Path: Travel > Destinations > Middle East 2006 > Syria 2

Syria 2

• Love in the shade of arms: two young Syrians in a park of which a part is used as a museum, to display the military prowess of Syria.

• The sunken courtyard of an old merchants' building (what we nowadays would call a shopping mall). The black-and-white stripes are typical elements of Syrian architecture.

• Believe me, Arabs have a very sweet tooth:-)

• The glitzy inside of the Iranian-sponsored and -built Sayyida Ruqqaya Mosque. Here lies buried a great-grandchild of Mohammed: Ruqqaya, one of Imam Husayn's daughthers, was killed in Karbala, during the fights between the factions of what are nowadays called the Shi'ite and the Sunni branches of orthodox Islam.

• The courtyard of the Grand Mosque of Damascus. This structure is one of the marvels of Damascus and of the whole region. The mosque was built beginning of the 8th century on the foundations of a church; supposedly, even before the church was built, the area housed a huge Roman temple for the god Jupiter.

• The giant main entrance of the Mosque, with its famed gold mosaic.

• Part of the side wall mosaics, illuminated by the western sun.

• Inside the Grand Mosque. This is the main praying niche (mihrab) which points to Mecca (from Damascus almost due south). In the mosque there is also a much-venerated shrine which houses (so they say) the severed head of John the Baptist: he is honoured as a prophet by Muslims and Christians alike.

• Towards the Jordanian border and the ruins of Bosra

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$updated from: Syria 2.htxt Mon 30 Mar 2009 11:48:50 thomasl$