Homs, Syria's third-largest city, sits at a strategic crossroads between Damascus and the coast, in a wide plain watered by the Orontes River. For centuries it was a trading hub; the old city's souks, mosques, and ancient quarters reflect layers of Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman presence.
The city has long been important to both Christianity and Islam. The Great Mosque of Al Nuri stands on what may have been a Temple of Baal and later a Byzantine church. The Church of Umm al-Zunnar (the Virgin's Girdle) is one of the oldest churches in the world still in use. The covered souks in the old quarter date from Ayyubid and Mamluk times and are worth an unhurried afternoon.
Just west of Homs, the Crac des Chevaliers — Qal'at al-Hosn — is among the best-preserved medieval castles anywhere and was once called by Lawrence of Arabia "perhaps the best preserved and most admirable castle in the world." It sits 650 metres above sea level commanding the Homs Gap, the historic corridor between the Syrian interior and the Mediterranean coast.