Market sights in Damascus
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Souq al-Hamidiyya
Just to the south of the citadel, Souq al-Hamidiyya is the long, covered market that leads into the heart of the Old City. A cross between a Parisian passage, a department store and a Middle Eastern bazaar, its main thoroughfare is lined with clothes emporiums and handicrafts shops, while its narrow side streets are crowded with stalls selling everything from cheap shoes to kids' toys.
A vault of corrugated-iron roofing blocks all but a few torch-beam-like shafts of sunlight, admitted through bullet holes punctured by the machine-gun fire of French planes during the nationalist rebellion of 1925.
Although the street dates back to Roman times, its present form is a product …
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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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Souq as-Silah
One of the liveliest thoroughfares, with its glittering gold and silver sellers, is Souq as-Silah, running due south from Bab Ziyada (set into the southern wall of Umayyad Mosque), out of which crowds of people continually emerge.
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Souq al-Bzouriyya
Souq al-Bzouriyya (literally the Seed Bazaar, but in reality the Spice Souq), is heavily scented with cumin, coffee and perfumes. Halfway along, on the left, is Hammam Nureddin, the most elegant of Damascus' old bathhouses.
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