Written by Madlobster on May 25, 2006
- With a population of more than two million, the city vies with Damascus as the longest, continually habituated location in the world. For more than 8,000 years, people have lived here, worked here and brought...
Written by HobWahid on October 10, 2004
- The ruins of Mari (Tell Hariri in Arabic) were crucial in furthering our understanding of ancient Mesopotamian culture. Among the great treasures found here were hundreds of statues and a hundreds of clay tablets that...
Written by HobWahid on October 10, 2004
- Immediately after descending from the bus at the Malikiyeh mini-bus station, I was approached by a Syrian police officer. He gave me a stern look and asked in Arabic, "Where are you going?" I told...
Written by HobWahid on November 4, 2005
- The Druze are the Mormons of the Middle East, or perhaps the Scientologists, members of a sect that most people know nothing about and about whom all sorts of wild stories have come about. The...
Written by HobWahid on November 4, 2005
- In the mountains to northwest of Damascus lie the towns of Sayidnaya and Maaloula, the centerpieces to Syria’s Christian heartland. The first one you come to is Sayidnaya, the larger and more visited (by Syrians)...
Written by HobWahid on November 2, 2005
- If you spend any amount of time around the maHatat Hijaaz (The Hijaz Railway station) and Martyrs Square, as I did, because it is where I lived, you will undoubtedly notice a few things. One...
Written by HobWahid on November 2, 2005
- About an hour and a half to the south and east of Damascus lies the small city of Bosra. Not to be confused with the headline-grabbing city of the same name farther east in Iraq,...
Written by HobWahid on November 2, 2005
- I consider myself an okay Christian, more spiritual than ritual. I don’t usuall spend my Sundays at church but make my appearances on Christmas, Easter, and various other holidays, but after a week of traveling...
Written by HobWahid on September 20, 2004
- The most spectacular sights around Aleppo are the "dead cities" and St. Simeon, both covered in other entries, but, if you have a couple of days in Aleppo and are not short on time, I...
Written by HobWahid on September 20, 2004
- If you have never had the pleasure of experiencing a hammam (Turkish bathouse) before, then the Hammam Yalbougha al-Nasri in Aleppo is a great place to do it. In the mid-1980s, the Syrian government restored...
Syria
Tourism and Travel Guide