Syria at a glance
Syrian history briefly:
…-Egyptians - Phoenicians - Babylonians - Iranians - Greeks - Romans - Arabs - Crusaders - Arabs-Mongolians-Turks-French-Arabs-…
"Damascus"
you when you’ve just landed with the myriads of blue lights on a plain runway stretching to the horizon. It surrounds you with it’s eternal spring so rural in our northern areas, with non-stop horns, acid green mosques, fruits you never knew, narrow streets, Christian legends and Arabic 1000 and 1 nights, long sad Habibi songs and coffee with cardamom and women in veils, and wild schoolchildren slamming through the streets in their blue uniform with the end of last class, endless bazaar area, cafes with hookah.
"Palmyra=Tadmor"
A city of dates. A city of Queen Zenobia’s glory. A city of eternal fame. A city of never fading beauty…Once a city. Now just ruins and castle far away.
"Deir Ez-Zur"
Distant boundary town. In the mid of desert. Euphrates lazily flowing through to Iraq carrying moon and stars in the darkness of deep waters with suspension bridges rocking under night cover.
Though, they struck oil here not long ago. You can smell it through the husk wellness quickly spread over once a godforsaken town. One can still observe passing by the lonely torches of the stations to the west.
The castles near Iraqi boarder are all about ruins. The place called Mari is just 5000 BC Mesopotamia (between Euphrates and Tigris) is claimed to be the cradle of civilization. You can wander through the passages for ages collecting the chucks of ancient pottery scattering around. Drinking tea with a custodian who let you inside for free, playing with his daughters you’ll never believe that there’s a war in some 20 km. The place is safe if people LIVE not LEAVE.
Dura Europos (once a fortress) now in ruins too, razed to the ground as the city Al Faluja. The home town of a sad Iraqi guy we met on our way.
"Aleppo"
with a grand bazaar in the old part. A lot of Christians. Two French nuns I came across in the squash of the market tried to persuade me (though to no effect) not to wander alone there, because it can be “tres dangereux ici”. The greatest castle up-hill where we’ve managed to get lost for several hours. The custodian was all pale when we turned up long after the close and flatly refused to let us out without police
"Dead cities"
by their inhabitants at once are still intact keeping their dead secrets. According to some beliefs you can even come upon ghosts there. We’ve got only goats though.
Saint Simeon’s dwelling was quite outstanding. The pillar. All his life he wanted to be alone. So he chose the pillar-being. He got what he wanted. But pilgrims started coming from all over the world to have his blessing spoiled everything. So he started augmenting the height of his pillar. So he has ended with a 18 meters high pillar.
Apomea is the twin of Palmyra but of grey color visited once by Cleopatra on her way somewhere else to delight of the locals never tired of visitors.
"Tartus"
With a fish smell upon everything. Oh what a nice fish there…Just caught. Maybe by two poor fellow pelicans chained on the pier.
People of the coast are always more open-minded. Because of the refreshing wind probably.
"Krak de Chevaliers"
feasted crusaders. A lot of places to practice climbing walls and into dungeons.
"Hama"
city where 10 000 people were killed during the stifling of rebellion in 80s. Some "rock paintings" are a bit curious.
