The Traffic Circle Of The World

I once got the impression that Syria was like the "Traffic Circle Of The World". Syria is so centrally located, in terms of both geography and history, that it could be said to be at the center of the world.

In terms of geography, it is right in the middle of everything. Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, Africa and, Europe are in different directions from Syria like the hands on a clock. 

In terms of history, civilization didn't start in Syria but it was "right in the middle of everything" in ancient times as it is now. Egypt and Cush (Ethiopia) were in one direction and Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley were in the other direction.

Syria began with the Arameans, who founded Damascus as their capital city. Damascus today is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. It is about five hundred years older than Jerusalem. By the time of Jesus, Hebrew was mostly used as a sacred language and educated and wealthy people might have spoken Greek. But Aramaic, the language of the Arameans, was the everyday language and the language that Jesus spoke.

It is very interesting that Damascus is centered around Umayyad Square, which is a traffic circle, because, if the world was a city and each country a street and the city was centered around a traffic circle, Syria would be the traffic circle. The following image of Umayyad Square is from Google Earth.