Visited April 2023. The first thing to understand is that Anjar is located on the Lebanese-Syrian border, a region controlled by Hezbollah, it adds additional instability. When I visited, the situation was calm, but this phenomenon is rare here, you have to watch for periods of peace. I was traveling from Beirut to Syria with a tourist group that was going to explore Syria, and I asked to see this object as well, the city is located exactly in the middle of the road between Beirut and Damascus. It is the legacy of the first dynasty of Umayyad caliphs. In Jordan, I saw palaces built by them in the desert, scientists argue about their function, and here it is not known exactly why this city was built. There is a real mix of cultures in Anjar, the general plan of a rectangular fortress with two large streets that intersect under the tetrapylon is borrowed from the layout of Roman military camps. At the same time, Byzantine masonry and decorative elements were used extensively, and thermal baths were borrowed from the Byzantines too. It is interesting that the city existed for a short time, about 40 years, and was completely abandoned when the Umayyads were defeated.