The Bissos Church in the "Dead City" of Ruweiha with its latter-day congregation of shaggy sheep illustrates the under-developed nature of tourism in Syria. The church - the second largest in northern Syria and an important landmark of Byzantine architecture - has been occupied by a family of semi-nomads who have taken up residence among the ruins.
Up to now, Syria's wealth of historical sites has been vastly under-exploited, although many must be hoping that, under the new, young leadership of Bashar Assad, visitors will start streaming to one of the least spoilt yet most fascinating countries of the region.
Over the past decade, Syria has slowly been opening up to foreigners, but still only the major sites are included on tour itineraries. While coach-loads of tourists are ferried to the high-profile Roman ruins at Palmyra or the Crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers, less famous but no less spectacular sites are virtually ignored.
A week spent exploring part of Syria with a rented car, or - not too expensive - hired driver is guaranteed to be a richly rewarding experience for the slightly intrepid traveller. The Syrians are unfailingly friendly and welcoming, and in much of the country a foreigner is still a novelty, attracting crowds of children clamouring to be given sweets.
Aleppo, Syria's second largest city, makes an ideal base for exploring the surrounding area if you can ever tear yourself away from its bustling souq, one of the most colourful in the Middle East. The city has numerous hotels to choose from. Always worth putting up with the mouldering fittings to partake of its eccentric charms is the historic Baron Hotel, with a long list of famed clientele from T.E. Lawrence to the late President Assad himself.
Two American women made the mistake of looking underneath the Baron's aged mattresses, and hastily booked in to a newer but characterless hotel across the road. An indication of increasing numbers of tourists was the difficulty of finding a hotel room in Aleppo over the Easter holidays. The beautifully renovated Beit Wakil in the Christian - or Jdeide - quarter was booked up weeks in advance.
This part of Aleppo is aesthetically pleasing with its narrow, cobbled streets, and several attractive restaurants with innovative menus have recently opened. Syria is not known for its cuisine, but it is always possible to find grilled chicken - shish taouk - or kebabs. The restaurant next to the Baron's Hotel serves delicious, freshly-baked Arabic bread.
The state's apathetic approach to tourism was reflected by a visit to the Aleppo Museum, where empty spaces appeared instead of prime exhibits. In one of the halls, two attendants were boiling water for tea on a gas stove behind a row of artefacts.
Aleppo is a natural stepping-stone to the "Dead Cities" - the term used to describe over 800 towns and villages which flourished under Byzantine rule between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. These most intriguing ruins occupy a distinct geographical region of Syria - a 150-kilometre long ridge of desolate limestone hills, which begins just south of the ancient city of Antioch, now inside the Turkish border.
It would take weeks to see even a fraction of the Dead Cities, but driving across the barren landscape conjures up images of the once-prosperous rural community. A stone sarcophagus by the roadside here, a standing arch in the distance there. The entire former townships of Bara and Serjilla remain; baths, villas and pyramid-topped tombs indicating a high level of civilisation.
The area became populated when overcrowding of the fertile plains during the first and second centuries forced farmers to move into the hills, where they successfully cultivated olives and vines. When the era of prosperity under the Byzantines ended with the Arab conquest in the 7th century, the population simply abandoned their homes and moved back to the plains. The stone-built dwellings, churches and monastic complexes were left untouched. Their state of preservation has been compared with the ruins of Pompeii in Italy.
In most places Ruweiha alone would generate a small tourism industry, containing the remains of two major churches, several ornate tombs - including the only rock-cut, domed tomb still to be seen in Syria - and a colonnaded agora. Inscriptions and decorative detail can be found on lintels and above windows.
Occasionally, a caretaker is encountered behind an incongruously positioned ticket window. It is more common to disturb hens which scamper clucking from inside buildings. Families have moved into former Roman villas, clotheslines extend across courtyards and unlikely patches of wheat ripen in the sunshine.
The pull of the Dead Cities may prove irresistible, but many other sites in western Syria beckon. The mountainous terrain running parallel with the coast is peppered with fabulous castles. The coastal city of Latakia boasts some expensive hotels round a substandard Mediterranean resort. The Zenobia, a family-run hotel, makes a clean, much cheaper alternative.
The road from the coast to Masyaf castle climbs through magnificent mountain scenery of the Jebel al-Sariya. A 12th-century Assassin stronghold, the castle is crumbling but still dominates the modern town. Its rugged battlements conjure up tales of the "Old Man of the Mountain" and his ruthless Ismaeli sect who, according to popular myth, took hashish (Hashasheen) before murdering their enemies. Not a tourist was in sight.
Nor did a rush of visitors disturb the tranquillity at the Crusader castle of Margat, which rises in a great hulk of black stone above the Mediterranean. "One wanted a bicycle to ride around it," T.E. Lawrence wrote to his mother in 1909 when he went on a walking tour of 49 Crusader castles in the region while working on his thesis. Two men languidly knocked weeds off centuries-old masonry in order to prevent the spring growth taking hold.
It was almost shocking to encounter mini-buses zig-zagging down the side of the ravine that leads to Saone, also known as Saladin's castle. Lawrence described this as "the most sensational thing in castle-building I have seen." The Crusaders cut away the rock to sever the castle site from the mainland. Only a 28-metre needle of rock that supported the drawbridge still stands.
Several coaches were parked in front of the Bronze Age city of Ugarit close to the Mediterranean sea, and souvenirs were being hawked, giving it the unusual appearance of a real tourist site. More familiar were the cows and sheep grazing in the acropolis area beside Canaanite temples, their minders indolently keeping them away from excavation trenches. Italian tourists and cattle mingled happily amid remarkably preserved Bronze Age masonry.
The list of wonderful Syrian sites goes on and on, as do the pleasant memories of only having to share them - for the most part - with livestock and children. However, those who crave an escape from mass tourism should get a move on - it is only a matter of time before Syria is properly discovered.