Syria's national collection, entered through an eighth-century palace facade, and home to a third-century synagogue rebuilt room and all.
The National Museum of Damascus holds the best of what has been dug out of Syrian soil: Ebla, Mari, Ugarit, Palmyra, Dura-Europos, and the long stretch of Islamic art that followed. It opened in 1936 and sits between the Hejaz railway station and the Tekkiye mosque complex, a short taxi ride west of the Old City.
See the museum before the sites. Palmyra and Ugarit make far more sense once you know what came out of them.
Go here first, before the sites themselves. Palmyra and Ugarit make far more sense once you have seen what came out of them.
You walk in through the facade of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, an Umayyad desert palace that stood about 80 km southwest of Palmyra. It was taken down, moved and reassembled here as the museum’s front door. Most visitors photograph it without realising they are standing in a building from the 700s.
The single most extraordinary thing in the museum, and the reason art historians come. A synagogue from the frontier town of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates, its last building phase dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 CE, was lifted piece by piece in the 1930s and rebuilt inside the museum as a complete room.
Its walls are covered in figurative paintings of biblical scenes, which upends the common assumption that ancient Jewish art avoided images entirely. It survived because it backed onto the city wall and was buried when the defences were reinforced.
There is a harder reason to see it now. The original site at Dura-Europos was heavily damaged around 2014, during the war. The room in Damascus is what remains.
The collection is arranged in wings, running from prehistory to the Ottoman period: the ancient Near East, classical antiquity, Byzantine and early Christian material, Islamic art, and a section on writing and inscriptions in Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and Arabic.
The museum holds more than 5,000 cuneiform tablets, including material from Ugarit connected with one of the earliest alphabets. Alongside that sit the Yarhai hypogeum, an underground Palmyrene tomb chamber of 108 CE reassembled here, Palmyrene funerary portraits, Roman mosaics, and the Lion of al-Lat, which was brought from Palmyra for safekeeping and restored after being damaged there.
Large numbers of objects were removed from display and put into storage during the war, for good reasons, and not everything has come back. Reporting in 2026 indicates the famous Ugaritic alphabet tablets are among the pieces not currently shown.
So treat any list of highlights, including this one, as a guide to the collection rather than a guarantee of what is in the cases on the day you visit. The museum has also closed temporarily at points for security reasons and reopened again. If one object is the whole reason for your trip, ask before you go.
Subject to what is on display when you visit. Ask at the desk if one of these is the reason you came.
A complete painted room from 244 CE, moved here in the 1930s. The original site on the Euphrates was badly damaged around 2014.
The front of an Umayyad desert palace, dismantled near Palmyra and rebuilt as the museum's own entrance.
An underground Palmyrene family tomb of 108 CE, reassembled below ground level with its funerary portraits in place.
Part of a collection of more than 5,000 cuneiform tablets, tied to one of the earliest alphabets. Reporting in 2026 suggests the alphabet tablets are not currently on display.
A colossal lion that guarded a temple at Palmyra, damaged there and brought to Damascus, where it has been restored.
Doorways, columns, capitals and reliefs set out among the trees, and the easiest part of the museum to enjoy without reading a single label.
Neolithic Syria, including finds from Tell Halaf and the earliest farming villages.
Ebla, Mari, Ugarit, and the Bronze and Iron Age kingdoms. The heart of the collection.
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Syria: Palmyra, Dura-Europos, Apamea.
From the Umayyads through the Ottomans, including manuscripts, ceramics, and the Damascene room.
Syrian painting and sculpture from the twentieth century.
Sculpture, mosaics, and architectural fragments in the open air.
The museum is organised chronologically, which makes it a straightforward way to understand Syrian history before you go looking for it in the ground.
Tools, remains and evidence of settlement going back tens of thousands of years.
Ebla, Mari and Ugarit: statues, tablets, palace archives and cult objects from Syria's first cities.
The country's largest Greek and Roman collection, including Palmyrene sculpture, sarcophagi and mosaics.
Early Syriac manuscripts, frescoes and icons from the first centuries of Christianity in Syria.
Umayyad through Mamluk and Ottoman: manuscripts, ceramics, metalwork, textiles and woodwork.
Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and Arabic, which is the shortest way to grasp how many languages this country has held.
West of the Old City, near the Hejaz railway station and the Tekkiye mosque. A short taxi ride from the Umayyad Mosque, or a walk of around twenty five minutes.
Two to three hours for the main wings and the garden. Half a day if you read the labels properly.
Opening times and ticket prices have changed repeatedly since 2024, and the museum has closed temporarily on occasion. Confirm on the day through your guide or hotel.
Yes. It has closed temporarily at points since 2024, including for security reasons, and reopened again. Hours and ticket prices have changed more than once, so confirm locally on the day you plan to go.
The Dura-Europos synagogue: a complete painted room from 244 CE, moved here piece by piece in the 1930s. Its painted biblical scenes make it one of the most important survivals of ancient Jewish art anywhere.
The museum holds Ugarit material connected with one of the earliest alphabets, among more than 5,000 cuneiform tablets. Reporting in 2026 indicates those particular tablets are not currently on display, so ask before making the trip for them alone.
Two to three hours covers the main wings and the garden. Allow half a day if you want to read the labels and sit with the synagogue room.
West of the Old City, beside the Hejaz railway station and the Tekkiye mosque complex. It is a short taxi ride from the Umayyad Mosque, or about a twenty five minute walk.