Basufan

Basufan is a remote village in the Dead Cities region of northwestern Syria, part of a cluster of early Byzantine settlements that thrived between the 1st and 7th centuries before being permanently abandoned. Its principal monument is the Church of Phokas, a late antique basilica dated to 491/92 AD, considered one of the finest early churches in the region at the time of its construction. The church's name likely references the late Roman emperor Phokas, whose reign coincided with the beginning of provincial decline across the eastern empire. Today the settlement survives as a ruin field amid the arid hills of the Jabal al-Ala plateau. The broader Dead Cities zone was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, though the designation offered limited protection during the Syrian civil war.