The Ancient City of Damascus
Introduction
What comes to your mind when the word “landmark” is mentioned? The Great Wall of China, Acropolis in Athens, The Notre-dame Cathedral in France, the Taj Mahal in India, Stonehenge in the UK, or perhaps America’s Grand Canyon? Indeed, these are all famous monuments and historical sites known to most people all over the world. However, what we do not hear about every day is the Ancient City of Damascus – the capital and second largest city in Syria, and possibly the oldest city in the world!
With such a long history and rich culture, Damascus is, along with all the other famous places mentioned above, considered a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Although it has not yet reached “landmark superstar” status, Damascus is an international gem in its own right.
A Brief History
According to archaeological and historical sources, Damascus dates all the way back to the third millennium BC, and it is famous for being known as one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. In fact, the name “Damascus” first appeared in the geographical list of Thutmose III, sixth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, way back in the 15th century BC. However, at the time, Damascus’ name was written as “T-m-ś-q”, which is believed to be in a pre-semitic language. Since then, Damascus has fallen into the hands of the Egyptians, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Nabataeans, and the Romans, before finally becoming the capital of modern Syria.
Because of its long history, Damascus has predictably been intertwined with religion and countless legends and stories. One such Islamic legend states that on a journey from Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed cast his gaze from the mountainside onto Damascus, but refused to enter the city because he wanted to enter paradise only once – when he died.
Damascus is mentioned in Genesis 14:15 of the Bible as existing during the time of the War of the Kings. It is mentioned again in the New Testament - Saint Paul was on the road to Damascus when he received a vision of Jesus and thus decided to accept him as the Messiah. Thus it is irrefutable that Damascus has a long running history.
Damascus Today
Today, Damascus is an over-crowded metropolitan city, and home to about 4.5 million people, majority of who came as a result of rural-urban migration. It is the main educational center in Syria and home to Damascus University – the oldest and largest university in Syria. In 2008, Damascus was chosen as the Arab Capital of Culture – an initiative undertaken by UNESCO to celebrate and promote Arab culture as well as to foster cooperation in the Arab region.
In ancient times, Damascus was an important trading centre. Unfortunately, this has changed due to modern trade and political development. However, because of its long history, religious links, and rich culture, the tourism industry in Damascus has been growing steadily in the last decade. Since the early 20th century, numerous amenities, such as hotels and cafes catering to tourists have sprung up in the old city. Even Damascus’ real-estate sector is starting to grow exponentially. In 2009, real-estate advisers listed Damascus office spaces as the eighth most expensive in the world.
While Damascus is growing as an urban hub, the Old City thankfully sustains its old world charm and authentic feel of the civilisations that inhabited it. Damascus is still a picture of the ancient civilisations that built it, filled with Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic influences.
The Jewels of Damascus
Damascus has roughly 125 monuments existing from different periods of its long history. Its most spectacular and wellknown monument is the 8th Century Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus. Located in Old Damascus, it is one of the oldest and largest mosques in the world, and considered by a number of Muslims to be the fourth holiest place of Islam. The mosque, containing three minarets, is considered to be an architectural wonder.
Besides the Umayyed Mosque, another site popular with tourists and locals is the Souq al-hamidiyya. The word “souq” refers to an open-air marketplace in Middle Eastern or North African cities. This particular Souq is a broad street packed with tiny shops, entered through columns from a Roman temple built on a site occupied by an even older temple – more remnants of the past civilisations. The Souq is filled with narrow passages dedicated to merchants selling everything from spices to silk scarves, inlaid boxes, leather, and copper goods.
A Threat to History
As Damascus advances and grows as a modern city, a large chunk of the population is beginning to move out of the Old City to seek a more modern way of life. An estimated 20,000 people left the Old City between 1995 to 2005 alone. With the rapidly declining population of Old Damascus, more buildings are being abandoned and falling to ruin. To make matters worse, in March 2007, the local government announced that it would be demolishing Old City buildings as part of a redevelopment scheme. With this, the myriad of civilisations and cultures that existed centuries before is slowly being lost, and might one day completely disappear.
In an attempt to safeguard its future from these significant threats and draw international awareness, the Old City of Damascus has been added to the World Monuments Fund watch list, where international attention is brought to “the challenges facing cultural heritage sites around the globe”.
However, even with these precautions set in place, it is ultimately up to the people of Damascus, and the world, to recognise its unique value and actively work to preserve it. The ancient city of Damascus is a time capsule, containing precious pieces of history and ancestry that have faded into time – which, once lost, can never be brought back again.