Syria has been home to Muslims, Christians, and other communities for longer than almost anywhere on earth. This is who they are, where they worship, and how to visit with respect.
What religion is Syria? The large majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims. Alongside them live Christian communities of many denominations, Alawites, Druze, Ismailis, Twelver Shia, and a small Yazidi population, with a Jewish history stretching back millennia.
Each community has its own full page: who they are, what they believe in plain terms, their history in Syria, and where they live.
The majority of Syrians, across every region and city.
Orthodox, Catholic, Syriac, Armenian, and Assyrian churches, present since the first century.
A community rooted in the coastal mountains, central to modern Syrian history.
A distinct monotheistic faith with roots in the 11th century, concentrated in the south.
A branch of Shia Islam with a long history in the castles of the central mountains.
A smaller community, with major shrines that draw pilgrims from across the region.
An ancient faith of the Kurdish-speaking northeast, among Syria's smallest communities.
Communities in Damascus and Aleppo for over two thousand years, now largely emigrated.
Mosques, churches, monasteries, and shrines, many of them among the oldest of their kind anywhere.
One of the oldest and largest mosques in the world, holding a shrine to John the Baptist.
The shrine of the Prophet's granddaughter, a major pilgrimage destination.
Where the road to Damascus ended, and where Paul was baptized.
Cliffside monasteries in the last town where the language of Jesus is spoken daily.
One of the oldest monasteries in the Christian world, revered by Muslims and Christians alike.
Founded in the 8th century, its minaret lost and now being rebuilt.
Built around the pillar where a 5th-century saint lived for 37 years.
Home to the oldest known Christian house church and a synagogue covered in paintings.
Among the oldest surviving mosques in the world, built in the 8th century.
Syria's holy places have rarely belonged to one faith alone.
Built on the site of a Byzantine cathedral, it still holds a shrine to the head of John the Baptist, Yahya in Islam, venerated by Muslims and Christians alike.
Muslim and Christian pilgrims alike have visited the monastery's icon of the Virgin for centuries, a tradition that continues today.
Nabi Habeel, in the hills west of Damascus, is revered across Muslim, Christian, and Druze traditions.
Syrians are welcoming to visitors at their holy places. A few simple courtesies go a long way.
Since the change of government in December 2024, Syria has begun rebuilding a public life in which every community has a place. Restored churches and mosques are reopening side by side, and the communities that endured thirteen years of upheaval are writing the next chapter together. This site documents that story as it unfolds.
Syria is majority Muslim, predominantly Sunni, and has been home to Christian and other communities continuously for nearly two thousand years.
Yes. Visitors of all faiths are welcome outside prayer times, with modest dress required and abayas provided for women.
In Maaloula and two neighboring villages north of Damascus, where a form of Western Aramaic survives as a living language.
The house church at Dura-Europos, dated to around 235 CE, is the oldest known Christian house of worship anywhere.