An Archaeological Study Tour

Syria & Jordan with Baalbek
October 5– 24, 2009   sold out

March 26 - April 13, 2010
Led by Dr. Joseph A. Greene

October 8 - 26, 2010
Led by Prof. Clemens Reichel

Spanning five millennia of history, the lands of the Ancient Near East encompass many impressive ancient cities, providing a unique perspective on the cultural heritage shared by us all. The more than 30,000 cuneiform-inscribed clay tablets found at Mari and the thousands of cuneiform documents, as well as the world’s oldest bilingual dictionary of the royal archives of Ebla, have given us an incredible window into history and daily life in the 3rd millennium BCE. We will study the curious mix of Aramaic and Arab with Graeco-Roman culture at the great caravan city of Aleppo, while in Damascus and Aleppo we will examine the bounty of magnificent monuments of the Islamic period. The impressive architecture of the Crusader fortress, Krak des Chevaliers, and the unique “Dead Cities” in northern Syria remind us of the Christian influence, whereas the charming old quarters in Aleppo provide a picture of Ottoman life. This year we have added a day at the fascinating ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon. Our tour ends in Jordan with the study of the Nabatean people at the magnificent city of Petra, where we will spend two days amidst the monuments cut from the glorious rose, purple and cream striated sandstone. Throughout our stay we will be enveloped in the mystery of the East with its smell of exotic spices and roasting coffee, inviting hamams and colorful bazaars.


Friday, March 26, 2010/October 8, 2010: Independent departures from our home cities to London.

Saturday, March 27/October 9: DAMASCUS: We will depart from London on British Midland Airlines at noon and arrive into Damascus Saturday evening. We will transfer to the centrally located Sheraton Hotel.

Sunday, March 28October 10: DAMASCUS: This morning we meet with Dr. Greene/Prof. Reichel for an orientation lecture before beginning our touring at the National Museum. The museum houses an excellent collection of artifacts from Palmyra, Mari and Ugarit, as well as the magnificent frescoes from a synagogue at Dura Europos. We will stop for lunch at a traditional restaurant and complete our touring at the city walls, the Tomb of Saladin and the Omayyad Mosque, which sits amidst the Corinthian columns of the 3rd-century Temple of Jupiter.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Monday, March 29/October 11: LATAKIA: We depart Damascus and drive into the Orontes Valley to one of the best -preserved Crusader castles in the region, Krak des Chevaliers. This magnificent structure guards passage between inland Syria and its ports. We then continue to Latakia and end our day at Ugarit’s sister city, Ras Ibn Hani. Rotana Apamea Hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Tuesday, March 30/October 12: ALEPPO: Touring begins at the impressive port of Ugarit, famous in antiquity for its trading contacts across the Mediterranean and for its contributions to the first alphabet. Driving north to Aleppo, we visit the fascinating city of Apamea, with its extraordinary colonnade running 2 km north-south along the Cardo Maximus. After a picnic lunch, we continue to Ebla, the great Bronze Age trading city, whose excavations have revealed its palaces, halls and courts as well as the base of its monumental gateway. The most important and controversial find has been the royal archives, which are still being examined by the excavation team. After completing our touring, we continue to Aleppo and the Sheraton Hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Wednesday, March 31/October 13: ALEPPO: Aleppo, established in the 2nd millennium BCE, will be the subject of our full day of touring today, which will include the National Museum, which displays the finds from Mari and Ebla, the Grand Mosque and Citadel. We will have a walking tour of the charming old Armenian Quarter and wander through Aleppo’s colorful souks.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch

Thursday, April 1/October 14: ALEPPO: Today we will travel north of Aleppo to an area known locally as the “Dead Cities,” cities abandoned sometime after the Byzantine period. We begin by visiting the Church of Qalb Lozeh, which anticipates many features of the European Romanesque and influenced the architecture of the Church of St. Simeon, our second stop. Touring continues at the adjacent rock-cut Roman tombs, and the extraordinary tell of ’Ain Dara, whose acropolis is crowned with a fine temple and beautifully preserved basalt reliefs. Although still under excavation, six settlements dating to the 9th-century BCE and earlier have been identified.
Meals: Breakfast &, lunch

Friday, April 2/October 15: DEIR EZ-ZUR: Following the course of the great Euphrates River, we travel through the desert, stopping to visit the ruins of Resafa, one of the best-preserved fortresses from the Byzantine period, and the lovely Castle built by Queen Zenobia at Halabieh. We overnight on the Euphrates at the Furat Cham Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Saturday, April 3/October 16: PALMYRA: Our touring today begins with the military colony settled around 300 BCE by Macedonian war veterans, Dura Europos. Though little survives from this early period, we will see certain Hellenistic features in the later Parthian and Roman phases. We know our next site, Mari, through its correspondence with trading partners Hazor, Cyprus and Hattusas. After exploring the ancient streets and temples and the Zimri-Lim Palace, we visit the museum in Deir ez-Zur and continue to the Palmyra Cham Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Sunday, April 4/October 17: HAMA: A full-day visit to the vast ruins of the Roman caravan city of Palmyra. We will explore its lovely colonnaded streets, temples and well-preserved funerary monuments as well as the tower tombs, hypogeum and houses or temple tombs. After lunch, we will visit the museum and then depart for the Cham Hotel in Hama. There will be time this evening to stroll along the Orontes River and view some of the town’s famous norias (waterwheels).
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Monday, April 5/October 18: DAMASCUS: We will depart Hama early, crossing into Lebanon for an exciting day at Baalbek. Although this city has a long association with the worship of Baal, little is known of it before it was settled by the Greeks, who called their town Heliopolis. Baalbek rose to grandeur during the first three centuries CE, when the Romans built their massive temples and pilgrims came from all over the Roman Empire to consult Baalbek’s famous oracle at the Temple of Jupiter. We will have ample time to explore the site and visit the site museum. After completing our touring, we cross the border back into Syria and return to Damascus and the Sheraton Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch

Tuesday, April 6/October 19: DAMASCUS: Our tour this morning begins at Al Azem Palace, built in 1749 by the Ottoman governor of Damascus. The complex now serves as a museum displaying Arab/Turkish domestic architecture and household furnishings. We then walk along Straight Street, the major east to west thoroughfare since Hellenistic and Roman times. We will stop to visit the Ananias Church and other monuments along the way. The remainder of the day will be at leisure to return to the museum and wander in the souk.
Meals: Breakfast

Wednesday, April 7/October 20: AMMAN: Our last visit in Syria will be the famous Roman theater in Bosra. We then cross into Jordan and, after stopping for lunch, visit ancient Pella, of the Decapolis. We will also explore the recently excavated temple on the tell. This exciting day ends in Amman at the Marriott Amman Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Thursday, April 8/October 21: AMMAN: Today touring begins with the fine collection at the National Museum and the hilltop ruins of the Temple of Hercules and the Roman Theater. We will then visit the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR), where we will have an opportunity to tour the facility and learn about their current activities. We then drive north of the city to visit Jerash, an exceptionally well-preserved Roman provincial city. We will see remains of the ancient city from the time of the Roman general Pompey, the Triumphal Arch of Hadrian and churches built during the rule of Justinian.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch

Friday, April 9/October 22: AQABA: Leaving Amman behind we stop at Madaba to view a unique mosaic map of Palestine made around 560 CE. We continue south via the east Dead Sea road, stopping in the Mujib Gorge for its spectacular vistas, and at the new Lot’s Museum. We will arrive into Aqaba in the late afternoon and check into the beachfront Movenpick Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Saturday, April 10/October 23: PETRA: After visiting the Aqaba Museum, touring continues in the Islamic period town of Aila, the Ottoman fort and Roman Aqaba. We then drive north to Wadi Rum, whose spectacular landscape is formed by a sequence of parallel faults forming valleys shaped by giant granite, basalt and sandstone mountains. Our touring will include the Allat temple, the remains of what may have been a palace or sacred bath and some of the numerous petroglyphs and Nabataean, Thamudic and Old South Arabic inscriptions, which may have been written by traders coming from as far as present-day Yemen. Our arrival at the Mövenpick Hotel will be in time to enjoy the changing colors of the sun setting on the cliffs of Petra.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Sunday, April 11/October 24: PETRA: The full day will be devoted to the exploration of this breathtakingly beautiful city, carved into rose-colored sandstone. Few sights in the world rival one’s first glimpse of the Treasury viewed from the Siq. During our two-day stay here we will visit all of the accessible monuments of the ancient city with some time free for those who wish to climb to some of the city’s less-accessible places. This evening we will gather for our farewell dinner at the hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Monday, Tuesday, April 12 & 13/October 25 & 26: AMMAN: This morning will be at leisure to reenter Petra and climb to the High Place of Sacrifice. Here we will see altars and sacrificial pits cut into the rock as well as the remains of buildings that probably housed the priests. The views out over the city are spectacular. After lunch, we drive back to Amman with time to relax at the Marriott Hotel before our flight home.Our British Midland Airlines flight departs early Tuesday morning, arriving into London midday.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch