Al-Quṭayfa

Al Qutayfah stands northeast of Damascus on the route through the Qalamoun towards Homs and Aleppo. Its position made it a stopping place for travellers crossing between the capital's fertile hinterland and the drier country to the north. A large Ottoman caravanserai, with a courtyard enclosed by stone buildings, recalls the importance of this road to the movement of people and goods.

In the late sixteenth century, the Ottoman statesman Sinan Pasha endowed a complex at Al Qutayfah that included the caravanserai and a mosque. Such buildings offered shelter and a place of worship along a route used by merchants and other travellers. The complex joined a chain of establishments connecting Damascus with northern Syria and gave the small settlement a prominent architectural landmark.