Saint SimeonQalaat Semaan, Aleppo العربية

The site and its monuments

Twelve monuments, in the order a visitor meets them: the road up, then the church, then what stands around it.

Plan of the church of Saint Simeon
Plan of the church of Saint SimeonFour wings on a central octagon with the column at its centre. The eastern wing is the longest, and deviates six degrees north with its apse.Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums
Plan of the citadel and Deir Semaan
Plan of the citadel and Deir SemaanThe whole site: church, monastery, baptistery and processional way, with the town of Telanissos on the slope below.Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums

The approach

01–02
The start of the Via Sacra at Deir Semaan, where the climb to the church begins
01Late 5th century · the processional road

The Via Sacra

The paved road that climbs from the village to the church, built so that a crowd could arrive in order.

The monumental arch on the processional road, from the west
02Late 5th century

The Monumental Arch

The ceremonial gateway on the processional road — the point at which the walk became an entrance.

The church

03–08
The octagon, twenty-seven metres across
03c. 473–490 · reign of Zeno

The Octagon

The eight-sided court at the centre of the church, built around the column so that four basilicas could meet on it.

The column of Saint Simeon at the centre of the octagon
045th century · standing before the church was built

The Pillar

The column Simeon lived on, once about eighteen metres high, now a worn block at the centre of the octagon.

The eastern wing, the longest of the four
05c. 473–490

The East Basilica

The largest of the four arms, and the one where the liturgy was actually celebrated.

The southern wing and its narthex
06476–490 · the pilgrims' front

The Southern Wing

The finest façade on the church, and the arm built to move a crowd through in one direction.

The northern wing
07476–490 · with a tenth-century burial chamber

The Northern Wing

A copy of the southern wing — and the one arm where the church buried people inside itself.

The western wing, looking out over the Afrin valley
08476–490 · altered in the 10th c. · damaged 2023

The Western Wing

The most ruined of the four, and the one you come for the view from.

The complex

09–12
The baptistery for adults, south of the church
09Late 5th century

The Baptistery

An octagonal drum raised on a square base, standing on the processional road — among the finest Christian buildings in Syria.

The monastic complex, south-east of the church
10Mid-5th century onward

The Monastery

The U-shaped convent beside the church, with cells for monks and for the students who came to study.

The wall running west of the main complex, along the crest of the ridge
1110th century · the fortress phase

The Byzantine Walls

The fortifications that turned a monastery into a stronghold — and gave the hill the name it still carries.

The monks' tombs, cut into a single rock mass
12The monastic community · north of the church

The Monks' Tombs

A cemetery cut into a single mass of rock, on two levels, with a pillow carved for the head of each man laid in it.