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The limestone massif extends to the east of the lower course of the river Orontes and the depression of the
Amiq, between Djebel Zawyeh and Djebel Semaan. On these heights and in the valleys separating them there are no
less than seven hundred villages of the Roman and Byzantine times. Their constructions are well preserved as life
began to flow back here about 1200 years ago.
There are numerous and sometimes very imposing religious constructions, pagan (Roman), but mainly Christian. A
fanatic bursts of devotion and even of mysticism stirred northern Syria in the 5th century. Monasteries were particularly
numerous in the plain of Ed-Dana and its surroundings, along the road from Aleppo to Antioch.
Prompted by the reputation of high virtue of Saint Simeon Stylites (from Stylos, pillar in Greek), crowds of pilgrims
came to Djebel Semaan, to the column where he lived for 42 years until his death in 459. It is precisely on this
spot that you will visit the most fabulous and admirable paleo-Christian monument of the Orient, today referred
to as Qalaat Semaan. It forms a vast compound of buildings Including an immense four-winged basilica, a monastery
with another church, a martyrion and other outbuildings.
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