Highlights - Essential Info - Itineraries
Damascus
Syria was a melting pot for people from Egypt, Asia Minor, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, and this is most apparent in Damascus, a city where different religions, architecture and culture blend together harmoniously. Settled since before the 4th millennium BC, Damascus is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world.
The Umayyad Mosque, one of the most magnificent buildings of Islam occupies the site of sacred temples going back to the 2nd millennium BC – first a temple to the Semitic god Hudod, the Greek god Zeus and the Roman god Jupiter, then a Christian Church dedicated to John the Baptist, and finally a mosque.
Other points of interest in the Old City of Damascus include the legendary ‘Street called Straight’ (the Via Recta cited in the Bible); the Azem Palace, the luxurious home of the Ottoman governor; the Chapel of St Ananias and St Paul’s Window from which Paul the Evangelist was lowered to escape the Romans; Souq Al Hamidiyeh, the bustling covered bazaar; the Mausoleum of Saladin, the great leader who liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders; and Bab Touma, the Christian quarter of Damascus.
Our preferred hotels include:
Beit Zaman
Al Shabandar Palace
Talisman Hotels
Agenor
Beit al Mamlouka
