I took a 45km side trip to one of the most photogenic towns in the Middle East, Maaloula in Syria. Clinging precariously to the slopes of the bare Al-Qalamoun Mountains, at an altitude of 1, 625m in the foothills of the Anti Lebanon Range, the prominent blue dome and squat tower of the fourth-century Mar Sarkis (St Sergius) Monastery lay at its centre. Mostly inhabited by a Greek Orthodox population, Aramaic, a dialect dating from the first millennium BC and the language spoken by Jesus, was still used here. Blue or white flat-roofed houses were cradled in crevices below dun-coloured tors with aprons of green and the blue canopy of the sky overhead. Wandering the maze of narrow stepped alleys, I was struck by dwellings built close together and almost on top of each other. Little lanes wound between high stone walls and under vaults, rustic ladders leant against the sides of buildings, and a few struggling shrubs were evident in tins on any available space. One row lined the roof of a room constructed above one of the many arches braced by heavy log beams that spanned alleys. Decorated doors were recessed into stone or whitewashed stuccoed walls (even some streets were whitewashed!), and there were several towers and domes topped with crosses in this Christian community.