Advertisement
We entered Syria with a surprising amount of ease, we were told expect a 6 hour wait but we got over the border in around 3 hours. The first impressions that we had of Syria was how friendly everyone was, everyone always waived to us as we drove by and tried to talk to us. The other first impression was how much more conservative it was compared to Turkey and that there seemed to be very few tourists.
Our first stop in Syria was the city of Aleppo. The city itself was interesting but, mostly it was the people who made it a special place. I have never encountered such welcoming people in my life. We spent two days in Aleppo where we went on a walking city tour which included the towns central market, ancient bath houses, and the citadel. Just walking around this great city was amazing enough. The highlight of Aleppo was the labyrinthian souq which is a giant market. In this area you could find anything, from Camel meat to hairbrushes the souq had it all.
We left Aleppo on our way to Crac Des Chevaliers which is an ancient military fortification on top
of large hill used by the crusaders. The castle itself was very impressive and well preserved, Crac de Chevaliers is also one of the only forts in the world never to be conquered. The crusaders only abandoned the castle as the armies of Islam blocked off all the suplly routes to it. Wlaking around the castle it is possible to see why as you can see for miles around and people could only get you if they stood almost directly below you.
After Crac Des Chevaliers we headed to Palmyra, this is an ancient ruin in the middle of the Syrian desert. The ruin was occupied by the Greeks the Romans and any number of different conquering parties as it lies in the middle of the ancient silk road. The ruins were very impressive and we walked around the area for a number of hours just trying to take it all in. The desert is a great place to explore ruins as they are usually very well preserved.
Next we visited Damascus which is claimed to be the oldest inhabited city in the world, this has made it into one of the most interesting cities that we have
desert highway
straight flat and nothing around.ever visited. We decided to take a guided walking tour around the city which included the local market, the Umayyad mosque (where Triona had to cover herself in a robe), the Azem palace and the Christian quarter. The history in this city is overwhelming and just walking around is amazing. It also has an amazing mix of very peaceful people with Christian and Jewish quarters in the predominantly muslim city
After visiting Damascus we headed towards the Syrian/ Jordan border and although we were only in Syria for a short amount of time we vowed to come back. The people of Syria are probably the friendliest in the world and definately the friendliest we have encountered.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 15; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0491s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
