Idleb is the capital of a mouhafazat, and this province or, more accurately, governorate, possess many archaeological tourist sites of considerable interest.

Seven million fruit trees

The surrounding countryside is most attractive: gently rolling uplands where the red soil contrasts with the green of the plants and trees. There are fruit trees everywhere: olives, carefully pruned and tended; apricots, bearing succulent fruit we may meet again in cakes in Damascus; plum trees, with small hard green fruit; pomegranates, whose orange-red flowers used to be a symbol of power and whose heavy fruit is made into a delicious and refreshing drink in the little juice-bars of Aleppo and Damascus. But above all it’s for cherries that the Idleb region is famous. Towards the end of spring small boys on every roadside offer great handfuls of bright gleaming fruit to the passer-by … for a few pence.

For its seven million tress the region provides for nearly all Syria’s requirements of fruit and olives.

In the hilly areas of this delightful region there are many sites that could be developed as "summer holiday centers". T an altitude of 800-900 meters the air is stimulating and the general climate most agreeable.

Of the several excursions worth noting in the surrounding countryside are: Ariha (15 km south of Idleb on the road from Jisr al Shughour and Lattakia) with its "Casino Jabal al-Arab’in" embowered among trees; the village itself is pleasant with a square minaret and blue lime-washed houses; Ain al-Zarqa (30 km east if Idleb) is attractively situated overlooking the Orontes, among pine and oak woods, with streams and waterfalls; Salqeen with its "Casino" on a scenic terrace (41 km north-west of Idleb); Sheikh Obed (14 km north of Salqeen), overlooking the Turkish frontier, near the charming market town of Harim.

Highly favored by Nature, this corner of Syria has always been heavily populated. Many of the "ghost towns" of Northern Syria, those evocative bare ruins on ridges that have become so arid now, are in fact within the province of Idleb.

Tal Mardikh, Ebla revisited

No one, apart perhaps from Professor Paolo Mathiae, could have possibly imagined the importance of the Tal Mardikh site when the University of Rome mission first begun excavation work there in 1964. Indeed, the professor’s determination and stubborn persistence during these digs was not simply based on a premonition, but, after preliminary studies and analyses, on the certainty that this site would prove to be fruitful.

In 1968, the discovery of a bust bearing the votive inscription of Ibbit Lim, a prince of Ebla, on its shoulder was the first evidence permitting the identification to Tal Mardikh with Ebla. This identification was confirmed by the 1975discovery of 17,000 tablets.

These 17,000 tablets and other fragments from the archives of the Ebla royal palace (dating back to the twenty-fifth century B.C.) not only revealed the existence of a hitherto unknown ancient Semitic language, but above all unveiled several centuries of third millennium history about which very little was known. There remains no doubt that Ebla was the center of the proto-Syrian culture which emerged in the third millennium in inner Syria. All elements converge to confirm this and nothing has been left to chance: the social and administrative organization is that of a large capital with international and long distance trade links.

Retracing the history of Ebla

The large number of lapis lazuli originating from the mountainous region of Badakhshan in Afghanistan and found in the royal palace, along with the Egyptian Pharaonic cups, and alabaster vases found in the courtyard of the Ebla royal palace, show that relationships between these countries were good and contact frequent.

The excavations have not only confirmed the grandeur and the importance of Ebla, but have also enabled specialists to retrace the history of this culture back to its early phase and the beginnings of urbanization… up until its apogee in around the year 2300 B.C. and its destruction by the Akkadian kings of Mesopotamia.

Ebla was resurrected during the paleo-Syrian era in approximately the year 2000 B.C., and one century later became a major political and commercial center again. Above all’ the town experienced an extraordinary period of artistic creativity up until its final destruction by the Anatolian Hittite kings in around 1600B.C. Thousands of Years of history are retraced in the museums of Damascus and Aleppo’s figurines, basalt relieves and many other wonders that ought not be overlooked.

In the recent Idleb museum consecrated to Ebla, the first Sumerian lexicon translated into Eblaite can be seen. This tablet dates from between 2350 and 2300 B.C. (79 Sumerian words translated into Eblaite, and 36 Eblaite words translated into Sumerian).