Showing 1-24 of 24 results
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Al-Merjeh
Writing in 1875, Isabel Burton, wife of the British consul, describes the 'green' Al-Merjeh as looking like a 'village common'. By the end of the 19th century it was the hub of Damascus, a small park where the city's best hotels were, and a terminus for trams. Damascus was the first city in the Ottoman Empire to possess electric trams, with six lines converging here, and the power supplied by a waterfall on the Barada River. Another century on and the trams were gone.
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Bab al-Faradis
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
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Bab al-Farag
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
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Bab al-Nafura
Beside the coffeehouses, a broad flight of stairs carries Sharia al-Qaimariyya up to the eastern wall of Umayyad Mosque, shaped by elements of what was originally part of the main Roman-era monumental entrance to the inner courts of the temple - now the mosque's Bab al-Nafura.
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Bab as-Saghir
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
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Bab as-Salaama
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
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Bab ash-Sharqi
First erected by the Romans, the Old City walls have been flattened and rebuilt several times over the 2000 or so years since. What stands today dates largely from the 13th century. They are pierced by a number of gates (the Arabic for gate is bab, plural abwab ), only one of which, the restored Bab ash-Sharqi, dates from Roman times.
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Bab Kisan
The Old City gate, Bab Kisan, purportedly marks the spot where the disciples lowered St Paul out of a window in a basket one night, so that he could flee from the Jews, having angered them after preaching in the synagogues.
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Bab Touma
For most of their length, the Old City Walls are obscured by later constructions. It's not possible to do a circuit of the walls, nor get up on the ramparts. However, there is a fine short walk between Bab as-Salaama and Bab Touma along the outside of the walls by a channel of the Barada River.
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Beit as-Sibai
Unseen behind the high walls within the Old City are hundreds of delightful houses built around courtyards and featuring their own elaborate decoration. Unfortunately, many of these treasures are in a sad state of disrepair, but a loop off Straight St takes in several examples, all of which have benefited from renovation.
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Beit Jabri
Unseen behind the high walls within the Old City are hundreds of delightful houses built around courtyards and featuring their own elaborate decoration. Unfortunately, many of these treasures are in a sad state of disrepair, but a loop off Straight St takes in several examples, all of which have benefited from renovation.
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Beit Nizam
Unseen behind the high walls within the Old City are hundreds of delightful houses built around courtyards and featuring their own elaborate decoration. Unfortunately, many of these treasures are in a sad state of disrepair, but a loop off Straight St takes in several examples, all of which have benefited from renovation.
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Courtyard of Umayyad Mosque
The northern part of the mosque is an expansive, open Courtyard with a white limestone floor, flanked on three sides by a two-storey arched arcade. The fourth side is the façade of the prayer hall, dominated by a central section covered with enchanting, shimmering, golden mosaics.
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Damascus Souq
South of Umayyad Mosque is the heart of the Damascus Souq, with stretches of stalls devoted to spices, gold, sweets, perfume and fabrics. If you can drag yourself away from the colourful and fragrant displays, there are also wonderful bits of architecture, including numerous khans, or travellers' inns, and a beautiful palace complex.
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Eastern Temple Gate
From the Sayyida Ruqayya mosque, follow the lane that runs due east, and turn right (south) at the T-junction leading to a crossroad marked by the half-buried remains of the Eastern Temple Gate. The gate served as the eastern entrance to the compound of the Roman Temple of Jupiter, the site now occupied by Umayyad Mosque.
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Jamaa al-Jedid
Tucked down narrow Sharia al-Nawa'eer, the 14th-century Jamaa al-Jedid contains the tomb of Ismat al-Din Khatun, wife of first Nureddin and then his successor Saladin. The richly decorated burial chamber is worth a look.
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Madrassa al-Adeliyya
Two fine old madrassas (schools where Islamic law is taught) face each other across a narrow alley less than 100m northwest of the Umayyad Mosque. Both of these schools were erected in the 13th century during the ascendancy of the Ayyubids. On the left (west), Madrassa al-Adeliyya was begun under Nureddin and continued under a brother of Saladin, Al-Adel Seif ad-Din, whose grave it contains. Its façade is considered a classic example of Ayyubid architecture.
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Madrassa an-Nuri
Just 50m beyond Azem Ecole, Madrassa an-Nuri is easy to pick out because of its crimson domes. The structure is fairly modern and not particularly noteworthy but inside is a surviving part of a madrassa dating from 1172, which houses the mausoleum of Nureddin, the uncle of Saladin, who united Syria and paved the way for his nephew's successes against the Crusaders.
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Madrassa az-Zahariyya
Two fine old madrassas (schools where Islamic law is taught) face each other across a narrow alley less than 100m northwest of the Umayyad Mosque. Both of these schools were erected in the 13th century during the ascendancy of the Ayyubids. Madrassa az-Zahariyya, on the eastern side of the alley, was originally a private house belonging to the father of Saladin.
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Mausoleum of Saladin
In the small archaeological garden that lies along the north wall of the Umayyad Mosque are a few columns dating back to the original Roman Temple of Jupiter, and a small white building topped by a rust-red dome, which is the Mausoleum of Saladin. The famed, chivalrous adversary of the Western Crusaders died in Damascus in 1193, and the original mausoleum was erected on this site that same year.
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Old City Walls
First erected by the Romans, the Old City walls have been flattened and rebuilt several times over the 2000 or so years since. What stands today dates largely from the 13th century. They are pierced by a number of gates (the Arabic for gate is bab, plural abwab ), only one of which, the restored Bab ash-Sharqi dates from Roman times.
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Roman Arch
No longer gated, the Christian Quarter begins where a small Roman Arch stands on a patch of grass beside Straight St. It's all that remains of what was probably a grand triple arch, which once marked an important intersection. Occupying the northeastern part of the Old City, the quarter is home to numerous churches representing various denominations, including Syrian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Greek Catholic, Syrian Catholic and Maronite.
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Takiyya as-Süleimaniyya
Lying immediately east of the National Museum, Takiyya as-Süleimaniyya was built over six years, beginning in 1554, to a design by the Ottoman Empire's most brilliant architect, Sinan. A favourite of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Sinan would later create the splendid Süleymaniye Mosque that dominates Istanbul's skyline.
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Western Temple Gate
At its eastern end, Souq al-Hamidiyya re-emerges back into glaring sunlight at the spot where the Western Temple Gate of the 3rd-century Roman Temple of Jupiter once stood. The outer walls of the Umayyad Mosque, directly ahead, mark the position of the temple itself, but here, on ground now occupied by stalls selling Qurans and religious paraphernalia, was the propylaeum (the monumental gateway to the temple complex).
Showing 1-24 of 24 results
