Ross Burns worked in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs for 37 years until his retirement in 2003, with roles including Ambassador to Syria and Lebanon (based in Damascus) from 1984 to 1987, as Minister in Paris (and Ambassador to UNESCO) and as Ambassador in South Africa (1992 95), Athens (1998 2001) and Tel Aviv (2001 2003). After his retirement, he completed a PhD at Macquarie University in Sydney on The Origins of the Colonnaded Axes of the Cities of the Near East Under Rome . He is the author of Damascus (Routledge, 2004), Monuments of Syria (3rd edition, 2009) and Aleppo: A History (Routledge 2017).