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Sorry, but I asm in Beirut, Lebanon and find that after trying to upload several photos, I find that after 12 minutes, only 3 or 4 were uploaded. I will re-do photos when I get to a more developed country. I will be in Milan June 5-11 and will try then. Very frustrating. Also, my computer heats up when plugged into various transfer plugs and with Beirut's electrical grid, so I cannot be online very long. But here is my latest write-up, taking us from southern Syria through to the wonderful northern city of Aleppo, with lots of comments on Syrian culture, women's styles with their covered Hajeb, and ruin comments on Palmyra, Krak de Chevalier, Hama, and the agricultural fields of western Syria.
May 23-26: Logistics: [written from my notes while sitting in a café in the Hamra area of the city of Beirut, Lebanon. A wonderful jazz band is rhythmically blasting away next door. Young couples stroll by, the men in jeans and t-shirts, the girls, in sprayed-on jeans and near-bare tops, a few with headscarfs. I'm sipping a good Lebanese chardonnay. Quite the change from the conservative but also-wonderful Damascus scene.]
Arrived Damascus, had brief city tour, changed from one bad hotel to another (we were purposefully not in the high-end hotel district, for reasons left unwritten for this blog. But note, I did inspect every single 5-star hotel and will stay at one in Damascus before I depart for good. Spent day on our own in Old Damascus. Drove 3 hours to Palmyra, located in the dry, very hot desert, northeast of Damascus. Overnight at large hotel with pool. Left next day to tour Krak de Chavalier and Hama. Overnight Hama. Next day drove two hours to San Simeon, located in the mountains north of Hama; then on to Aleppo. We're on the move!
Observations and Comments, and more about Syrian Arab culture:
We were crestfallen as we drove from the south into Damascus. Where was the city of our imagination? What we saw upon entry into this huge metropolis was block after block of big grey cement buildings, reminding each of us of poor eastern European, post WWII communist ideas of architecture. I had booked us into an inexpensive hotel recommended by a good friend who, like me, wanders exotic spots. Talk about drab and cheerless. This dump reminded me of the time I thought it would be fun to stay with a family right in the heart of Hong Kong = I ended up sleeping in a closet (seriously!) with a commode down the dreary hall. We moved the next morning to a more suitable hotel.
No matter. We had a rewarding day to meander in Damascus on our own. The Umayyad Mosque (c.636AD), one of the most stunning mosques I have seen in my 15 years of traveling around the Muslim world, was the first mosque built in the Islamic world. It is today considered architecturally to rank with Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock mosque.
The entire site does take one's breath away and reminds one of the depth of Islamic culture. The courtyard is vast, magnificent, decorated with beautiful Iznik tiles (originally an Istanbul style), and in constant use by Muslims of every level of faith.
Covered in long robes handed to us at the tourists' entry gate, we were free to cross the grand exterior courtyard into an equally vast interior prayer hall. At Friday prayers one might find thousands of men praying together in both areas and listening to the Imam preach.
I witnessed three Friday prayer days while traveling through Syria. On each occasion, the men and their sons were in their traditional long, crisp, clean white thaub (or jalabiyya), often also wearing their kufeyya (checked black and white, or red and white head scarf worn by men only). Women also go to the mosque, but they pray in segregated areas, or in a peaceful setting at home.
Syria is a republic and not an Islamic state. 90% of Syria's population is Muslim; 10 % are Christian, with other religions tossed into the mix, plus a 7% population of Kurds.Syrians are free to worship as they choose. In Aleppo, I was startled to find in one square block four churches and two mosques, with members of each faith passing by the other - just like in the United States.
There is no religious conflict in Syria. Syria is a peaceful state, with people of all faiths living together. The Islamic schism that divides Sunnis from Shiites in other countries, such as Iraq, does not exits in Syria. Sunnis (who make up the majority in Syria), Shiites, Druze and Alawites all live in Islamic harmony.
It is obvious, however, especially in Aleppo, the Islamic cultural capital of Syria, that the majority of Syrians are more conservative in dress, religion, and manner than in Jordan or Lebanon. From one week of observing women in the souks of Aleppo, I estimate that about 15% of Syrian women completely cover themselves in black, and nearly all other women at least cover their hair with a scarf, wearing below the neck anything from tight jeans and long-sleeved baby-doll tops (the younger women and girls), to long grey or brown coats.
I was fascinated to find my own view of the hejeb (scarf) change over the course of my visit to Syria. The western press (my nemesis now!) has given a consistent view of a woman in hejeb as one who is oppressed by her male family members. There is constant argument in political halls to ban the wearing of scarves for fear that a more strict form of Islam will raise its head. This may or may not be the case in certain countries, but in Syria the wearing by women of any conservative covering is completely her choice.
And how alluring these covered women are! We were startled in Old
Damascus when a tall, thin woman, flowing in an elegant long, thin drape of black fabric, with a similar silk-like flowing textile completely covering her face, said "Hello" to us, and "How are you?" Only through the thin slit across her sparkling eyes could we see that she was smiling and welcoming.
I spoke often in the souks with veiled women, in broken English, and found these women to be happy, chatting together while shopping either alone or with their girlfriends, and most gracious to me. There were a few older, very plump covered women who glared at me, wondering what a foreigner was doing amongst their shopping midst, but otherwise I was always accepted and rarely stared at.
And what style these woman make out of their long coats. Tiny clear crystal decorations, in elegant minimal amounts, twisted down their backs, around the wrists, across the bottom of the robes. Small crystal rhinestones on black silk are seductively beautiful. If the woman chooses not to veil her face, she wears beautiful scarves around her face and neck, some scarves with glitter, others with colorful geometric designs. Under her scarf is a piece of stiffer fabric that rests on the head to hold the scarf in place. No wonder my scarf fell off when I tried this at home!
Good, well-cut gemstones are big in the Arab world. Glitz and glam in the form of decorated textiles and jewelry are the norm. The shops are full of f beautiful dresses, each in the same long style, but different with bold colors, gemstones of every color embroidered onto silk, in the most imaginable patterns. It is these dresses that a Syrian woman wears at home. I tried to find a ¾ length tunic version to bring home, but the look is all in the long, floor-length form so as not to show any leg. Even the Bedouin country women get dressed in colorful clothing, albeit not in expensive fabrics.
The men also treated me with respect and kindness. I felt at ease walking alone nearly anywhere, up and down narrow alleyways in both Damascus and Aleppo.The men are polite, courteous, and not at all pushy. I heard that the Minister of Tourism has publicly told the merchants to not blatantly hawk their wares. The merchants in the souks of Tunis should take note!
There are practically no women shop-keepers. A conservative woman buys a bra from a man. Interesting - I would die before doing this!
The drive to visit the huge Roman ruins of Palmyra took us out of the hilly agricultural area and farther east into the vast, featureless, bone-dry and very hot desert. The 'Bagdad Café' was the only way-station for a short pit stop and a quick Pepsi. Our cameras liked neither the glaring sun nor the blazing heat.
Palmyra was a thriving city for the Romans (100 - 272AD), the Muslims, through 634. It held strategic position as a great crossroads for camel caravans coming up from Arabia (Imagine 1,000 or more ladened camels per caravan, plus 2,000 men to feed and care for.), and from regions along the Silk Trade route from the Far East through to Europe. In its heyday, it was one of the wealthiest city-states in the eastern Mediterranean. Tolls were exacted and palaces were built. Palmyra's remains today are still being uncovered from its historic sands, but one can easily see that this was one of the greatest Roman cities outside of Rome itself.
By the way, how did those crossing the desert survive for days on end without food? Like all oasis, subterranean water allowed the nutritious date palm to thrive. Bedouins know even today that in a pinch, they can exist on a healthy diet of just dates and camel milk. And so too, anyone crossing the desert in millenniums past, with a multitude of camels and goods, headed for water and dates.
We were awed by Palmyra's ruins that covered several square kilometers. Massive tombs, grand avenues lined with 30'-high pillars (reconstructed by the French in the twentieth century); and an eye-catching castle perched on a massive rock-pile overlooking all of Palmyra in its desert splendor gave reason fort Palmyra's archaeological fame.
We happily shed sand from our sandals and cooled off with several plunges into our good, clean hotel swimming pool adjacent to a large date palm grove. We were entertained in the evening by a big wind storm that caused eyes to burn with the powder of the desert - visibility dropped to less than a few hundred feet, but it all went away by the next day.
Next stop - Krak de Chavalier, a superb Crusader castle located in Syria's western mountain region. To reach it, we once again crossed the desert, heading in a northwest direction. We did pass a military air base, with several hangers buried deep into the sand so that seen from the air, one would not notice them. Big pieces of radar equipment gave the base away, but hey, we were at one point only 70 kilometers from the Iraq border!
As we rose up out of the desert and into the greener mountains, flocks of sheep occasionally crossed our two-lane country roads, a young shepard accompanying them with staff in hand. Valleys of golden wheat fields, lined with Eucalyptus trees, bordered orchards of apples, pears, peaches, almond trees, and row after row of grape vines. It seemed that every inch of this now-rich soil was planted with a crop. Syria feeds itself and exports a lot of agricultural products to Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Kuwait. One-half of the 20-million population depends upon farming for its livelihood.
The climb to one of the Mediterranean's most famous Crusader castle takes one over twisting steep roads, and naturally ends at the highest spot within this Syrian coastal mountain region. The castle is definitely a "wow"! Huge, massive, and with little historical destruction, this fortress/castle gives one a true sense of how a knight existed in the 12th century. We spent nearly two hours climbing up stone steps, around fortress walls, walking through horse stables, meeting rooms, and sitting where the knights may have sat at a "round" table. Have a look at several photographs of this place and you too can have an idea of how cavernous this intriguing place is.
We continued north through Syria's mountains and then moved east and down into the fertile OrontesValley, to the small city of Hama. It is here that one finds large wooden water wheels, built since 500AD to pump Hama's river water through a series of irrigation pipes. The water wheels are interesting to see, but we also shuddered here, knowing that in 1982, President Al-Assad, the current President Al-Assad's father, massacred more than 10,000 people in Hama in order to eradicate the festering Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Other interesting historical sites were seen as we continued north towards the city of Aleppo. St. Simion basilica was in 491AD the world's largest church. Its ruins today are in remarkable condition and give a huge sense of religious power - but in the hilltop middle of nowhere! The views from here are of rolling wheat fields, mountaintop villages with pretty needle-nose mosque minarets pushing against a blue sky. Intricate stonework can be seen amongst the fallen pillars, and in the website photo album accompanying this blog. I always wonder when I visit such collasal ruins how many men it took to complete an edifice and in how many years was the work completed. In the case of St. Simion, it took 14 years, but how did they hoist the enormous blocks of carved stone up on to another block of stone? This scene requires further studying.
We passed many more interesting ruins en route to the great trading city of Aleppo, but by this time we were "ruined" out and ready for some souk adventures. Stay tuned for more words and photographs - but I am about ready for another glass of Lebanese chardonnay - maybe I'll try a decent redwine this evening………..
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