3 Items
Baghdad Gate of Raqqa
The C8th Baghdad Gate of Raqqa was built in the Abbasid period and is the only part of the early Islamic city walls still extant, although its fate is currently unknown due to the presence of the so-called Islamic State in the city.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Abbasid, Architecture, Baghdad Gate, Brick, C8th, City gate, Raqqa, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Wall
Raqqa Museum
The highest status objects from regional excavations were taken to Damascus and Aleppo, but the Raqqa Museum housed less significant artefacts in a small colonial-era building. These pictures were taken quickly as an experiment in dim winter light, but are included here as all finds in the museum are now presumed destroyed or looted.
Type: Archaeological Find
Tags: Mosaic, Museum, Raqqa, Sculpture, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Resafa 1997 visit
These images were taken at Resafa in February 1997. It was pouring with rain and this affected the quality of the images, as did the fact that both the black and white images and the slides were developed badly in Syria. The visit was made in the company of Fr. Na'aman, a Rum Orthodox Archimandrite who ministered to all Christians in Raqqa and who appears in some of the images.
Most of the images show the basilica that dominates the city as the most substantial building still extant and that became the centre of the cult of Mar Sarkis (St. Sergius) after the partition of the city under Islamic rule. An early mosque abuts the north side of the basilica, but was not built to the same high standard and now little remains.
The rest of the pictures show the city walls and the Sura Gate (North gate) to the city.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Church, Early Islamic, Gate, Late Antique, Martyrium, Mosque, Raqqa, Resafa, St. Sergius, Sura, Syria, Wall