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We can highly recommend a trip to Syria in October - weather pleasant (not too hot), very few tourists. 8 days on a tour were not quite enough - 10-11 would have been preferable to cover the main sights -Damascus, Palmyra (Tadmur), Mari, Dura Europos, Deir ez-Zur, ar-Rusafa, the Assad dam, Aleppo (Halab), St. Simeon's monastery ruins, Hama, Krak des Chevaliers and Ma'alula. Not actually a place to take the kids (unless they are 30+) - it's history and culture all the way, with a lot of delicious "mezzes" and cardamom coffee in between.
Damascus is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world, going back about 5000 years. The Aramaeans (1200-1150 BC), King Solomon of Israel (970-931 BC), the Assyrians (732-605 BC), the neo-Babylonians (605-539 BC), the Persians (539-333 BC), the Greeks (333-64 BC - Alexander the Great), the Romans (64 BC - 395 AD), the Byzantines (395-636 AD), the Moslems (636-1099 AD), the Crusaders (1099-1291 AD), the Mongols ((1260 AD), Saladdin and his Ayyubid dynasty ((1176-1260), the Mamelukes from Egypt (1260-1516), the Ottoman Turks ((1516-1918)) and the French (1918-1946) all ruled the country for varying periods of time. Syria became independent in 1946, at the end of World War II. For us, it was particularly exciting to make our way to "the street called straight" (Via recta in Latin), which was the Roman street that ran from the east to the west of Damascus, starting from Bab (gate) Sharqi (Roman, built in the 2nd C AD), and mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 9:10-19). Saul of Tarsus (today in SE Turkey), who had been on his way to Damascus to persecute christians and send them to Jerusalem in chains, was struck by a blinding light and lost his sight for the next 3 days. A young man called Ananias had a vision in which he was told to go to the house of Judas in the street called straight and place his hands on the blind Saul - as a result of this miraculous baptism, Saul became a christian and changed his name to Paul. He had to flee Damascus in a basket lowered over the city wall by his new disciples, as hostile Jews were on his tail. After his escape, he made it to Jerusalem, where he was befriended by Barnabas and met Jesus' disciples. It was a great experience to visit the Ananias chapel, near to where Paul had his basket adventure and also to the site of the "house of Judas", where he spent 3 days fasting after the vision on the road to Damascus. The street called straight is now being done up. There are remains of columns from Roman days, when it was a colonnaded street, all manner of picturesque small shops selling what we in the west would buy in a supermarket, as well as local copper- and silverware, Greek orthodox priests and schoolchildren in uniform. Some of the old houses were obviously gorgeous once but are now (only just) held together by metal beams.
The souk was spectacularly colourful, as one would expect in the Middle East - damascene tablecloths, beautiful inlay work, spices and unexpectedly colourful lingerie, interspersed with madrasas (schools) and hamams (baths). We had a delicious meal at a very atmospheric restaurant in the souk - Al Khawali - where the annual rainfall in this part of Syria (about 400 mm) appeared to be exceeded while we were dining. Normally, we wouldn't have noticed it but the tarpaulin that was covering the courtyard of a beautiful old mansion was missing a few vital cm at the sides - the result was a downpour in the restaurant! The waiters produced buckets pretty fast and shepherded us to another, dry table. All kinds of people were in the restaurant - Saudis in white, women in abayas, all smoking water pipes or "narghiles". This was a phenomenon we noticed again at the Noufara teahouse in the souk. According to a study conducted in Aleppo in 2003, narghile smoking is associated with more positive perceptions toward smoking in general than cigarette smoking is.
The predominant colour in October in Damascus is grey. There are traces of green every now and then, eg on the excellent road into the city from the airport, or in a back street where we, to our amazement, discovered eucalypts (gum trees) à la Australia. The Qasioun mountain dominates the city - apparently a shock for refugees from Baghdad, where everything is flat. High up on the roof of our hotel there was a superb view but again, the overwhelming impression was...grey. In the arcade entrance to the hotel was the best shoeshiner I have ever met - a Kurd with umpteen children. His friend told me in English that there are a lot of Kurds living in Damascus. The sweet shop always looked inviting and it was an effort to hold back until the day we returned and finally left Damascus. A cyber cafe around the corner put the hotel (and the situation in Syria) to shame: only one hotel on our trip (in Aleppo) had a fast, broadband Internet connection. At the others, we were either told that there was none or that it was too slow. Cyber cafes appear to be the only way to remain in contact with the world and to blog while one is actually in the country - I chose to wait and do it at home.
What other sights did we see in Damascus? The National Museum was a treasure. Its entrance used to be the facade of the Ommayad (661-750 AD) desert palace Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi near Palmyra from the 8th C. and is spectacular. The garden was dotted with architecture students who were sketching the surrounds - a refreshing sight in a country where black is the predominant colour for clothes. We were thrilled to see the reconstructed synagogue from Dura Europos (3rd C AD), a family grave from Palmyra and a clay tablet with the first alphabet ever - cuneiform, from Ugarit on the Syrian Mediterranean coast in the 14th C BC.and not discovered till 1986.
Our first lunch was at the Azem Palace, where we learnt that the Syrians enjoy pizza as much as we do, but with somewhat different flavours. Thyme pizza proved to be especially delicious and there was plenty of tea to wash it down. The palace was erected in 1749 by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, who lived in this magnificent establishment very close to the Ommayad mosque. Today, the palace is an ethnological museum with a pleasant garden with sour orange trees and bougainvillea trailing over the walls.
The Ommayad mosque is a major landmark in Damascus but to enter it, we women had to don a gown that covered us completely, actually making the scarves we had specially brought with us for the occasion superfluous. As I'm actually writing this long after our visit, I can now compare the Ommayad mosque with its counterpart in Aleppo (Halab). The Damascus one is definitely more interesting. Not only is the inner courtyard (which was originally a temple to Jupiter and then a Byzantine basilica) stunning architecturally, but there is more to be seen there. The treasure house in the courtyard, which used to contain the state's official treasure in the Ottoman period, is a jewel, and the arcades surrounding the courtyard are decorated with gorgeous mosaics. Inside, one finds a prayer hall where the basilica used to be, its main feature being a shrine said to hold the head of John the Baptist - a prophet to Moslems and a saint to christians. Then there is a room where the head of Mohammed's grandson Hussein, one of the most important Shiite martyrs, is supposed to be. There, we noticed mostly Iranian pilgrims, especially women, paying frenzied respects to Hussain, perhaps because they had lost menfolk in the Iran-Iraq war. Apparently, Khomeini promised such women a free trip to Damascus to compensate for the martyrdom in their families.
In the courtyard next to the mosque is the Moslem hero Saladin's mausoleum. The Ayubbids under the Kurd Saladin (Salah al-Din - born in Tikrit in today's Iraq) assumed power in Syria in 1176 after ending Fatamid rule in Egypt in 1171. Saladin ruled from 1176 to 1193, taking the reins in Aleppo in 1186, defeating the Crusaders in 1187 and taking Jerusalem. In 1192 he and Richard the Lionheart of England agreed to a truce. The mausoleum contains 2 coffins but the identity of the person in the second remains a mystery. The German emperor Wilhelm II presented the Syrians with the one where Saladin is lying - its appearance is much more impressive. Above them is an inscription in Arabic which, in times like these, it might be better not to include the translation of (found on the Internet).
While we were in Damascus, I didn't look at the famous Iraqi "riverbend"'s website (www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com). Now (Jan 2009), having finished reading "Baghdad Burning" - a collection of her blogs from 2003 on - and having glanced at the website, I realize that "riverbend" - a very bright, interesting young woman from Iraq, who kept the world informed in English on the situation there all through the illegal American invasion and ensuing occupation - made the tough decision, with her family, to flee their turbulent homeland in 2007 and cross the border with thousands of other Iraqi refugees into Syria and an uncertain future. The only countries prepared to take Iraqi refugees without a visa were, at that time, Jordan and Syria. "riverbend"'s current whereabouts are unknown, although one might guess that the family would now be in an English-speaking country. Who knows? Perhaps "riverbend" was even among the many Iraqi refugees in Damascus while we were there. One thing is clear - her identity will never be divulged.
Damascus was also home (one of many in her chequered career) to the Honourable Jane Digby el Mezrab, an English aristocrat who married a Bedouin sheikh in around 1853, when she was 46 and he 20 years younger. Her story can be read, briefly in "The Wilder Shores of Love" by Lesley Blanch, or at length in "A scandalous Life"by Mary Lovell. She lived alternately in the desert, in tents, with her husband, Sheikh Medjuel's tribe, and in a mansion in Damascus. In Syria she learnt Arabic, in addition to the other 8 languages in which she was fluent. Jane died in 1881 and her grave can be found at the Protestant Cemetery, where a block of pink limestone from Palmyra bears her name, written by Medjuel and carved into the stone. A small part of the mansion survived at least until fairly recently.
In case any deutschsprechende Brits or Aussies happen to read this - a snippet of much more recent history from Syria (some of what we saw was over 5000 years old!):
In der Syrien-Libanon-Kampagne im 2.Weltkrieg spielten wetterfeste, hitzegewohnte australische Soldaten eine wesentliche Rolle. Diese Kampagne war die alliierte Invasion des damals Vichy-regierten Syrien und Libanon im Juni und Juli 1941. In dieser Zeit versah mein Vater, ein junger Offizier im australischen ärztlichen Corps, etwa ein Jahr lang seinen Militärdienst in Orten wie Mersa Matruh, El Alamein, Alexandria, Kairo, Ismailia (und den Großen Bitter See), Gaza, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Sarafand (zwischen Tyre und Sidon) und Tripoli. Er war angesichts seiner Tätigkeit als Arzt nicht in das unmittelbare Kampfgeschehen involviert, sondern konnte sich gemeinhin friedlicheren Tätigkeiten wie dem Tanzen und Segeln widmen. Ein wesentlicher Teil seiner Tätigkeit betraf die von ihm damals vorgenommene Malaria Forschung an der „Malaria-Training-Schule" in Sarepta/Sarafand in Palästina. Die australische 7. Division, der er angehörte und die später, in den Jahren 1942-3 gegen die Japaner in Papua-Neuguinea kämpfte, hatte die Aufgabe, auf der Küstenstrasse von Haifa nach Beirut anzurücken. Die Stadt wurde von der 21. Brigade eingenommen, während eine indische Infanteriedivision unter dem späteren australischen Governeur-General Major-General William Slim im Euphrattal (Deir ez-Zur, dann Aleppo) aktiv war. Andere indische Truppen, die australische 25. Brigade und die Freien Franzosen schafften es nach kurzem Kampf, Damaskus im Juni 1941 zu Fall zu bringen. Die Vichy-Franzosen wurden besiegt und fuhren nach Hause, bzw. schlossen sich zum Teil De Gaulle an. Die Offensive der Alliierten hatte das Ziel, Deutschland daran zu hindern, die von den Vichy-Franzosen geführten Syrien- und Libanonmandatsgebiete als Sprungbretter für Angriffe auf die alliierte Festung Ägypten im Zuge des Feldzuges gegen Rommel in Libyen zu verwenden. Da mein Vater Munro meiner Erinnerung nach zuhause in Sydney kleine Teppiche und hölzerne Kamele aus Damaskus besaß, gehe ich davon aus, dass er und seine Arzt- Kameraden Damaskus nach dem Waffenstillstandsabkommen am 12. July 1941 besucht haben.
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