Azar Cemeteries of Amrit (Tartus)

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Azar Cemeteries are located in the level land between Tartous and Amrit, on the western side of the road under the sand dune. Dated back to the Phoenician and the Hellenistic periods Azar cemeteries are the cemeteries of Amrit and Arwad inhabitants and they were used in the Greek then the roman periods.

All the historic information about Azar cemeteries mentioned in this text are taken from the Syrian Archeological Annals folders issued by the Directorate of Antiques and Museums in Damascus.

Azar cemeteries are 5 kilometers, south of Tartous. 2 kilometers from the Ancient Amrit to the north. ½ kilometers from the seaside.
No one knows the origin of the name – Azar - of that area covered with sand dune 3-5 m range height.

Some spaces in the cemeteries are rich in pottery fragments.
The responsible people for constructing Tartous port were in need for sand since 1965 so they were taking it from that area. No one knew that there was a cemetery under the sand stretched along unlimited distance.

With the increase in moving the sand, new features of the cemeteries started to appear. It is widely believed that the cemeteries are related to Arwad island inhabitants facing this site. This idea has come because there is no sign of cemeteries in Arwad dated back to the same era of the mentioned cemetery according to the Archeologist Ernest Renan studies 1862.
The cemetery is composed of three kinds of tombs:
1- The single tombs with stony sepulchers.
2- The single tombs with clay coffin (tomb 2, tomb3).
3- The Family Tombs (tomb D).
4- Other tomb samples were excavated by the existing mission.

The Single Tombs:

The tomb is made of big sand stones. It can be found among other Tombs. A complete skeleton was found in one of them and it is now endanger due to using bulldozers to remove the rubbish (from the dump place that has been placed on that area).