The history of Homs is marked by the four Homs women who became Roman Empresses -Julia Domma, Julia Maesa, Julia Mammea and Julia Soemia. Furthermore, Homs has the glorious status of being the birthplace of the man who was declared Roman Emperor in 218 by legionaries based in Syria.

Half-way between Damascus and Aleppo and at the beginning of the rich Orontes valley, Homs commands the famous "gap" between the Syrian coast and the hinterland.

In Homs there are a theater, an arab cultural center, and a folklore and archeology museum, where works of art from different eras are exhibited. The fortified walls have disappeared from two half-ruined gateways incorporated into neighboring buildings -the Damascus and Tadmor Gates. The Great Mosque, on the continuation of the Hama road, near the eastern entrance to the souks, has a minaret of some elegance.

Homs contains a very spectacular mausoleum containing the tomb of Khaled Ibn Al Walid, the commander of Muslim armies who brought Islam to Syria.