Welcome to Damascus, the capital of Syria, poetically known as the City of Jasmine. It lies on a plateau at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon mountains, about 80 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, with the Barada River flowing through it. First settled in the 3rd millennium BC, it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and it is described as the oldest capital city in the world. From 661 to 750 it was the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, and it remains a major cultural centre of the Levant and the Arab world. Let us begin at its greatest mosque.
Umayyad Mosque
Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsStep respectfully into the Umayyad Mosque, one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. This site has been a place of worship since the Iron Age: first an Aramean temple to the rain god Hadad, then a Roman temple of Jupiter, whose inner walls still form the mosque's walls, and later a Christian cathedral. The caliph al-Walid the First built the great mosque here over nine years. Look up at the gold mosaics of plants and trees. They once covered some 4,000 square metres, likely the largest such mosaics in the world.
Citadel of Damascus
Photo: Mewes at German Wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsIn the northwest corner of the old city walls stands the Citadel of Damascus. The site was first fortified in 1076, and in 1174 Saladin captured it and made it his residence. His brother al-Adil rebuilt it completely between 1203 and 1216, in response to a new weapon, the counterweight trebuchet. Its walls enclose an area of 230 by 150 metres and were once guarded by 14 massive towers, of which 12 remain. Over the centuries it served as a palace, barracks and prison, before excavations and restorations began in 1986.
Al-Hamidiyah Souq
Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsWalk beneath the tall metal arch of the Al-Hamidiyah Souq, the largest and central market of Syria, stretching about 600 metres beside the Citadel. It was built around 1780 during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid the First, following the line of the old Roman route to the Temple of Jupiter, and later extended under Abdul Hamid the Second. At its far end, the ancient columns of that Roman temple frame the way to the Umayyad Mosque. Back in 1898, a travel handbook noted confectioners here selling ices that were very popular.
Al-Azm Palace
Photo: krebsmaus07 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia CommonsEnter the courtyards of Al-Azm Palace, built in 1749 as the private residence of As'ad Pasha al-Azm, the governor of Damascus. It took 800 workers three years to build, on the site of an earlier Mamluk palace, and it is a monument to 18th-century Arab architecture. A local barber wrote in his diary that whenever the governor heard of a rare piece of marble or porcelain, he sent someone to fetch it, with or without the owner's consent. Today the palace houses the Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions.
National Museum of Damascus
Photo: Schumeru · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsPass through the reconstructed gate of an Umayyad desert castle from 727 and you enter the National Museum of Damascus, the largest museum in Syria. Founded in 1919, it covers more than 11 millennia of Syrian history, with major finds from Mari, Ebla and Ugarit. One of its highlights is the Dura-Europos synagogue, dated to 245, which was moved here piece by piece and is known for its vivid wall paintings. Among more than 5,000 cuneiform tablets is the first known alphabet in history, the Ugaritic alphabet, written on clay.
Straight Street
Photo: Detroit Photographic Company · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsYou are walking along Straight Street, the old main east to west road of Damascus, running right across the old city for about 1,500 metres. It was first laid out in the Seleucid period, when the city was given a grid of streets. Christians know this street from the New Testament: according to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul the Apostle stayed in a house on Straight Street. Today its western half is known as Midhat Pasha Street, while the eastern half leads to the Bab Sharqi gate.
Lomakuume
