We started our day at 8am with breakfast, then met up with our guide Ahmad at 9am before driving to Shahba, which is 90 km from Damascus. This city goes back to the 3rd Century AD, built by a Roman Emperor called Philip The Arab.

Philip ruled from AD 244 till 249, and was the only Roman Emperor who was purely Arab.The city has a little theatre, now a museum, which has four original mosaics that have never been removed or restored; these mosaics are masterpieces which are well kept and good examples of so many other masterpieces of the Roman world in Syria.

Then we moved on to another site not far away called Kanawat; another Roman city that has temples which were rebuilt as churches. The city, which is built with basalt like all sites south of Syria, is an example of many other cities everywhere in the area of Jabal Alarab and Huran.

Later we drove to Bosra, our big destination for the day which has the world's best preserved Roman theatre. The city is still inhabited and has a combination of Nabatean Roman Christian and Islamic site on the same spot.

We later drove back to our hotel in Damascus and after resting for two hours, we went to the Mosque or Shrine of Seidah Zeinab, a place many Bahrainis like to visit, especially in summer. This is a holy place for many Muslims all over the Islamic world as it contains the tomb of Zeinab, grand daughter of Prophet Mohammed.

We had a traditional Iraqi dinner at one of the restaurants in the area, then headed back to our hotel.

Ali Mushaima