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The Dead Cities are a group of 700 abandoned settlements in northwest Syria
between Aleppo and Hama. They date back to before the fifth century B.C and
contain many remains of Christian Byzantine architecture. Important dead
cities include Qal'at Sim'an, Serjilla and al Bara. Chris Wickham, in the
authoritative survey of the post-Roman world, Framing the Early Middle
Ages(2006) argues that these were settlements of prosperous peasants which
have few or no specifically urban features. The impressive remains of
domestic architecture are the result of the prosperity of peasants who
benefited from a strong international trade in olive oil at the end of
Antiquity.
The other arguments are that these were prosperous cities that flourished
as they were located along major trade routes in the Byzantine Empire, and
not merely prosperous peasant settlements. When the area was conquered by
the Arabs, the trade routes changed and these towns lost the majori
