Museum sights in Damascus
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Army Museum
The Army Museum has a fascinating collection of military hardware from the Bronze Age to the near present. Exhibits range from flint arrowheads to a pile of the twisted remains of planes shot down in the 1973 war with Israel.
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B
National Museum
The most important of Syria's museums is the National Museum, and you'll get more out of Syria's archaeological sites if you take in the museum before and after your visits to the sites.
Purchase your ticket at the gate then stroll through the shady sculpture garden, best appreciated after seeing the museum proper.
Enter through the main gate of Qasr al-Heir al-Gharbi, a desert palace west of Palmyra dating from AD 688, the time of the Umayyad caliph Hisham. The gate was transported to Damascus stone by stone and reconstructed as part of the museum façade.
Within the museum, the exhibits are presented thematically and grouped into preclassical, classical and Islamic sectio…
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Tishreen (October) War Panorama
Created with the help of the North Koreans, Tishreen (October) War Panorama a memorial to the 1973 war with Israel is quite extraordinary. The tour takes in paintings of various historical battles, a film, the moving panoramic painting, a 3D mural and diorama depicting the Israeli devastation of the town, and a room filled with portraits of former president Hafez al-Assad.
You'll gain a great insight into the battle over the Golan Heights and the fighting in and around the town of Quneitra, which isn't otherwise possible; it's definitely worth seeing if you're planning a visit to Quneitra.
The panorama is located about 2km northeast of the centre, on the road to the Harast…
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C
Historical Museum of Damascus
The Historical Museum of Damascus is in an attractive old house with eight richly decorated rooms off a central courtyard. A couple of rooms hold displays of photos and diagrams relating to old Damascus, and there is a superb large-scale model of the Old City, but it's the rooms themselves, decorated in typical Damascene fashion with inlaid marble, carved wood and painted ceilings, that are of greatest interest.
The museum is off Sharia ath-Thawra, where the flyover comes down north of Sharia Souq Saroujah, beside two tall modern buildings. It's on Ministry of the Interior property and visitors have to pass through a guarded gate to reach the arched entrance.
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Arab Epigraphy Museum
For most visitors this will be a case of a museum building being more engaging than its contents. The Arab Epigraphy Museum has a small but fascinating calligraphic exhibit of illuminated manuscripts, while the 15th-century Madrassa al-Jaqmaqiyya in which the collection is exhibited is a fine example of Mamluk-era architecture.
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