diff --git a/src/externalClients/layersClient/geometryParser.ts b/src/externalClients/layersClient/geometryParser.ts
index e9c6637..a8ddfbe 100644
--- a/src/externalClients/layersClient/geometryParser.ts
+++ b/src/externalClients/layersClient/geometryParser.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ export function geographyToGeoJSON(geography: RawGeography): Geometry {
       return lineString(coords.map(toPosition)).geometry as LineString;
 
     case 'POLYGON':
+    case 'AREA':
       if (coords.length < 4) {
         throw new Error(`Polygon requires >=4 coordinates (closed ring), got ${coords.length}`);
       }
diff --git a/src/externalClients/layersClient/layersClient.ts b/src/externalClients/layersClient/layersClient.ts
index 8512e96..1c1c27e 100644
--- a/src/externalClients/layersClient/layersClient.ts
+++ b/src/externalClients/layersClient/layersClient.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import axios from 'axios';
 import { trace } from '@opentelemetry/api';
 import { asyncCallWithSpan } from '@map-colonies/tracing-utils';
+import type { Logger } from '@map-colonies/js-logger';
 import type { LayerObject, ThirdPartyResponse } from '../../types';
 import { getSyncConfig } from '../../common/syncConfig';
 import { SERVICE_NAME } from '../../common/constants';
@@ -38,10 +39,17 @@ interface GraphQLResponse {
 
 const tracer = trace.getTracer(SERVICE_NAME);
 
-function toLayerObject(raw: RawLayerObject): LayerObject {
+function toLayerObject(logger: Logger, raw: RawLayerObject): LayerObject {
+  let geom;
+  try {
+    geom = geographyToGeoJSON(raw.geography);
+  } catch (err) {
+    logger.error({ msg: 'geographyToGeoJSON failed', geography: raw.geography, err });
+    throw err;
+  }
   return {
     id: raw.id,
-    geom: geographyToGeoJSON(raw.geography),
+    geom,
     properties: {
       createdBy: raw.createdBy,
       creationTime: raw.creationTime,
@@ -56,7 +64,7 @@ function toLayerObject(raw: RawLayerObject): LayerObject {
   };
 }
 
-export async function fetchPage(layerName: string, sequence: string): Promise<ThirdPartyResponse> {
+export async function fetchPage(logger: Logger, layerName: string, sequence: string): Promise<ThirdPartyResponse> {
   const config = getSyncConfig();
 
   return asyncCallWithSpan(
@@ -84,7 +92,7 @@ export async function fetchPage(layerName: string, sequence: string): Promise<Th
       }
 
       const rawObjects = json.data[layerName] ?? [];
-      const objects = rawObjects.filter((o) => !o.deleted).map(toLayerObject);
+      const objects = rawObjects.filter((o) => !o.deleted).map((raw) => toLayerObject(logger, raw));
       const { sequence: nextSequence, deletedEntitiesCount, fetchedEntitiesCount, deletedEntitiesIds } = json.extensions;
 
       return {
diff --git a/src/handler/layerSyncHandler.ts b/src/handler/layerSyncHandler.ts
index 4747d3b..3f48b4d 100644
--- a/src/handler/layerSyncHandler.ts
+++ b/src/handler/layerSyncHandler.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ export async function fetchAndSyncLayerPage(logger: Logger, entry: ScheduleEntry
       try {
         logger.info(`Fetching page for layer "${entry.layerName}" - status: ${state.status}, lastSequence: ${state.lastSequence}`);
 
-        const response = await layerClient.fetchPage(entry.layerName, state.lastSequence);
+        const response = await layerClient.fetchPage(logger, entry.layerName, state.lastSequence);
 
         logger.info(`Received ${response.fetchedCount} objects, ${response.deletedCount} deleted for layer "${entry.layerName}"`);
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/externalClients/geometryParser.spec.ts b/tests/unit/externalClients/geometryParser.spec.ts
index be9343f..a02937d 100644
--- a/tests/unit/externalClients/geometryParser.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/externalClients/geometryParser.spec.ts
@@ -80,6 +80,27 @@ describe('geographyToGeoJSON', () => {
       ];
       expect(() => geographyToGeoJSON(geo('POLYGON', ring))).toThrow(/Polygon requires >=4/);
     });
+
+    it('accepts AREA alias as Polygon', () => {
+      const ring = [
+        { latitude: 0, longitude: 0 },
+        { latitude: 0, longitude: 1 },
+        { latitude: 1, longitude: 1 },
+        { latitude: 0, longitude: 0 },
+      ];
+      const result = geographyToGeoJSON(geo('AREA', ring));
+      expect(result).toEqual({
+        type: 'Polygon',
+        coordinates: [
+          [
+            [0, 0],
+            [1, 0],
+            [1, 1],
+            [0, 0],
+          ],
+        ],
+      });
+    });
   });
 
   describe('error cases', () => {
diff --git a/tests/unit/handler/layerSyncHandler.spec.ts b/tests/unit/handler/layerSyncHandler.spec.ts
index 1c82fde..7991ed8 100644
--- a/tests/unit/handler/layerSyncHandler.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/handler/layerSyncHandler.spec.ts
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ describe('layerSyncHandler', () => {
       const entry: ScheduleEntry = { layerName: 'obstacles', nextRunAt: 0 };
       await fetchAndSyncLayerPage(makeLogger(), entry);
 
-      expect(layerClient.fetchPage).toHaveBeenCalledWith('obstacles', '5');
+      expect(layerClient.fetchPage).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.anything(), 'obstacles', '5');
       expect(layerDataRepository.insertObjects).toHaveBeenCalledWith('obstacles', objects);
       expect(layerDataRepository.deleteDeprecatedObjects).toHaveBeenCalledWith('obstacles', ['old-1']);
       expect(syncStateRepository.updateSequence).toHaveBeenCalledWith('obstacles', '10');