Most private houses had 2 stories and were decorated with colonnades and loggias. The necropolis was usually on the outskirts of the settlement and contained various types of tombs, some designed like temples, some carved out of rock, and others contained massive sarcophagi placed on bare earth. Many of the buildings contain  even personal wishes and invocations inscriptions which give the name of the owner or deceased members of the family and the  date of construction.

Although deserted and desolate today, the region of the Dead Cities once supported an immense and prosperous population, for it was rich in olive groves and was the hinterland of the great Christian city of Antioch. The towns and villages ("cities" is a misnomer but sounds more dramatic) lack the grid plan of ancient cities; the "Dead Cities" instead seem to be settlements that developed organically in the countryside

 Serjilla:
 (Arabic:Serjilla) is one of the best preserved of the Dead Cities in north-western Syria. It is located in the Jebel Riha, approx. 65 km north from Hama and approx. 80 km southwest from Aleppo, very close to ruins of Bara, another "dead city".
 
The settlement arose in a natural basin and prospered from the cultivation of grapes and olives. A bath complex indicates the wealth of the community. Unusually, it was built in 473, already during the time of Christianity. In 1899 an archaeological team from the Princeton University discovered a large mosaic on the main hall floor but it had disappeared when the team returned six years later. Traces of now destroyed murals were found on the walls as well. Next to the baths stands an andron, a meeting place for men. Further east there was a small church but not much remains of it. Among ruins of numerous residential houses it is worth to mention a two storey villa which still stands today. In two lower rooms one can still see an arch which would have supported the ceiling. This feature was typical in the Dead Cities. Behind the villa there is a sunken building with an olive press.
Like most other of the "Dead Cities", Serjilla was abandoned in the seventh century when the Arabs conquered the region and discontinued merchant routes between Antioch and Apamea.
 An admission fee of S?150 is charged by a guard who hovers around the parking lot on the edge of the site.