Raqqa
Rusafa is the walled city of Sergiopolis in the desert south-west of Raqqa, about 30 km from the Euphrates. In late antiquity it grew into a major pilgrimage…
Rusafa is the walled city of Sergiopolis in the desert south-west of Raqqa, about 30 km from the Euphrates. In late antiquity it grew into a major pilgrimage town and was fortified by the emperor Justinian in the sixth century with massive walls of gleaming gypsum stone. Under the Umayyads, the caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik made Rusafa his favoured residence, building palaces outside the walls and a congregational mosque inside the city. The walls still stand almost complete around a great rectangle, enclosing the remains of churches, vast cisterns, the Umayyad mosque and the market. Hisham's residence outside the walls has its own listing, Home of Caliph Hisham (Rusafa).