Syria

Christine:

We are currently in Damascus, arriving here last night from Aleppo. A driver, Gaston, who is also a tour guide (and a good one!) picked us up in Aleppo and drove us down the Damascus, taking us to some things along the way. First we stopped in Hama, where there are some enormous waterwheels. Apparently, the Arabs have been using them for centuries to move water into aquaducts for irrigation. They are so clever, these Arabs!!

Then we went to Crac des Chevalier (this is the correct spelling, I found out!). It was fanstatic! Its set the break in the mountain range between Lebanon and Syria, called Homs Pass and was built to control the pass. It is extremely well preserved and amazingly huge, with an outer defensive wall, then a moat, and then the main part of the castle. All this perched up on a mountain. It was sacked once, but it must have been difficult!!

After that, Gaston drove us to Ma'aloula, the last place left in the world that still speaks Aramaic, the language of Jesus and that time period. The inhabitants still all speak it to each other, but they also speak Arabic. There are several churches and all services and masses are held in Aramaic. It was very cool.

After that, it was Damascus and a lovely hotel near the city centre. We were there fairly early so we could have a bit of 'downtime'.

The next morning (this morning) a lovely man from Stratic, John, picked us up and took us round the Great Umayyad Mosque, one of the major Islamic mosques worldwide. It was previously a Christian church, and before that a series of pagan temples from different time periods (Jupiter during the Roman times, Athena during the Greek times and Hadad during Semitic times). There is a huge tomb there, reportedly the tomb of St. John the Baptist. He is revered as a prophet in the Qu'uran (Koran). There were two separate prayer halls, one for the Shia'a Muslims and one for the Sunni Muslims. I had to put on a special robe covering my head and whole body (but not my face) and Barry had to put on a skirt, because he was wearing shorts! It was very funny!

We went to the lovely Azem Palace in the middle of the souks, built in the mid-1700s, and then wandered through the souks a bit. And that brings us to where we presently are - in an internet cafe between the souks and the Christian quarter. We are heading to the Christian quarter to go to Ananias' house, which is now a church, and to St. Paul's church, which is purportedly where he was smuggled out of the city over the wall after he had been preaching about Jesus in the streets of Damascus (click here for the bible reference to the above two people).

Barry:

Crac de Chevalier bla bla bla another big crusader fort with a large steep zig zag entrance, secrect passages, inner and outer moats, but wait evidently Carrak in Jordan has the best ever preseved crusader fort/castle/citadel so onwards, ever onwards, I guess I have become a crac addict.

Damascus is a wonderful city were the local government provide a wonderful service for the local taxi companies, first they paint them bright yellow then they snap off the indicator stalk and finally remove the accelerator pedal and fit an on and off switch in its place. As a matter of course the horn is used to accompany any movement of the taxi and is leant on when stationary. Oh by the way nice city, religous stuff, old town etc.