Enrich Your Travels with Longitude

We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.

SIGN UP FOR

Longitude News

Get our monthly e-mail update

GET A

Catalog

• DESTINATIONS
  • Polar Regions
  • North America
  • Middle America
  • South America
  • Northern Europe
  • Southern Europe
  • Mediterranean
  • Middle East
  • Africa
  • Central & East Asia
  • South Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • Australia & The Pacific
• FAVORITES

MIDDLE EAST

Syria

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

• E-MAIL
• PRINT

Kids

Books for

Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Item EXSYR4. Buy these 4 items as a set for $71 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

ADD SET
TO BOOKBAG

Bradt Guide Syria

by Diana Darke

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2010
• PAPER
• 336 PAGES

This newly revised guide covers Syria's many cultural and historical sites as well as practical details. (SYR17, $25.99)

Syria, A Historical and Architectural Guide

by Warwick Ball

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2010
• PAPER
• 254 PAGES

With site plans, maps and a section of color photographs, Ball's compact handbook covers Syria's wealth of archaeological sites in authoritative detail. (SYR06, $19.95)

The Bread of Angels

by Stephanie Saldana

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2011
• PAPER
• 320 PAGES

Ostensibly in Syria on a Fulbright, the 26-year-old Stephanie Saldana seeks solace at a desert monastery, reads the Qur'an with a prominent woman scholar (a chic Sheikha), teaches at a madras -- and falls in love. Full of memorable characters, this illuminating memoir is also a delightful portrait of life in the old Christian district in Damascus. (SYR20, $15.00)

Syria Map

by Freytag & Berndt

• 2010
• MAP

A full-color road map at a scale of 1:700,000 with an inset of Aleppo and Damascus. (SYR26, $14.95)

 

Also Recommended

Culture Smart! Syria

by Sarah Standish

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2010
• PAPER
• 168 PAGES

A pocket guide to local customs, etiquette and culture with a short overview of the land and people. (SYR23, $9.95)

Lonely Planet Syria & Lebanon

by Siona Jenkins | Ann Jousiffe

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2008
• PAPER
• 436 PAGES

This practical guide in the popular series includes a terrific overview of history, culture and attractions, as well as helpful travel information. (LBN03, $22.99)

National Geographic Atlas of the Middle East

by

• REFERENCE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 128 PAGES

These maps graphically illustrate the history, politics, people and resources of the Middle East. With 40 photographs and 80 maps, including a two-page spread on each of the 16 nations. (MDE71, $21.95)

Places in Syria

by Francis Russell

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Francis Russell includes 57 diverse places across Syria from the walled city of Damascus to Krak des Chevaliers, monasteries, mosques, Mameluke monuments and Ottoman-era wonders in this illustrated pocket tour. (SYR24, $24.95)

A History of the Arab Peoples

by Albert Hourani

• HISTORY
• 2010
• PAPER
• 624 PAGES

Called a landmark, masterpiece and essential to understanding the Middle East, Hourani's acclaimed chronicle of the political, spiritual, religious and cultural traditions of the Arab peoples is brought up to date with an afterword by noted Islamic scholar Malise Ruthven. (MDE11, $20.00)

Damascus, Taste of a City

by Marie Fadel | Rafik Schami

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2010
• PAPER
• 336 PAGES

With the exiled novelist in Germany and his sister at home in Damascus, the two collaborated, largely by telephone, to create this evocative ode to the city, its flavors, wit and wisdom around a cultural-culinary walking tour. With many recipes, history, gossip and lore. (SYR13, $11.95)

Dreams and Shadows, The Future of the Middle East

by Robin B. Wright

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2009
• PAPER
• 480 PAGES

Wright reports on the ideas, movements and obstacles to change in this incisive portrait. With chapters on the Palestinians, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Morocco. (MDE150, $18.00)

From the Holy Mountain, A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East

by William Dalrymple

• RELIGION
• 1999
• PAPER
• 496 PAGES

In this beautifully written hymn to Eastern Christianity, Dalrymple follows the journeys of ancient monks and scholars through Istanbul, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. (MDE49, $20.00)

Greater Syria, The History of an Ambition

by Daniel Pipes

• HISTORY
• 1992
• PAPER
• 240 PAGES

A scholarly, modern history of Syria and Pan-Syrianism, from before World War I through the 1980s. (SYR09, $60.00)

Islam, The Straight Path

by John L. Esposito

• RELIGION
• 2010
• PAPER
• 304 PAGES

A well-written survey of the faith, practice and beliefs of Islam. It's a balanced tone intended for an undergraduate audience, yet it also functions as an excellent overview for the general reader. (MDE22, $54.95)

Southern Frontiers, A Journey Across the Roman Empire

by Don McCullin

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 272 PAGES

Roman sites, both world famous and obscure, from Syria and Lebanon across North Africa to Morocco, Algeria and Libya are presented in gorgeous black-and-white splendor in this collection of oversized photographs by the celebrated Don McCullin. Historian Barnaby Rogerson supplies the accompanying text. (MED172, $69.95)

The Desert and the Sown

by Gertrude Bell | Rosemary O'Brien

• EXPLORATION
• 2008
• PAPER
• 368 PAGES

A fierce explorer and archaeologist, lyrical writer and cunning politician, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) spent much of her life traveling throughout present-day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan & Israel. (MDE59, $12.95)

Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell

by Janet Wallach

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2005
• PAPER
• 419 PAGES

A lively biography of Gertrude Bell, a Middle East adventuress, and formidable personality in colonial Britain. (MDE37, $17.00)

Empress Zenobia, Palmyra's Rebel Queen

by Pat Southern

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2009
• HARD COVER
• 216 PAGES

The subject of fantasy and fiction, Pat Southern's lively portrait of Empress Zenobia, the celebrated 3rd-century Queen of Palmyra (present-day Syria) hews carefully to what is known of her life and times. (SYR19, $39.95)

The Other Side of the Mirror, An American's Travels Through Syria

by Brooke Allen

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 250 PAGES

In this personal book, Allen shows a welcoming and courteous country with stunning ancient cities, Crusader castles and Bronze Age ruins. (SYR25, $18.95)

Damascus Nights

by Philip Boehm | Rafik Schami

• LITERATURE
• 2010
• PAPER
• 268 PAGES

Set in Damascus in 1959 and told as a collection of seven tales, this novel recalls the glories of Syria as they fade in the face of modernism. (SYR31, $15.00)

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled

by Dorothy Gilman

• MYSTERY
• 2001
• PAPER
• 224 PAGES

A young American woman disappears in Damascus, so the CIA puts feisty grandmother Mrs. Pollifax on the case in this entertaining mystery. (MDE152, $7.99)

Syria, Through Writers' Eyes

by Marius Kociejowski

• ANTHOLOGY
• 2006
• PAPER
• 306 PAGES

William Dalrymple, Barnaby Rogerson, Colin Thurbron and Gertrude Bell are all included in this absorbing collection which captures the history, people, ruins and deserts of Syria. (SYR27, $33.95)

• JOIN OUR PARTNERS
• Why us?
• Make a Reading Guide

• ABOUT US
• The People
• The Business

• SMALL PRINT
• Customer Service
• Ordering
• Shipping

• CONNECT
• E-mail News
• Get a Catalog
• Longitude Blog
• Contact Us