Inside Umayyad Mosque

Damascus

---

December 2nd 2009
Damascus Well I left Palmyra in my usual slow, faffing kind of way. No crack-of-bloody-dawn starts for me! The previous night I'd met up briefly with my Brazilian friends who bragged about the best falafel they had ever had, picked up from a little stand just across from my hotel. Starving as I was, and fed up of paying tourist prices for meals (delicious though they may be), I rac ... read more

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus

---

Following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Syria was administered by the French until independence in 1946. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel. Syrian troops - stationed in Lebanon since 1976 in ... ... read more