Late afternoon in the dead city of Serjilla

Serjilla is a late Romano-Christian township in northern Syria. It was abandoned, along with hundreds of other contemporary settlements, at the beginning of the 7th century when the consumer markets of olive-oil-hungry Antioch and Apamea began to break down.
Arguably the most evocative of the 'dead cities', Serjilla's villas and farmsteads lie scattered on terraces around its ancient fields. It has a church, a large public baths, industrial-scale oil presses and a tavern where the inhabitants would carouse after a hard day in the olive groves.