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Published: April 18th 2009
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Syria exceeded our expections in all ways. Great food, amazing sites, good transportation, cheap and the Syrians themselves were excellent hosts. Fair prices and honest, tolerant people, what a treat!
We travelled to Damascus from Amman on a cold, dark and rainy day. Our passports were scrutinized carefully for Israeli stamps and Canadians get hammered with a 56USD charge for a 15 day visa at the border.
Our initial survey of hotels in Damascus had us worried, not what we would call budget rates, but eventually we managed to find a reasonable place. Fortunately it had a heater since nearly all of our cold weather clothes were wet and it was chilly!
Damascus is one of the oldest continuously-occupied cities in the world. A strategic point in both east-west and north-south trade routes, Damascus has been conquered and re-built innumerable times.
Syrians are a real mix of ethnicities and religions. But still we would not have predicted the number of redheads. There must be some serious Crusader genes still going strong!
Syria is known in the Arab world for its stock of fair Muslim females, highly desirable mates for rich Saudies. Though how a woman makes
the transition from relative freedom and independence in Syria to being kept and shrouded in Saudi Arabia is hard to imagine! We have heard that it often does not work at all.
Syria is home to many different faiths. Besides Muslims, there are large populations of followers of Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and other Christian religions. Generally the Christian populations have been in decline for the last 50 or 60 due to lower birth rates. Even in the cities, large families are still the norm for Muslims.
The Damascus souq is really lovely. Not just a tourist trap, the market is full of locals doing their daily haggling and shopping. The pedestrian-only lanes are lined with shops of every variety: spices, coffee, tea, nuts, candy, clothing, household goods, pharmacy items, soap, scarves and shawls, clothes, jackets, shoes, leather goods, blankets, towels, tailors’ shops, wickedly tacky lingerie...
At first it seems like there are only a few broad streets to the souq, but closer investigation reveals that there are many kilometres of busy, narrow alleyways continuing off in all directions from the main streets.
The entire old city area of Damascus is interesting with numerous mosques and churches,
city gates and walls, a Roman arch, a Jewish quarter and a Christian quarter with its popular restaurants and shops.
A two hour bus ride south of Damascus took us to Bosra one cold and dreary late winter day. Bosra is best known for its huge basalt stone Roman theatre encased in an Arab fortress. The theatre was fortified by the Ayyubids, an Egyptian-based dynasty that once ruled the area. It was built as a defensive post in response to unsuccessful Crusader attacks during the 12th century.
Next to the fortified theatre is an extensive haunting jumble of dark basalt ruins including a monastery, church, mosque, market, two sets of baths left behind from the Roman era and beyond.
Some of the ruins have been re-arranged and re-occupied by locals. Complete with tin roofs and satellite dishes it’s a bizarre mix. We read that efforts have been made to relocate these residents and restore the ruins to their proper ruinous state.
Another day trip out of Damascus took us to the pretty little town of Maalula. Maalula is known for the legend of St Thecla, an early Christian martyr who was chased and cornered against the
sheer rock wall by solders intent on executing her for her faith. When she prayed to God for assistance, a gap appeared in the rock and she escaped up the narrow siq (canyon).
We wandered up the siq and continued on up the hills surrounding Maalula on a beautiful, windy day.
The villagers of Maalula are primarily Greek Catholic and appear to live harmoniously beside Muslims and other faiths. Maalula is one of the rare places where people still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
After a few days in and around Damascus, we headed out to Palmyra, locally known as Tadmor.
Palmyra was definitely one of the standout sites of our trip, which is no small statement considering that we had been "doing" ruins for months already.
Stuck out in the desert a few hours from Damascus, the ruins of this Seleucid*-turned-Roman city cover a large area. Possibly most impressive is the 1.2 km of arched and colonaded street that runs through a series of ruins. It's humblingly huge and beautiful. The site glows golden-pink from the colour of the limestone that was used for most of the structures.
*(Seleucus I was a
former general of Alexander the Great's army and the founder of the Seleucid empire.)
There is also a large temple complex and a collection of tombs that run down through an adjacent valley. Other than the temple complex and a few of the tombs, the Palmyra site is unfenced and free. You just have to put up with a certain amount of harassment to have a camel ride or buy necklaces.
A castle, Qala'at ibn Maan, keeps watch on a hill overlooking the ancient site and the modern city of Palmyra. The Qala'at is believed to have been a Lebanese warlord's 17th century effort to challenge the Ottomans' control of the Syrian desert. It's a great place to watch the sunset across the ruins.
As the name suggests, Palmyra is also home to a large palm oasis.
Palmyra was the first really touristy town we ran into in Syria. Syrians in general were pretty low-key. In Palmyra, however, we were followed and pestered by children and adults alike. It's an example of another one of those towns that has seen better times and is suffering for lack of visitors.
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