Damascus Days

Although Lebanon has its charms, by the end of a full week, we were yearning for fresh adventures in a more authentic Middle Eastern environment. Besides, Lebanon is a small country geographically, and its ancient historical sites are limited. With the trips to Baalbek, Byblos, and the south, we had seen many of its highlights. Sasha had recommended that we consider a side trip to Damascus. The only administrative hurdle was obtaining a visa before setting out; with that successfully obtained, we were ready to embark from the station in Central Beirut in a “service” (shared taxi).

Being declared a rogue state by the former US administration, there is trepidation amongst Americans who might want to travel to Syria, and certainly for their family members at home. However, relations between the two countries have warmed considerably, and a new US ambassador is due to arrive in Damascus before summer. In addition, tourism has become a focus for expansion in the Syrian economy, so visitors are welcomed warmly. This member of the “Axis of Evil” looks more welcoming, at least for now.

The service brought us to the border, and after some paperwork both leaving Lebanon and entering Syria, we were on our way. A sign posted behind the counter where our Syrian visas were checked made us chuckle:”If you have any problems in Syria, call the Ministry of the Interior”. The Ministry of the Interior would be the Syrian agency most likely to be causing a foreigner troubles. Syria is an authoritarian state and nothing happens without the government’s knowledge and permission. For example, Sasha received a call from the hotel where he made our reservation a few days earlier, saying that we might have to move to another hotel for the second night if the Syrian government decided that it needed to use the hotel. What other government can commandeer things like this? China comes to mind. In the end, whoever in the government had wanted to book the hotel changed plans, because we have been here for two nights.

The service dropped us at one of the gates of the Old City. The Old City is walled like Jerusalem, and oblong. We walked through the main thoroughfare of the Suk al-Hamidiya, on an east west axis, then turned to proceed onto Straight Street (Via Recta), the main east west thoroughfare from Greek and Roman times. We proceeded to the Christian Quarter, then cut down to the right at the Roman arches into the Jewish quarter. Our destination was the Talisman Palace Hotel, a 300 year old Jewish house converted to a boutique hotel in 2006. These renovations of old houses into hotels and restaurants have accelerated in recent years with the liberalization taking place in Syria under Bashar al-Assad. We read that many of the buildings in the Jewish quarter had been locked up unoccupied since 1948, but are now being opened and rebuilt.

Outside the old city walls, the city is rather ugly. Soviet style blocks of apartments extend for miles. Gentrification has been accelerating for the last few years. There are some glossy English language magazines in the hotel. Here are some of the article titles:

“Unlocking Civil Society: What barriers confront the emergence of true nd independent civic participation?”

“Reshuffling the Deck: Syria has a new economic team. What does it mean for the country’s economic programme?”

We spent much of yesterday afternoon strolling the allies of the Old City, including a visit to the Umayyad Mosque, the fourth most important structure in Islam (following the mosques in Mecca and Medina and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem). The current mosque stands on a site first built upon by the Aramaeans 3000 years ago. The Romans later built a temple to Jupiter on the site; in the third century Constantine ejected Jupiter, building upon and expanding the structure to become an enormous basilica to honor St John the Baptist, whose head is reputed to entombed in a shrine inside the current mosque. After the Umayyads moved their capital to Damascus in the 8^th century, the basilica was converted to a mosque.

We arrived at the mosque, sure that we were dressed appropriately. I was in my black raincoat (over black slacks), my hood hiding every strand of hair. Ellen Beth had a black scarf over her hair, but her blue jacket was short, so we were directed to another location called the “Putting on Special Clothes Room”. There, we donned brown sack robes with monk-ish hoods. From there, we returned to the main entrance, left our shoes, and entered. When I visited this mosque 38 years ago, we were the only people in the mosque. This time, the mosque was packed with hundreds of people. Sasha commented that many looked like Iranian pilgrims (it is Nairouz, a Persian holiday right now). In addition, there were white robed nuns who were praying at the Shrine of St. John the Baptist. Outside the courtyard there is a shrine to Hussain, the grandson of the Muhammad. Throngs of Iranian pilgrims were waiting to get in; we got in line behind them, but none of us were actually allowed in as the door keeper asserted that it was closing (to much protestation by the waiting crowd). Outside of the courtyard, we stopped to visit the tomb of Salah ad-Din, the Arab military commander who ejected the Crusaders from Jerusalem in the 1100s. Our evening was complete with a lovely Syrian meal at N’Arange, the highlight being a wonderful lamb kebab dish in sour cherry sauce and as an appetizer, a mezza that included a beet salad much like baba ghanough but with beets instead of eggplant.

Today, we spent the day exploring some of the Old City’s highlights, including:

Azem Palace: a building constructed between 1749 and 1752 for the governor of Damascus, As’ad Pasha al-Azem. It was occupied by the same family until the beginning of the 20^th century. Now it has wonderful displays of traditional architecture, customs, handicrafts, religion, etc.

Khan As’ad Pasha: one of the largest and oldest caravanserais in the Old City, with lovely black and white stonework and nine interconnected domes.

St. Ananias Chapel: the original house of the man who converted Saul to St. Paul. The simple stone house is twenty three steps below current street level, with old paintings (prints?) telling the story of St.Paul’s life and conversion.

National Museum: situated outside of the Old City, we wanted to see two rebuilt structures, a second century synagogue from Dura Europas (an ancient Syrian city near the Euphrates that disappeared before 300) and a tomb from Palmyra. The synagogue was fabulous: large walls painted with Biblical scenes. It was unusual because of the depiction of Biblical characters in human form, and they all looked quite Roman. We were able to identify many of the stories (Moses parting the Red Sea, Moses destroying the idols of the Israelites after descending Mt. Sinai, Joseph in his coat of many colors surrounded by his brothers). The Palmyran tomb, called the Hypogeum of Yarhai, is an underground burial chamber from the Valley of the Tombs in Palmyra. It included a magnificent collection of carved white marble figures. As we wandered through the museum, a guard in search of baksheesh, took us to some closed areas to look at a large (two story) wall fresco with Eve holding a large platter of fruit, and Cain and Abel, from the 144BCE. We were not sure from where this fresco had been taken, but it was magnificent.

Throughout the day, we had numerous opportunities for shopping and bargaining. The Old City is full of all kinds of little shops in many suks. Handicrafts of all sorts (metalwork, glass, wood, leather), textiles, spices and soaps, are everywhere. The challenge is to know what one wants and to bargain hard. We stopped several times at the workshop of a middle aged metal worker from Cairo named Hassan. His silver, copper, and brass plates and vessels were wonderful, but he quoted high prices and like many in Syria, did not accept credit cards. In the end, we were unable to strike a deal, because American debit cards do not work in any of the ATMs here. We wondered if this was the result of US economic sanctions which we believe are still in place.

What seems to make the most sense to us is for the US to try to pull Syria out of the Iran orbit and back into the Western sphere. There are lots of Iranians here for tourism and pilgrimage, but most Syrians are Sunni. Exploiting the differences between them would make geostrategic sense. We’ll see if that can happen.Tomorrow we will head out of Damascus to early Christian villages, then back to Beirut for our final evening.