"One of the World's Oldest Cities" a Damascus Travel Page by atufft

We took a bus direct from Riyadh, Saudia Arabia to Damascus, which took twelve hours. Most of the trip was in Saudi Arabia itself. Along the Iraqi border we ran into a sand storm that disabled many trucks but our driver continued through a sea of sand and a thick fog of blowing sand. In spite of closed windows and vents, a fog of fine dust penetrated into the bus, and for once I felt the need to wear the Arab smock over my face to filter the air. At the Jordanian border, we passed miles of empty parked buses on either side of the road. These buses transported haj pilgrims from all over the Middle East, but we were heading out of the country. Saudi men on the bus looked forward to drinking a beer in Damascus. Jordanian Customs was chaotic, and at one point a customs officer read passport names and tossed the document into the crowd. I quietly sought out the commander of customs to inquire how I might receive my wife and my own passport some other way. The bus was delayed an extra 30 minutes by the irregularity of a lone woman from Kenya who happened to be on our bus. We crossed the entirety of Jordan within a couple of hours, and then met with the tattered uniforms of Syrian customs. Though better organized, the Syrian officers searched our possessions more carefully with much less humor. Eventually though we continued to Damascas, passing the snow capped Mt. Hermon and the Golan Heights.

At the time we visited, former president Assad was alive and well, and the repression of the Syrian people was complete. The streets of Damascus were tranquil to the extent that we worried, not for our safety, but for the health of the nation. 1950's period American and European taxi's plied the streets, and ordinary shopkeepers seemed bored and offered little merchandise to sell. The bellhop offered to trade Syrian for American currency with a quiet certainty. On the street, I ran into a fellow that spoke good English, and he complained that the USA was preventing Syria from having access to the internet. And, yet the streets of Damascus have an aire of sophistication not found in Riyadh. Tattered though their clothing may be, Syrian men prefer western style clothing over the bedouin thobe and gutra. Married muslim women cover their hair, but young women where western fashions and the young people in general have the look of any European country.

As the title of the introduction implies, Damascus claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, a claim disputed only by Aleppo, the second city in Syria. The old city walls are mostly of medieval in age, but archways and buildings of the old city clearly date back to at least Roman times. Unlike claims made in other parts of the Middle East, locations claimed for activity recorded in the Bible appear quite tenable. The Street Called Straight still exists, and the window and wall from where Paul escaped from the Pharises appears authentic in both age and location. Yet, Damascus city center is not a restored tourist attraction, most of the activity here is local. Citizens live out their daily lives within the old walls, assisted by a web of retro fit plumbing and wiring. We spent most of our time browsing this part of town, and then traveled to Busra, Palmyra, Aleppo, and Hamah.