of Quala'at Samaan (i.e., "Simeon's Fort"). We will visit both the St. Simeon complex and, more briefly, some of the ruins of the original monastery at the foot of the hill, near the modern village.
  • Return to Aleppo for free time to "lose oneself" in the famous covered souq.
  • Dinner in the medieval Christian Al Jdeide quarter. Overnight at the same hotel in Aleppo.
    
    
• Day 7 (Monday, June 17) Aleppo -- Anlurfa
  • Leave early to travel north to the border town of Azaz, continuing to one of Syria's most remote sites, Nabi Houri (ancient Cyrrhus). Once a strategic location for the Roman Empire, and an important site for church historians as it was the bishopric of Theodoret, there remains little left of the ancient settlement. But, if on this day the weather is as clear as we expect it will be, the view of the Turkish mountains from the site will more than make up for the lack of ruins. All students of early Christianity will envy us for having been there!
  • Cross into Turkey and stop at Gaziantep's archaeological museum to see some of the mosaics rescued from three nearby neighboring ancient cities mostly flooded by the Birecik Dam in 2000. The most famous of these cities was Zeugma (Belkis). The others were Seleucia and (another) Apameia. Although a small museum, it currently displays thirteen mosaics from Zeugma. More are being restored and may be on display by June 2002.
  • Eat lunch at the famous Cada Restaurant and continue to the flooded site of Zeugma. The impressive A and B sections are now under water, however Section C, the upper part of the ancient city, will most likely remain above water.
  • Continue to Anlurfa, "Glorious Urfa," ancient Urfa; renamed Edessa by Seleucius I Nicator in the fourth century BCE. Urfa is known as the sacred "city of the Prophets" because of its traditional connection with Abraham and Job. Edessa is famous as the capital of an early Christian dynasty, one of whose kings, Abgar I, allegedly carried on a correspondence with Jesus!
  • Dinner in Anlurfa. First of two nights accommodation in Anlurfa.
    
    
• Day 8 (Tuesday, June 18) Anlurfa--Mt. Nemrut--Anlurfa
  • After breakfast travel to Mt. Nemrut National Park. Take the ferry from Sivarek through the fjords of the reservoir from the Atatürk Dam. Ancient Samosata is submerged beneath the lake.
  • At Karaku, see the four remaining columns and the tumulus of Mithridates II (36-20 BCE), the son of Antiochus I.
  • At Cendere, see the 118-meter-long bridge, constructed between CE 198 and 200 by a Roman legion based at Samosata from materials taken from Karaku. The bridge was built to honor Septimius Severus and his wife Julia Domna (see Day 6) and their sons Geta and Caracalla.
  • At the site of Ancient Arsameia on the Nymphaios, visit a castle-fortress built by the Mameluke sultans during the thirteenth century.
  • After arriving at the Mt. Nemrut National Park, climb to Mt. Nemrut's summit (500m. from the parking lot) to view the spectacular burial sanctuary of Antiochus I with its famous "head statues."
  • Eat a late lunch at the Firat Restaurant before returning to Anlurfa.
  • At Anlurfa, visit some of the traditional sites associated with Abraham: the Mevlid Halil Camii (which contains his alleged birth cave) and the Birket Ibrahim, "The pool of Abraham" (according to tradition formed at the place which Abraham fell after being thrown from the citadel mound by Nimrod), which is full of sacred carp.
  • Visit also the Rizvaniye Mosque and, time permitting, the ninth-century castle, the Han el-Ba'rur caravanserai, and (for the not yet weary!) the extensive covered bazaar.
  • Dinner at the governor's house. Overnight at the same hotel in Anlurfa.
    
    
• Day 9 (Wednesday, June 19) Anlurfa--Nusaybin
  • Visit Harran, the place from which, according to the Bible, Abraham and his family left for Palestine, and see the "beehive" dwellings there.
  • From Harran, drive to Mardin, which is an "architectural treasure chest" with its ninth-century citadel and "golden stone" ancient mosques and churches.
  • After lunch, travel to the Syrian-Jacobite Monastery of Deyrul Zafarin (or, in Syrian, Deir-al-Zafaran), another place where Aramaic is still a living language and which used to be the official residence of the patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church.
  • Continue to the site of the ancient monastery, Mor Jacob, at Nusaybin (ancient Nisibis).
  • Nusaybin is a town on the Syrian border and is the site of ancient Nisibis, a city where Christianity thrived as early as the second century CE. Few remnants of its Christian past remain, but there is the very interesting fourth-century church which is part of the Syrian Orthodox Monastery of Mor Jacob. The church was enlarged in the eighth century and restored in the nineteenth century. In the crypt is the sarcophagus of St. Jacob--Jacob Burd'aya (Baradeus), the fifth-century Monophysite bishop of Edessa, who rejected the "Definition of Faith" formulated at the Council of Chalcedon (451) and after whom Syrian Orthodox Christians are frequently called "Jacobites."
  • Dinner and overnight at a small oasis outside the town.
    
    
• Day 10(Thursday, June 20) Nusaybin--Deir-ez Zur
  • Leave early to cross the Turkish border at Nusaybin to Qamishle back into Syria, driving SW to Deir ez-Zur, enroute having a short coffee break at Hassake.
• Visit the Deir ez-Zur Museum, concentrating on the displayed findings from Dura Europos and Mari.
• Enjoy lunch in an outdoor restaurant above the Euphrates River with a view of the unique, 500-meter-long suspension bridge.
  
• After lunch drive to Dura Europos, probably the most historically interesting site for Christian and Jewish art historians. In the 1920s-30s, Dura Europos yielded both an early Jewish synagogue with wonderfully preserved wall paintings and the earliest extant Christian "house church" (domus ecclesiae).
  
• The synagogue has been removed from the site to the Damascus National Museum (see Day 3). The domus ecclesiae has been removed to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The original location of each, however, is still able to be seen at the site. The extensive site of the ancient city includes the remains of the decumanus (the main E.-W. street), the Palmyra gate, a Mithraeum, a number of temples, the agora ("market place"), and the residence of the commander of the Roman garrison.
  
• Dinner and overnight in Deir ez-Zur.
  
  
• Day 11 (Friday, June 21) Deir ez-Zur--Damascus
  • Drive to ancient Palmyra ("City of Palms"). The city received this name from the Romans who expanded an earlier city Tadmor ("City of Dates") and eventually made it a Roman colony. Diocletian made it one of a line of forts on the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. This extraordinary site is settled within an oasis of palm trees, undoubtedly descended from the ones which are responsible for both its names.
  • Among the features of the site are the "Hypogeum ("underground tomb") of the Three Brothers" (c.160 CE), the Tower Tomb of Elebel (c.103 CE), the Temple of Bel [= Baal] (c.32 CE), a Roman theatre, a small agora, and a great colonnade.
  • After lunch in Palmyra, return via the Syrian desert to Damascus. Check into the hotel.
  • Free time before a farewell dinner in the Old Town.
    Depart Damascus
    End of service.

The Crossroads of Early Christianity tours in its absolute discretion, reserves the right to alter any route or other arrangements, offer substitutes, or to completely cancel the whole or any portion of the tour should conditions necessitate.

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