Syria

The world's attention is on Syria so let's have a look at it. The first part of this visit is about Damascus. The second part is about Aleppo.

DAMASCUS

Damascus, the capital of Syria, is possibly the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It's beginning as a major city was with the Arameans, who will be familiar to readers of the Old Testament as enemies, and occasionally allies, of the Israelites. The two began cooperating when both were threatened by the Assyrians, who took the "Ten Lost Tribes", of the Israelites, into captivity. The city is in a dry area, but receives water from the Barada River.

Damascus seems to have begun as the capital city of the Arameans about 1500 B.C., making it about 500 years older than Jerusalem. The Arameans never formed a united empire, but their language was in wide use. In Jesus' time, the educated class spoke Greek, but Aramaic was the "language of the streets". The Hebrew language, by this time, was mostly limited to religious rites. Aramaic was also the language of Jesus, and one remnant of it is the "amen" that is commonly said at the end of a prayer.

Damascus, like it's sibling city of Aleppo, has been through the usual parade of conquerors in the region. In ancient times, it had been under Egyptian control and then was ruled by the Israelites, in the time of King David. Later, there was Alexander, then the fragment of his empire known as the Seleucids, the Romans, the Byzantines (or eastern Romans), the Seljuks and the Crusaders. 

There were less-than-friendly visits from the Mongols and Tamerlane (or Timur), then there were the Ottomans, and then the French, finally an independent Syria.

But what Damascus is best known for today is having been the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate of Islam. This was the second caliphate. It was the Umayyad capital from 661-750, but when the Abbasid Caliphate took over, they moved the capital to Baghdad, which they had built especially for that purpose.

The following scenes are general views of central Damascus. The Damascene Sword Monument is in Umayyad Square. Damascus was once known for the steel used to make swords. The following image, from Google Street View, is of the Damascene Sword Monument.

Muhammad is reported to have once said that he "Never wanted to see Damascus, because then I might not want to go to Heaven".

Damascus is also very important to Christians. It was while St. Paul was on his way to Damascus, to persecute Christians, that Jesus appeared to him and he instantly went from being the greatest enemy of Christianity, to being it's foremost apostle. (Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostles).

The "Street called Straight" that Paul went to, in Damascus, is still there today. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Straight Street".

On that street is what is believed to be the home of St. Ananias, who baptized Paul. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Saint Ananias House".

Paul had enemies in Damascus, and other Christians helped him to escape by lowering him from the wall in a basket. The Chapel of St. Paul is believed to contain some stones that were part of the wall from which he was lowered. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Chapel of St. Paul".

This is the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. The following five images are from the Wikipedia article "Umayyad Mosque". The structure supported by pillars is the Dome of the Treasury. There is a shrine within the mosque that is believed to hold the head of John the Baptist, who was executed by decapitation.

This is central Damascus.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

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Further east from city center is Old Damascus. This is where we find three world-famous sites. The star attraction of Damascus is the Umayyad Mosque. It was built in 706 on the site of a former Christian church, dedicated to John the Baptist. That church is believed to have been built on the site of a Roman temple. The Umayyad Mosque has went through being damaged and repaired many times, including by both the Mongols and Tamerlane.

The Umayyad Mosque is a very important place to Moslems, just behind the top three of Mecca, Medina and, the Temple Mount. This mosque was a prototype for the Cathedral-Mosque of Cordoba, which we saw in the posting "When The Moors Ruled Spain". Many Moslems believe that Jesus, who they consider as a prophet, will return here. Pope John Paul visited because this is where the relics of John the Baptist are believed to be buried, supposedly the first time a pope ever visited a mosque. 

The images above of the Umayyad Mosque are from Wikipedia. The following four images of it are from Google Street View. 

The structure supported by pillars in the following image is the Dome of the Clock.

Remember that the two mosques that we saw on the Temple Mount, Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, were also both built by the Umayyads. There was also a Umayyad palace at the southern wall of the Temple Mount, as we saw in "Esau And The Temple Mount".

The Al Azm Palace, also seen in the following images of Old Damascus, was built by the Ottomans for the local governor about 1750. The first five images of Old Damascus, including one of the palace, are from Google Street View. 

The Citadel of Damascus is a medieval fortification and palace, built in 1076. It was the residence of Saladin. The Mongols demolished part of it. It was used as a fort by both the Ottomans, and then the French. The first three images of the Citadel are from Google Street View.

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In the following two images from Google Street View the dome is the Mausoleum of Saladin and the statue of Saladin was unveiled by Hafez Assad, the father of Bashar. 

Notice that, in the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque, is the Dome of the Clock, (image from Google Street View)

 and the Dome of the Treasury, (image from Wikipedia article "Umayyad Mosque)

Just as, outside the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, there is the Dome of the Chain. This was a scale model for the construction of the Dome of the Rock. (Image from the Wikipedia article "Dome of the Chain).

The following views of Damascus are east of the city center. 

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ALEPPO

The city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, has been settled for at least five thousand years. It is the location where the route across Mesopotamia meets the route along the coast, and has always been a great center of trade. Aleppo was the western end of the fabled Silk Road, from the east. Damascus, the capital of Syria, is generally considered as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, but Aleppo was definitely a large city before Damascus was. 

These views of the cityscape of Aleppo are from Google Street View. 

Aleppo isn't just part of history, it literally is history. It has been through just about every empire that there has been in that part of the world, through the course of it's five thousand-year history. It is Syria's largest city today, and is remembered as a very important city of the Ottoman Empire, but that is only the most recent of it's history.

You can be sure that wherever the Ottomans ruled a city, we will find a structure that is modeled on the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, in Istanbul, Aleppo is no exception. The Khusruwiyah Mosque, from the Wikipedia article by that name, has since been destroyed in Syria's civil war.

Unlike most cities that we visit, the history of Aleppo is far too long to go into here. In the Wikipedia article titled "Ancient City of Aleppo", there is a section called "Historical Timeline". It has been part of literally dozens of empires, going back to the beginnings of civilization. Just imagine if the stones of Aleppo could talk.

Aleppo was an important center of early Christianity. It was destroyed by Tamerlane, or Timur, who we met in the posting on this blog, "Why We Should Understand The Mongols". There was an old Jewish community, and it was the destination of many when Jews were forced to leave Spain.

In stark contrast to the ancient cities of Aleppo and Damascus, the modern nation of Syria is a very recent creation. There was somewhat of a natural rivalry between these two largest cities. There was question as to whether the country might join in union with Iraq or with Egypt.

Does anyone remember the United Arab Republic, the UAR? I remember when I was a boy, world atlases listed Egypt as the U.A.R. There had been a brief union of Egypt and Syria by that name. But Syria was the smaller of the two, and felt dominated by Egypt. Wealthy Syrians also reportedly resented Nasser's socialist philosophy. It resulted in a coup in Syria, which then withdrew from the union. Egypt alone continued to be called the U.A.R. for some time.

The Assad family were part of the same Baath Party as was Iraq's Saddam Hussein and it has been suggested that the two countries might unite. Indeed the one-time king of Syria ended up separately becoming the first king of Iraq. The trouble is history, specifically the history of the Islamic caliphates. The Umayyad Caliphate, which was based in Damascus, was overthrown by the Abbasids, who built Baghdad as their capital.

Syria is roughly the area that, in biblical times, belonged to the Arameans. Their language, Aramaic, was the everyday language in Israel at the time of Jesus. Hebrew, by that time, was mainly used in religious rites. 

In two places in the Old Testament, in Isaiah Chapter 36 and also in the Second Book of Kings, it is described how the Jews ask the messenger from the king of Assyria to speak to them in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew.

Aramaic was a very widespread language in the Middle East in the centuries before the time of Jesus. Much of the Bible was first written in Aramaic.

Aleppo has a the massive Citadel at it's center, which was begun about three thousand years ago. There are mosques in the Citadel, which were originally Byzantine churches. The first five images of the Citadel of Aleppo are from Google Street View.

Here are some scenes of souks, or markets, from the Wikipedia article "Ancient Aleppo".

Aleppo was built on trade, remaining a vital trading center until sea travel became predominant. The center of trade in Aleppo was the Al Madina Souk, or market. This was a vast complex of markets and manufacturing, that was like a city in itself. At the time, nowhere in the world was more important to trade.

Aleppo has been the scene of intense combat in the Syrian Civil War. Historical buildings have been destroyed than can never be replaced. This is the worst thing to happen to the city since Tamerlane, over 600 years ago.

Here are some scenes in old Aleppo. The large stone fortification is the Citadel.

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Here are some more scenes of the area which were taken, of course, before the war. You may see the towering minaret, of the Great Mosque of Aleppo, before it was destroyed. The tall modern building is Aleppo City Hall.

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