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The church of Qalb Lawzi (Idleb):
This is 65 kilometres west of Aleppo. It dates back to the
6th century, and is a masterpiece of Syrian Byzantine art.
Ebla (Tal Mardikn ? Idleb):
It is 25 kilometres southeast
of Idleb. It is the site of important and recent archaeological
discoveries. Excavations in the ?Tal Mardikn? have revealed a very old
Syrian civilization, that of Ebla, which flourished in the 3ed and 2nd
millenniums B.C, In the palace of this great kingdom, a library
containing more than 17?000 clay tablets was uncovered. These tablets
are the earliest written documents in Syria.
Rasafeh: It is located south of the Euphrates and north of
the Syrian semi-desert, 160 kilometres south-east of Aleppo and 30
kilometres south of the Aleppo Raqqa road. Rasafeh palace was the
residence of Hisham ibn Abdul Malik, the third Omayyad Caliph, whose
age was golden one, due to his great interest in the arts and in
architecture. He had several palaces built in various parts of Syria.
He was in favour of simplicity and modesty; this is why he chose
Rasafeh as his residence. There, he died and was buried. The palace
was originally a church, built to commemorate a Roman officer (St.
Sergius), who died in defence of Christianity in the 4th century. In
616, the Persians, robbed and destroyed invaded the church. When
Hisham ibn Abdul Malik became a caliph in the 8th ce, he built two
beautiful palaces on its site. Later, the Abbacies invaded and
destroyed what the Caliph Hisham had built. Very little of the ruins
of the Mar Sarkis church remain. Parts of the church have been used as
a mosque; inscriptions in both Arabic and Greek, engraved on the walls,
indicate that Christians and Muslims co-existed peacefully in Syria
from the 13th century onwards. |
Main References: The
Syrian, Britannica, Encarta and Columbia encyclopedias, Syriagate,
Cafesyria .... |
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