Travels - > Middle East - > Syria & Lebanon - > Rusafah
RUSAFAH
(SERGIOPOLIS)
Still encircled by tall boundaries of pink stone with chalky inclusions with extraordinary shines, the city appears in distance as a mirage in the desert. City of ancient origin, has remembered in the Bible with the name of Resef. In Roman and Byzantine epoch it was flourishing and it was here that St. Sergius suffered the martyrdom around in 305 A.D. In his honor the city assumed the name of Sergiopolis and it became destination of pilgrimages. In 616 it was conquered by the Persians and then it passed in Arabic hand. Under the Umayyad dynasty and subsequently of the Abbasidis, the city returned to be an important center of production and exchange. Conquered by the Mamelucchis, the city was forcedly abandoned by the population.
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