Damascus - old city

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Today was set aside for a tour of the old city of Damascus. We were due to meet our tour guide at 11am, so we wandered into the walled old city and up the main souk. One of the girls who had not come with us the day before mentioned a shop selling handicrafts so we made our way along the Via Recta (straight street), a Roman road running the length of the old city and had a look around before coming back to the main mosque. The Omayyd Mosque is famous for its age and various shrines and tombs located close by. We had a few chats with our tour guide around the mosque; amusingly he wasn't wearing socks so he put some of his papers on the floor to insulate his feet from the cold stone floor - which drew some amused glances from passing locals.
He then took us for a walk to find some lunch and then left us to our own devices for the afternoon. We visited the Christian quarter and the Cathedral of St Paul (where he was lowered to escape something or another once upon a time). Neither was very interesting. More enjoyable was a shrine to a daughter of one of Muhammed's desecendents which was beautifully decorated. Conversely, Saladin's tomb nearby was virtually impossible to find and very low-key. We bought some ice creams from the main souk and then headed back to our hotel. I had a look at the nearby handicrafts market, but this had nothing different to the other shops we'd walked past during the day.
Half the group had dinner at an empty restaurant where a dervish dancer occasionally did his stuff. Neither the meal or the dancer were particularly good and the fact we'd split the group in half (the others ate in a nicer restaurant) on the last night when we were all together with the same guide was a bit of a shame.

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Photos

Statue of Saladin
Statue of Saladin outside the main souk in Damascus