The Hospital

The Hotel

The Hotel we stayed at was great. There was a theme park with rides and everything. The Hotel was the only hotel in the northern part of the West Bank. They even have a web site:
www.haddadtourismvillage.com The hotel building itself that we stayed in has only been open 3 months so the building is not complete. Everyone at the hotel spoken broken English and was kind to me when I tried to speak Arabic. The service was really top notch, but they are use to entertaining international guest. There seems to be a connection with France because I was told that most of there international guest are french. Note the picture below of the camel parked with the cars.

The Food

Everything Taste better in Palestine.
The food was so fresh and tasty. There food is all organic because they use the resources that have. I felt like I was going from one meal to the next.

Taxi ride to Jordan

So after spend a great week in Syria my trip continued to Amman, Jordan by Taxi. The Taxi ride it self was an adventure all in its own. I have no idea what was going on but we made random stops, including meeting up with another car on the side of the road to be handed off a package. The packages that went in and out of that car in the short 4 hour drive were too many to count. I felt like i was watching one of those magic tricks where they put a coin under a glass move the glasses around and ask you to pick the glass with the coin under it. My taxi driver was definitely an experienced driver across the boarder. He tipped everyone we came in contact with. Mostly military and police. Not much only about $5 to say thank you for letting us right through.

Chapel of St. Paul

On my last day in Damascus I did some sightseeing before I left. After seeing many mosque I was happy to see a church. Here is a little about the Chapel of St Paul.

The Chapel of St. Paul is a modern stone chapel in Damascus that incorporates materials from the Bab Kisan, the ancient city gate through which Paul was lowered out of a window in Acts 9:25. In the Bible, after his baptism on the Street Called Straight in Damascus, St. Paul began the tireless Christian preaching that would characterize the rest of his life, which led to a narrow escape from Damascus (Acts 9:20-25):
At once he began to preach in the [Damascus] synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
Paul himself later says that it was through a window that he escaped from certain death (2 Cor 11:32-33).

Bosra

Bosra was conquered by the Roman emperor Trajan and made the capital of the Roman province of Arabia. It served as a key Roman fortress east of the Jordan River. The city eventually achieved the title "metropolis" under the Roman emperor Philip, who was a native of the city.

Bosra became a Christian bishopric early in the 4th century and ruins of two early churches can still be seen today. The city fell to the Muslims in 634/635; the ruins of ancient mosques can be seen from this period. As it was situated at the crossroads of trade routes, Bosra was a stop-off point for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca and Medina. The Crusaders captured Bosra in the 12th century but failed to hold it. In the same century earthquakes, together with Turkish misrule hastened its decline.

Dinner with friends & family

We went to the Arabian Night Restaurant. It was so much fun meeting all Nahid's extended family. At the restaurant there was even a replica of the leaning tower of Pisa. I am unsure what that has to due with the Arabian nights, but boy it was fun running up and down the 6 flights of stairs.

During the trip I had been learning Arabic. I had been getting better and better every day. There is always those times when learning a new language that you mix up words and have an embarrassing situation. We for me the two words that I mixed up were: Tomorrow = Bukra & Kiss = Boosney. So I tried to tell Nahid'd brother in law that I was leaving tomorrow, but instead told him that I was going to kiss him, right in front of his wife. Thankfully she laughed and understood I just had made a mistake.

Sayola Zainab Shrine

Umamah bint Zainab was a daughter of Zainab and granddaughter of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. She is also numbered among the Sahaba of Muhammad.
After the death of her aunt Fatimah she married Muhammad's cousin [Ali ibn Abu Talib]They had a common son, Ali ibn Hilal. She died in 66 AH (circa 685 CE).

She is supposedly buried here in this Mosque.

The inside was beautiful, but all glass and mirrors. Pictures were not allowed.

Azem Palace

Downtown old Damascus there are narrow streets with lots of old homes. The Al'Azem palace was made into a museum.









Al-Azem palace, located south of the Umayyad mosque near Suq al-Buzuriyya, was built in 1750 by the Ottoman governor of Damascus As'ad Pasha al-Azem. The architecture of the palace embodies the culmination of Damascene domestic typology at its most extravagant state.
The palace has two main wings: the haramlik and the salamlik. The family wing, or haramlik, is a private space that is connected to the kitchen and servant quarters. It includes the baths, which are a replica of the public baths in the city but on a smaller scale. The public area reserved for the outside guests, called the salamlik, contains the formal halls, reception areas and exclusive courtyards for entertainment.
Simultaneously decadent and serene, this duality is achieved through the juxtaposition of the elaborate and opulent interior decoration and the starkly minimalist exterior facades of the wings articulated in traditional Damascene ablaq designs of alternating stripes of black and white stone. Other building materials, for example marble mosaics, carved stone openings with muqarnas corners, elaborate wooden paneling on the walls and the bedroom's painted wooden panel ceilings that display natural scenes, accentuate the overall impression of sensuousness.
The central courtyards feature fountains and are lined with trees and overhanging vines. The structure of the interior courtyard facade is punctuated by iwans that face columned porticos. This creates textured, spatial walls that are in contrast to the flat exterior walls. This visual play between private and public space differentiation through the use of architectural elements is a direct comment on the balance between the private and public functions the palace serves.
Source:
Rihawi, Abdul-Qader. 1977. Damascus; Its History Development and Artistic Heritage, Damascus: Dar al-Bashar. 176-180.

Site Seeing

A little history.

Damascus is often referred to as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Damascus has a wealth of historical sites dating back to many different periods of the city's history. Since the city has been built up with every passing occupation, it has become almost impossible to excavate all the ruins of Damascus that lie up to 8 feet below the modern level.

This picture to the right is old Roman ruins. The market built up around them.

The Citadel of Damascus is located in the northwest corner of the Old City. The street called straight (referred to in the conversion of St. Paul in Acts 9:11), also known as the Via Recta, was one of the main streets of Roman Damascus, and extended for over 1500 meters. Today, it consists of the street of Bab Sharqi and the Souk Medhat Pasha, a covered market.

To the right is a picture of the market, still used today.

The Bab Sharqi street is filled with small shops and leads to the old Christian quarter of Bab Touma (St. Thomas's Gate). Souq Medhat Pasha is also a main market in Damascus and was named after Medhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Damascus who renovated the Souq.

The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one of the largest mosques in the world, and one of the oldest sites of continuous prayer since the rise of Islam. A shrine in the mosque is said to contain the head of John the Baptist.

This is me in front of the Shrine that has John the Baptist's head.

Umayyad Masque

A few more pictures inside the Umayyad Masque.

I did not have my head covered so the Masque provided a gown that covered my head so that I could enter the Masque.

The Old City of Damascus

Damascus is the oldest continuous city in the world. It has been ruled by many different empires, Roman... and most recently the Ottoman empire.

During the Roman peroid a wall was built around the Old City of Damascus to protect the city. Here is a picture of the wall that was originally built as protection. The city has since moved outside the wall.








Here is one of 7 doors that were entrances into the old city of Damascus.

The Old City of Damascus is surrounded by ramparts on the northern and eastern sides and part of the southern side. There are seven extant city gates, the oldest of which dates back to the Roman period. This one is the Bab al-Faradis ("the gate of the orchards", or "of the paradise")