Come back to Syria again!

And so ends our trip through the land of cultural treasures and scenic wonders that is ash-Sham. A hearty thanks to the people of Syria, and their warm hospitality and generousity!

Make your next trip to the Arab Republic of Syria!

Sugarcane juice

A raw sugarcane juice stand in Amman Jordan (photographed the day I left).
The guy in the grey is sticking a sugar cane into the machine to be crushed and the juice extracted.
Some of the alleged benefits of the juice.

Maps of Syria and Jordan

Syria is a country of 20 million (mostly Sunni Muslim) where I spent a month trying to learn more Arabic.

To the south is Jordan, the country I landed in and departed from. It has fewer people, more affluence, more tradition, more Western tourists and has a pro-Western government.

Back to Jordan

You can take an overnight sleeper from Aleppo to Damascus for less than $7!

The catch? .... They don't have any "smoking or non-smoking" in Syria. Maybe 80% of the (male) population smokes. Mustapha here my cabin mate, was friendly and helpful like almost all Syrians, but probably a four-pack-a-day man. He had to get up at night to smoke and had four or five cigs first thing in the morning (and not some wimpy filtered cig either, Syrian cigs are HARSH).

My tutor

Great guy. He's not the one responsible for the state of my arabic knowledge. He tried.

Eid al-Adha

Today was the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most important Islamic holiday. It commemorates Ibrahim's sacrifice of a sheep instead of his son, after proving to God he was willing to do the latter.
As you might imagine, the slaughter/sacrifice of sheep holds a very important place in the holiday. I watched the sheep on the pavement here being dispatched to cries of "Allahu Akbar", as a liter or more of blood pouring from its throat into the alley's gutter. The butcher let me take the picture.

It was pretty dramatic, but if you eat meat you can't be squeamish about this stuff.

Anyway, the mutton from the sacrficees' is donated to the poor.

Armenians

Some Armenians fled south to Syria after the Turkish genocide 1915-16. A lot have done pretty well in business and the community is prosperous.

Christian Aleppo

Christians are dwindling in number in the Mideast but you can still see their churches.
These are respectively Maronite, Latin and Syrian Orthodox (I think) in the Al-Jdeida district of Aleppo.

Castle cistern

Don't want to run out of water during a siege!

Castle dungeon

Aleppo citadel

Big isn't it!

Aleppo

Aleppo is another old city of Syria. Damascus is the political capital in the south, Aleppo is in the north and more commercial. They're about the same size.

The grey thing to the left is old ramshackle wooden 2nd story window extension, the plastic and yellow scaffolding to the right is in front of an example of restored work.

Christian Damascus

Chapel of Ananias in the Christian quarter of old Damascus. It's a cellar and originally part of his house. Ananias is the Christian who (according to tradition) laid hands on Paul's eyes such that the scales fell from them and he could see again.

The street called straight

Where Paul is supposed to have met Ananais the Christian. (It's now called Mustaqeen, which is Quranic arabic for straight way.)

St. Paul's Damascus

The gate where tradition tells us Paul the apostle was lowered in a basket to escape from the Jews (?I think?) who were angry with his preaching Christianity.
This is St. Paul chapel, behind the gate, and below an engraving from it.

Sayyidah Zaynab

The mosque is a happening place, full of pilgrims singing and crying. It's a fairly new building, beautifully decorated courtesy of the Iranian Islamic Republic.
Photography is forbidden but everybody else (i.e. the Shia pilgrims) was doing it, so I figured it couldn't be too disrespectful.

Shia shrine #3

Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque about 10 miles from downtown Damascus.
Zaynab's remains are in the golden trimmed thing in the center. Zaynab was the aunt of another woman - Sayyidah Ruqayya - also buried in Damascus at a shrine frequented by Shia pilgrims, some of you may remember from an earlier post on this blog. (Click on "October" and then "Shia shrine in Damascus" )

Commies

These posters were plastered all over couple of weeks ago. Syria was close to the old Soviet Union before its demise. For whatever reason communism still seems to have following in Syria.

Bosra

South of Damascus are Roman, Christian and Muslim ruins at the town of Bosra.

Amphitheater at Bosra

The Romans built a theater here around 200 AD.












... then about a 1000 years later when the Arab inhabitants needed a castle they built walls around the theater.

Jebel Druze

Foothills in the background are part of home of the Druze sect in Syria.

Snow

Syria mountains are not has high as some in the region but when it gets cold enough they getted snowcapped. These are north west of Damascus.

Poetry reading

Every Monday night there is a poetry reading at the basement bar of the Firdous Hotel in central Damascus.
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7773311.stm )




The place is backed (people who didn't get there early sit on the floor), the MC funny, the alcohol and nicotine-fueled crowd into-it and demonstrative. It's not some polite culture-vulture Loft event! (Sorry about the blur, no tripod for my camera)

The roof

My house for the next week and a half

Home to me, three or four ferrel cats, whatever sleepy waiter from the next door cafe decides to crash on the couch for the night, and a host of hungry mosquitos.


I found out this morning somebody nicked my oranges from the fridge.

... At least it has hot water and clothes washer.

Remnant of the old city of Hama

Wall's still there but roof is gone.

PS
Hello to followers Katy, Paul and Marco!

The city of Hama used to have a great old city ....

.... which looked like this ...


... until a bloody Islamist uprising in 1982, when the army was sent in and shelled the old city into rubble.

Now the former old medina looks like this.