Mar Takla Church

Lattakia is famous for its archeological monuments and tourist destinations which reflect the City\’s historical and humanitarian deep-rootedness and its cultural and spiritual diversity.

Mar Takla Church and Cemetery are the most important archeological, historical and religious features of Lattakia Province.

Mar Takla Cemetery is very vast as it encompasses family graves dating back to the Classical Era in the 1st Century AD, which contain primitive ecclesiastical features which thought to be used by Saint Takla as a place for worshiping.

Before a century and a half, the site was used by the inhabitants as a store for provisions and breeding livestock and poultry.

The cemetery consists of a large room carved in grits, and it can be entered through 115-cm long and 30-cm wide stairs made of stones which descend towards the cemetery with an angle of 120 degrees

Near the door of the cemetery, one can see a vast a square-shaped hall with dimensions of 410×410 cm surrounded by a 50-cm high and 40-cm wide threshold leading to 13 burial chambers distributed among the four walls of the cemetery.

One can also see five holes carved in the walls of the cemetery that were used for the lanterns and the funerary tools.

The site also includes the Classical Grave which has attracted the attention of several international Arab and foreign and archeologists.