Serjilla, Syria
Posted by: 
Torgut
N 35° 40.317 E 036° 34.924
37S E 281157 N 3950257
The lost city of Serjilla is arguably the most popular amongst the group of around 700 of the Dead Cities, and the only one I could visit.
Waymark Code: WMDAK4
Location: Syria
Date Posted: 12/15/2011
Views: 9
I visited Syria during troubled times, when no other tourists dared to enter the country. As a result I visited the main sites, usually crowded with tourists, having them only for myself. Serjilla was one of the cases and I didn't even pay for the entrance as the ticket office was closed.
It's not easy to get here, and even more difficult to visit several of the Dead Cities in the same trip. There is no obvious public transportation although a local may find his way with the complex network of minivans and shared taxis. A car is a must but right now is not advisable at all to rent a car and explore alone. So we hired a taxi driver to drive us from Aleppo, passing in Serjilla, Crak des Chevaliers and spending the night in Palmyra, returning to Aleppo at noon next day, and for the whole thing we paid 160 Eur.
Serjilla was the first stop of this trip. Unfortunately the driver rushed us a bit and gave us 30 min for the visit. Geez... I could use a couple of hours, and when I returned to the car, 45 min later, I was a feeling a bit frustrated. Anyway, it was GREAT and one of the best moments of the trip to the Middle East. The misty weather helped a lot, and lucky you if you manage to be there under the same meteorological conditions! It was raining all the way there and once we arrived a miracle happened!
Some details in Wikipedia: (
visit link)
Important: the town was abandoned in the 6th Century. Please disregard the year shown in Date Abandoned as it's not possible to insert a date previous to 1000 in the variable field.