| tour
of Syria, Lebanon & Jordan - 2006 |
|
| Tuesday,
November 21, 2006 |
We
began with an early start by bus from our hotel to Ataturk Airport
and a quick 70-minute flight to Gaziantep and were met by our
Turkish local guide, Mehmet, who was a resident of Antakya.
Mehmet had been a career Turkish Army officer and retired to
his hometown to purse a business career and was soon bored.
He decided to become a tour guide specializing in his home area
and really enjoyed showing off this area world famous for mosaics,
fruits and especially nuts such as pistachios. He had a son
18 months of age that was his pride and joy. Mehmet had spent
a year at Fr. Lee Virginia where I had spent my military service
and now Steve and Kathryn Thomas live in the immediate area
so we had experience to share with our guide.
Our tour focus was the second largest collection of mosaics
in the world, 35 mosaics from Zeugma and a statue of Mars unearthed
in Roman villas some 10 Km east of the city and moved to Gaziantep
museum for preservation and protection from flooding.
Our guide had excellent detail of Roman and Hellenistic themes
immortalized in some 1000 sq meters of mosaics that were very
well displayed on walls and floors. For lunch we ate in a well
known local restaurant. The meal began with ayran served in
individual large bowls and lahmacun, a type of meat pie. Dessert
was a memorable pistachio stacked and stuffed baklava that was
really excellent and not too sweet.
We continued onto Antakya through fertile fields of olives,
fruit and nuts to historic Antioch. The city was founded in
300 BC by Seleucos I, a follower and general of Alexander the
Great, on a site well chosen as future intersection of multiple
trade routes. The city prospered from commerce and remained
center of Seleucid Kingdom until 60 BC, when the conquering
Romans who made it their capitol of the Syrian province. The
Romans had added architectural splendor of palaces, marble streets,
temples and theaters to make it 3rd in magnificence to Rome
and Alexandria.
In the 1st C, Antioch became the largest center of Christianity
outside of Jerusalem. There the name “Christians”
was first used referring to converts of Paul. At dusk we visited
the museum to see the 2nd and 3rd C mosaics inside and some
outside in a side garden. I was particular impressed with the
detail of the Roman Sarcophagi preserved indoors. We closed
the museum and retired to the interesting Hotel Savon that had
been a soap factory built around a courtyard and of historic
note. The energetic walked into town for dinner and others ate
in the rather elegant dining room downstairs which had great
local food.
What a great introduction to what would be a truly fabulous
trip! |
| Wednesday,
November 22 - Antakya (Antioch), Turkey to Aleppo, Syria |
This
day started in a special way for Jessie Graham and I as we had
a little time in the morning to walk around in the area of our
hotel. We talked with the old man shop keeper who sold us water,
then investigated the inside of a Men’s Social Club which
was not as busy as it was when we passed it the night before.
On the club walls hung pictures of the city center from 1900.
But the best part was trying to talk with a brave and curious
16 year old girl who was waiting for the van/bus to go to work.
We finally understood that she worked in a supermarket.
Cave-Church of St. Peter: The early believers in Jesus were
first called Christians in Antioch. Above the city we visited
the cave, which is said to be the earliest place where Christians
met and prayed secretly. Tradition has it that this cave was
the property of St. Luke the Evangelist, who was from Antioch,
and that he donated it to the burgeoning Christian congregation
as a place of worship. Peter and Paul lived in Antioch for a
few years and are thought have preached here. When the Crusaders
marched through in 1098 they constructed the wall at the front
and a narthex.
To the right of the altar faint traces of fresco can still be
seen and some of the simple mosaic floor survives. The water
dripping in the corner is thought to cure sickness. We also
saw a tunnel in the basalt rock starting in a small room at
the back which went to the other side of the mountain at one
time. Olive and cedar trees were planted around the site to
give it a peaceful sense.
We drove through the fertile Asi (Orontes) River valley to the
Syrian border crossing at Cilvegozu and then on to Bab-al-Hawa
on the Syrian side. It took us 2 ½ hours to complete
the crossing. Mary Ann Cameron counted 103 trucks lined up on
the Turkish side. It could take up to 25 days for a truck to
cross!
Our Syrian guide, Hussein, came aboard sharply dressed in a
blue blazer.
We drove through a rich agricultural region of northern Syria,
a limestone plateau, with nice looking farm homes built of limestone
or concrete block. The region produces wheat, sugar beets and
olives. 63% of Syria is desert. Marriages are arranged in the
country to keep lands within the family. We learned that children
study English in school from the age of 6, and start French
at age 11.
There are two oil refineries in Syria. The government subsidizes
oil prices so it costs only $3 for 20 Liters of diesel. Several
days later when we drove into Jordan the bus driver said that
he made sure to have less than 100L in the tank, even though
it could hold 500L. There is a huge tax/fine if a bus comes
in with more than 100L in its tank. This is because the price
of diesel is much higher in Jordan.
Lunch Purchases at Daret Azze, “the town of glory”:
We very much enjoyed our shopping expedition for lunch items
in this small town. Tankut bought freshly-baked bread and cheese.
We purchased fruit and nuts. I was so excited to find the ripe
red round persimmons to enjoy. I had previously only tasted
them in Brazil in April. I was told they grow in Yemen and are
ripe this time of year.
Lunch at Saint Simeon (Qal’aat Sa,’aan): We shared
lunch and ordered drinks at the souvenir stand. It was a lovely
relaxed time in the shade. Hussein did an admirable job of walking
us through the ruins of three buildings on the hilltop, and
then giving us free time to roam. There was a very peaceful,
spiritual feeling about the site. It overlooked rich farmlands
and the ancient village of Deir Samaan where the pilgrims stayed.
Born in AD 392, Simeon was the son of a shepherd who opted at
a young age for life in a monastery. Being more ascetic, he
retreated into a cave. Word got around of this extremely pious
individual and people began to visit to seek his blessing. Simeon
apparently greatly resented this invasion of his solitude and
was driven to erect a 3m pillar on which he took up residence
so that people couldn’t touch him. The legend goes that
as his tolerance of people decreased he erected ever higher
pillars, the last of which was 18m in height.
When he died in 459, Simeon was possible the most famous person
in the 5th-century world. An enormous church was built around
the famous pillar. Two additional buildings included a monastery
and a large baptistery with mosaics on the floor of the lowered
baptismal area so that older children could walk through for
their baptisms.
Aleppo: This city of two million is the second largest in Syria,
with another million in the surrounding region. Aleppo was an
ancient stop on the Silk Road. It vies with Damascus for the
title of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city.
The major local industries are silk-weaving and cotton-printing.
It is famous for wool, hides, dried fruits and pistachios which
many of us purchased at the souq.
Our small boutique hotel was in the heart of the old city. We
walked several blocks to get to it, past interesting shops displaying
many long skinny women’s coats. Not my size! The hotel
was an 18th-century house lovingly restored, with rooms arranged
around a beautiful yellow-and-black striped courtyard. The two
part doors were so narrow that I had to take off my back pack
and turn sideways to enter our room. The second courtyard served
as the attractive restaurant with fine decorations of all types.
We felt pampered as we dined there. A musician played a traditional
instrument for dinner music.
Evening Walk through the City of Aleppo (Al-Jdeida): After our
evening meal we had a tour of the basement of the restaurant
and learned about the extensive tunnel system underneath the
area. We were amazed at the 50’s automobile décor
of the basement lounge. We then walked in the clean narrow streets
near our hotel, lined with studded black doors. This area was
developed for prosperous traders who were largely Maronite and
Armenian Christians. We saw several of the churches. In the
courtyard of the Greek Catholic Church was a statue of the Virgin
Mary which according to legend drips oil from her hands which
helps heal people. |
| Thursday,
November 23 - Thanksgiving Day, Aleppo |
It
still surprises us that we are finally in Syria! We have wanted
to come here since Tony’s parents were here during the
1966 revolution. Due to our government policies and our initial
problem with our visas we thought we would never get here.
We are traveling with an experienced group, many who have been
to Turkey and other places in the East. Of course we are completely
confident traveling with Lale and Tankut and you often hear
from our tour group members, “Lale and Tankut, we will
follow you anywhere”.
Our guide, Hussein, has a full day planned for us. At the Aleppo
Museum at the entrance we see copies of some basalt statues
that were originally in the Pergamon Museum of Berlin. The originals
were destroyed in World War II in the final days of the war.
We get a short geography lesson about some of the ancient cities
of Syria that were important to local and world history. We
learn about the city Mari on Euphrates River which had a huge
palace of 200 rooms and see the small statues that were fashioned
to leave in the temple so that the statue could pray continuously
for the owner. Hussein told us about Ugarit, another city from
1250 BC inhabited by Semitic people who became known as the
Phoenicians and gave us the first alphabet. We looked at the
model of Arin Dara Temple from the 10th century and learned
about the “giant footprints” at the temple entrances.
The Citadel of Aleppo which Hussein explained is a classic example
of Islamic military architecture. It is built on a high hill
that is man made and it was built on top of other fortifications.
The Citadel is unique because it contained a compound for the
sultan to live and receive visitors, mosques, barracks, a bath
for both the troops and other residents and one for the sultan
and his family. The castle was fortified by a deep moat and
bridges that could be drawn up, a narrow zig zag entrance to
slow the attacking forces down and several places where boiling
oil could be dropped on the attackers.
We visit the Mosque of Abrahim also in the citadel and learn
about some of the architectural requirements for a mosque; a
water source, 3 portals, a courtyard, water source for ablutions
and a minaret. While visiting the mosque, Hussein sang a call
to prayer for us. It was one of the highlights of the day for
Tony and I and as stirring as the signing we heard in the old
St. Gregory church in Guzelyurt Turkey. The call was “There
is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet, come to make
your prayer”.
During our visit to the Citadel, our group was surrounded by
young school children; they were talking to us, we were talking
to them and taking pictures all the while. Despite the efforts
of our guide and the teachers, for a while it was chaos and
in the process we lost 3 member of the tour including my buddy,
my husband Tony and Mike. They all missed out on some of the
tour of the baths and the Sultan’s receiving room. Hussein
had arranged for us to experience what it would be like to be
shown into the magnificent room and to be impressed with the
power and status of the man who was the sultan seated on the
throne and whose face could not be seen.
We met some lovely young women who were studying art and making
drawings of the Citadel. They were gracious and let us take
their pictures. Their names were Rahaf, Hana, Eyman, Enas, Gamina,
and Rasheem. Cynthia got email addresses for two of the girls
and Lale asked us to send pictures if possible. We hope these
addresses work.
Next we went to the Grand Central Mosque of Aleppo. The original
building were from the 10th century but had suffered damage
from several earthquakes and that there had been a recent restoration
of the building. Hussein explained that the mosque was not only
a place for praying but a center for study and reflection and
when we entered there were many people reading and studying
the Koran and there were extra copies of the Koran on book shelves
for us. We learned that the central mosque of the city set the
time for prayers and that signal lamps or flags where used to
signal the times for the call to prayer.
This day was stimulating for our minds with new things to see,
learn, and experience but we were not without nourishment for
the body. We had a great lunch at Kan Zaman (Once upon a time)
and a wonderful dinner, complete with Turkey spam brought all
the way from Florida by David and Sarah. The rest of our Thanksgiving
dinner included humus, eggplant fixed several different ways,
Pomegranate salad and sausage and bulgur, carrots and potatoes
and fish with two different kinds of sauce. The dessert was
“special Aleppo dessert”, a pastry with a white
sauce that looked like marshmallow cream. The sauce provoked
several jokes from our table mates about glue and duct tape
but we all tried it and it was pretty tasty.
The day, this trip and our fellow travelers made this an extra
special Thanksgiving Day. |
We
departed our hotel in Aleppo, Syria on a sunny cool morning
destined for the Palmyra oasis.
During the drive Hussein our guide gave us a well-needed Arabic
lesson. We learn sabah el khier means “good morning”
and sabah el nour is the proper response. We are also encouraged
to respond with la shukran to vendors we will meet in a polite
refusal of their wares. We were given the Arabic tongue twister
“this apricot is not our apricot” or hayda mishmish
mish mishmishna. Sarah seems to have some success but the rest
of the gang produces enthusiastic but basic blather.
During the drive Hussein points out some very famous Arabian
horses. They must be as fast as reputed, as I was never able
to see them. Did anyone catch a glimpse of them? They reappeared
many times during our trip.
On the route to Apamea Hussain holds a Question & Answer
session interspersed with commentary on what we see along the
roadway. We pass out a UN sponsored project which tests dry
agricultural research fields. It has been proven that the Syrian
Desert will grow wheat if properly irrigated. In fact the desert
can be quite productive if supplied by water, which is currently
a scarce resource for the area.
Syria (as related by Hussein) became independent from colonial
powers in 1946. From 1946 until 1963 a liberal government headed
it. In 1963 the Baath party took over the country with a pan
Arabic socialist party that is nationalistic in nature.
Hafez Assad became president in 1970 after a coup. The Assad
clan is Alawite, which is of the Shi’a sect of Islam.
Assad led the country with the aid of strong Soviet ties. In
1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed Syria lost their sponsorship
and began a slow movement towards capitalism with more open
expression. This is true only if there is neither official party
opposition nor criticism of Assad. In 2000 Bashir Assad succeeded
to the leadership upon the death of this father Hafez. (The
oldest son of Hafez and named successor Basil died in an auto
accident in 1994.) Hussein described Syria as secular in nature.
There is a 7-year cycle for elections. Elections slate only
a single candidate, Assad. Voters are given a Yes or No option.
Yes means “yes” for his candidacy and No means “no
objection” to his candidacy.
Syria was a member of the United Arab Republic (UAR) for several
years along with Egypt. The UAR was a short-lived dream of Nasser
of Egypt. (For details read “Nasser: The Last Arab”
by Said Aburish.)
Syria has its own oil source, which supplies the country with
their necessary energy. They are a non-OPEC producer. Their
income is based on exporting foods, vegetables, wheat, etc to
other Arab countries.
There followed a brief discussion on US policy in the region.
Suffice it to say, it is seen as “complex” by Syrian
observers.
We arrive at Apamea or Afayma as known to the locals. Apamea
is located on the banks of the Orontes River about 55 km to
the north west of Hama. It was built in 300 BC by Seleucus Nicator,
the first king of the Seleucids. He named it after his wife,
Afamea. Most of the uncovered ruins in it date back to the Roman
and Byzantine ages. It is distinguished for the main thoroughfare
(over a mile) surrounded by columns with twisted fluting. Its
colonnade (The Cardo Maximus) is 145 meters long. Erected in
the 2nd century, it was destroyed in the 12th century by two
violent earthquakes; some columns are still standing nevertheless.
Fierce battles with Crusaders attempting to conquer it took
place in the 12th century, and Nour al-Din finally surrendered
it in 1149.
After great photo ops, we begin our journey to Hama. We see
tobacco drying and growing; potatoes being harvested and transported;
pistachio trees; Bedouin tents for the seasonal harvesters.
Lunch is at the Al Sairan Restaurant just before arriving at
Hama. We have assorted mezes and the regional specialty frike
(pronounced freekay). Frike is made of spiced bulgur wheat and
pistachios. It is quite tasty.
Hama Syria is famous (or infamous) as the city where Hafez Assad
attacked the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1981 civil war, which
resulted in 20,000 civilian deaths.
Today we visit the water wheels on the Orantes River in Hama.
The date for the wheels is not recorded but is reputed to be
old as they were there during the Roman era. (The Orantes River
is called the “disobedient river’ as it flows north
to south when all others flow south to north.) The wheels are
not in motion today. The area is tourist-friendly complete with
camel.
Back on the bus and we head toward Homs via the Al Hosn Citadel
better known to westerners as the Crac de Chevaliers.
The citadel is approached by a steep narrow road winding up
through congested city streets. Our driver proves quite capable.
The Crac de Chevaliers was the strongest military installation
of the Crusaders. It was built in order to control the so-called
"Homs Gap", the gateway to Syria. It was through this
passage that Syria communicated with the Mediterranean. In ancient
times the importance of this strategic corridor was immense.
It was of crucial importance to the Crusaders and other foreign
invaders in their conquest of the coast. After the battle at
Hattin in 1187 and the defeat of Richard Lionheart, Sal al-Din
wisely bypassed the citadel. Conflict over the Crac des Chevaliers
continued through the ages. It was a fierce and bloody dispute,
but in the end, Sultan Beybars managed to recover it in 1271
through a military trick. He attacked the citadel from the backside
and after one month of fighting was victorious.
Crac des Chevaliers was built on the site of a former castle
erected by the Emirs of Homs to accommodate Kurdish garrisons;
Crac is a modification of the Arab word Qal'a, which means citadel.
The citadel covers an area of 3000 square meters and has 13
huge towers, in addition to many stores, tanks, corridors, bridges
and stables. It can accommodate 5000 soldiers with their horses,
their equipment and provisions for five years. |
Night
falls in the late afternoon at this time of the year in Syria.
We headed east from the city of Homs into the Syrian desert
and arrived in Palmyra after dark. We struck out into the desert
on a lonesome road toward Tadmor—the Arab and ancient
Semitic name for Palmyra. It was exciting to see a sign pointing
to Damascus to the south and Baghdad to the east.
When you arrive at this desert oasis in the dark, the first
thing you see is the Arab fortress on a promontory overlooking
the whole flat oasis. It is brilliantly lit and very impressive.
The Muslims built it in the 17th century. There has been a fortress
there probably forever. It is known in Arabic as Qua’at
ibn Maan.
Our hotel was at the edge of the oasis and we could see the
lighted fortress above us to the West. We arrived in time for
dinner and made our plans for the next morning. Our guide, Hussein
, as well as Lale and Tan, encouraged the hale and hearty get
up well before sunrise to go up to the Arab fortress to watch
the sun rise over the oasis and the desert.
Several of us did get up about 4:30 and loaded into a van for
the ride up. It was cold, dark and windy. The reward came as
the sun rose revealing the ancient city of Roman ruins at our
feet. We also were aware of the vast oasis full of date palms.
We could hardly wait to see these ruins in more detail after
breakfast.
Palmyra (the Roman name) is certainly full of history and perhaps,
has the most history in the smallest place. Because it is an
oasis, it has been on every east-west path connecting the mouth
of the Euphrates with the Mediterranean Sea. It was part of
the Silk Route. It has always provided water and respite in
a rather bleak, stony desert.
It’s history goes back through the millennia but the most
colorful part of its history is what is still visible today
and actually starts just before the Christian era when the Euphrates
was the eastern edge of the Roman Empire. It became a very wealthy
center because it collected customs duty on all the products
which were traded on the east-west route. It also was very attractive
to the Persian Empire and many of the riches still depicted
in their statuary reflect this influence.
What we see today are basically Roman ruins, which have been
quite carefully restored and have not suffered too much from
pollution. The desert air has preserved a lot.
Going back about three thousand years, there has been a tell
of special significance in this area. Today, there is a big
sanctuary area dedicated to the most important god, Bel. Our
travels through the ruins began here and Hussein did a terrific
job pointing out all the magnificent details and explaining
how these early sanctuaries were built, used and the significance
of all the architectural details. Only animals were sacrificed
here. After a sacrifice, a huge feast would be held. These sacrifices
were gifts to the gods.
The architectural detail represents some of the earliest and
most beautiful examples of symbols still used today. There are
pomegranates, grapes, dates, palms, pineapples and some frescoes.
There are also lotus flowers, symbols of the sun and moon (also
gods) and evil is depicted as a snake. The decorations are really
luxurious and show the richness of this crossroad of civilization.
Next, Hussein led us along the Roman structures, which are magnificent
and big. It is amazing they were able to build something of
this scale in a desert setting. Many stones came from places
like Egypt and were often reused. There is a beautiful arch
dedicated to Hadrian at the eastern end of the great colonnade.
This dates back to about the second century BC. This was a full
city with the baths of Diocletian, other sanctuaries, a restored
theatre, which is used today for festival productions, a senate
building and a very impressive tetrapylon. Much of the statuary
is no longer here but the columns make a strong statement.
The next important feature of Palmyra is the area to the west,
which is a necropolis. These were built in the third century
AD. There are at least 150 tombs that are underground and well
preserved by the desert climate. There are also funerary towers.
These Semitic peoples believed in life after death and built
elaborate structures to house the bodies. The tombs here held
large numbers of people. You could buy spaces in them and they
are beautifully decorated with frescoes and statuary. Hussein
used some keys that are about 12” long to open the gate
to the most impressive tomb and we descended into it. There
are beautiful vaulted ceilings and pictures depicting people
in lavish Persian style clothes. I found these tombs similar
to the Etruscan tombs in Italy.
The history of this desert oasis is full of wonderful stories.
The Arab queen Zenobia fought against the Romans and was taken
hostage at the Euphrates and spent her last days in Rome after
272 AD. She had been the Queen of Syria, Palestine and part
of Egypt. This marked the end of Palmyra’s heyday.
These desert peoples were a buffer between the Persian Empire
and the Romans. They actually spoke Aramaic and were not Latin
speaking. They wrote in an alphabet that looks a little like
Armenian today and reads from right to left. They devised an
early use of letters which represented sounds as opposed to
the pictorial hieroglyphics of Egypt.
We were reeling after such a rich morning and Hussein suggested
we might enjoy lunch in the town of Palmyra. We quickly agreed
to a local specialty called “mensaf” which was prepared
in big round covered trays. It is a Bedouin specialty and consists
of rice with lamb and yogurt, peas and almonds. It is delicious.
We enjoyed fresh orange juice. This little town featured fresh
oranges from the oasis and also had dates hanging everywhere.
We also ate dates and they were delicious. The restaurant had
carpets on the walls and red fluorescent bulbs in the lights.
Most colorful.
There is a strong Bedouin influence here now and the shopping
was alluring with carpets, necklaces and other jewelry. The
other special feature had been camel rides for the most hearty.
Lots of fun.
After lunch we headed west again toward Damascus. We had hoped
to see some horse racing while in Palmyra but there was none
that day. It does have a very nice racetrack and the Arabian
horses are certainly, world famous.
We passed phosphate mines and grazing sheep. The desert is pretty
bleak. There is electricity along these desert roads and an
important railroad line that goes into Iraq. There were many
Bedouin, black tents that are close to the road. They don’t
wander much anymore—trucks bring them sheep and supplies!
Also water is brought and kept in tanks.
The grand finale of the afternoon was a stop at the Baghdad
Café. They sell olive oil and its products, desert coral
and beverages etc. There was an oud (a lute) made of an olive
oil can. A colorful end to a wonderful day.
We arrived in time for dinner in our Damascus hotel. This was
an abrupt return to the 21st century.
To me, this day was a dream come true. |
Our
day in Damascus starts with a sobering reminder of how very
important we as travelers are. Our contribution to the places
we visit and the people we meet must be as ambassadors of the
world, and not just of our own culture. I am ever reminded that
although cultures can be strikingly different, people of different
cultures are essentially the same. We are all trying to survive
in a world that at times makes little sense, make a living,
support our families, and treat each other with dignity and
respect.
Carol and I stopped at the front desk of the hotel to check
on our laundry. As I was talking to the man at the desk, Carol
struck up a conversation with a man at the other end of the
desk. He was a very pleasant man in his forties. He asked us
where we were from and we told him “America”. He
told us he was from Iraq. He was an agricultural engineer with
the Ministry of Agriculture. He had been in Damascus on business
and now was trying to return to Baghdad, where he lived with
his family. His parents lived in Mosul. He had been unable to
return for three days because the Baghdad airport was closed
due to bombing. He could not get to Baghdad and did not know
the status of his family. They lived in an extremely dangerous
part of the city.
We tried rather inadequately to tell him that we were sorry
for the condition that his country was in and the plight that
he, his family and country men were in. He told us that America
had ruined his country. He said that Iraq had been the wealthiest
country in the Middle East and now was without proper water,
food or electricity. He told us that he did not blame us, but
blamed our government. He said, “This is a war of governments.”
We are constantly amazed at how most peoples of the world, no
matter what condition they may be in or what condition their
country may be in, can separate government from people. It is
probably one of the greatest gifts that traveling has given
to those of us who do so. Whatever we see and experience in
our travels, the most important thing it does for us is open
our eyes and minds and make us realize that while peace on earth
may be a naive concept, it is nonetheless a concept that must
always govern the way we interact with all other citizens of
this planet.
On to Damascus, the oldest capital city in the world (5,000
years ±).
As we cross the street on our way to the National Museum of
Damascus, Hussein points out the Hejaz Railway Station, where
Lawrence of Arabia departed for points south. The building no
longer operates as a railway station, but as I looked closely
at the building I was sure that I saw Peter O’Toole, dressed
in Bedouin garb, enter the station on his way to Wadi Rum. The
railway station was once the northern terminus of a railway
line that took pilgrims all the way to Medina in Saudi Arabia.
The National Museum of Damascus – Façade from 8th
Century desert hunting lodge. Of particular interest in the
museum (aside from the motorcycle of Lawrence) are the Ugaritic
tablets from the 14th Century BC which record stories of the
Old Testament in one of the earliest known alphabets.
The Christian Quarter and Church of St. Ananias - St. Ananias,
first Bishop of Damascus is said to have cured Saul (later St.
Paul) of blindness when Saul was stricken by a bright light
and heard the voice of Jesus. Saul was later baptized into Christianity
and took the name of Paul of Tarsus.
The Citadel of Damascus – Was used to preserve Damascus
against the Crusaders and the Mongols.
Souk Al Hamideyeh – Most important market in the Old City.
Runs 500 meters to a Roman Arch and then to the Umayyad Mosque.
The wide hall covers shoppers as well as worshippers heading
to the mosque.
Azem Palace – Nationalized in 1952 and a prime example
of Damascene architecture. Learned about Ugly Fruit.
Burial Place of Saladin – Beloved Muslim leader, born
in Iraq, who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187.
(Depicted in the movie, “Kingdom of Heaven”)
Umayyad Mosque – 4th most important in Islam. Was first
a pagan temple, then a Roman temple to worship Jupiter, then
the Christian Cathedral of Damascus, finally a mosque. It purportedly
holds the head of John the Baptist. The mosque is the only mosque
with three minarets – one Turkish, one Egyptian, and one
Damascene.
Sayyida Ruquaya mosque – named for the granddaughter of
Mohamed. Shi’ite holy place. A pilgrimage site for Iranian
Muslims.
Dinner in the Old City – What can I say about the food
– another gastronomical delight.
Finally, after another exhausting day, we returned to the hotel.
I know that we will soon leave Damascus and I am saddened by
the fact that while we have seen many things, we do not have
the time to truly get to know this fascinating city.
Our day ended as it had started. We ran into the man from Baghdad
and spent some time talking with him. We were saddened by the
circumstances of his life. In the end, all we could wish for
him was that his life would change for the better and that he
and his family would remain safe. Of all the things that we
see and all the places that we visit, it is, in the end, the
people that compel us to continue our travels.
As I reflect on my notes of this day and the many photographs
Carol and I took, I cannot say that my memories are any less
a blur now than was the actual day. While we saw many wonderful
things, it is always the people that highlight our journeys.
Damascus is a city of several million people with no public
transportation. Every day on every street is rush hour. But
it is this chaos that gives it so much of its charm. The gracious
people of Damascus have existed in this chaotic state for centuries.
As we leave this day, we are reminded that the people of this
troubled area of the world do not exist in the turmoil, hatred
and religious fanaticism that our media and government wants
us to believe. Syria is absolutely awesome. Lale once told us
that if we thought the people in Turkey were nice, wait until
we visited Syria. I’m not sure that I will downgrade Turkish
people to the second nicest people of the world, but I will
say that the Syrians are certainly up toward the top. Now, if
we can only convince. |
Were
we being fools to cross into Lebanon today? Several of us admitted
to qualms and to a certain shaky feeling in our insides -- before,
during, and after today’s visit. I was really concerned
when Tony’s papers turned up unaccountably “missing.”
Going as Americans (we were told no one would recognize us --
ha! Or ha-ha!) into the Beka’a Valley was a calculated
risk that we were anxious to take. At least our heads were.
We met our Lebanese guide, Elissar Baalbeki when she boarded
the bus near the border. The spelling is a guess -- she said
her surname meant person from Baalbek, although her family no
longer lives there. Elissar was a charmer -- young, attractive,
extremely intelligent and fluent. The name Elissar refers to
Dido, Queen of Carthage, whose second name was Elissa in English.
Elissar is a Christian, but her political allegiance seems to
be to Hezbollah, the Party of God, which has its main power
source in the Beka’a Valley. She sees them as heroes for
their 1982 defense against the Israeli invasion. We could see
where her support came from: part of her country is in enemy
hands. She was passionate in her explanation of the Farms and
Flowers of Shebaa-- it’s not on my map-- next to the Golan
Heights, in Israeli hands.
Immediately we could see the bomb damage -- craters and destroyed
bridges resulting from the Israeli bombing. And when I searched
the map for the Flowers of Shebaa, I found instead Qiryat Semyona,
the site in Israel where reporters had covered the bombing.
It was just a “marker-width” away from what I think
is the Shebaa site. And maybe it’s not in Israel at all
-- nothing is quite so certain as it seemed before we visited
that complex tangle of imaginary political borderlines and real
human territorial attachments.
Lebanon’s only natural resource, Elissar told us, is water.
Rising air wet with Mediterranean moisture hits the mountains
and dumps its rains on Lebanon, leaving Syria on the other side
of the range arid in the rainshadow. Now that hashish is illegal,
apples are the number one money crop, but we visited another
agricultural site: a vineyard established in the nineteenth
century by French Jesuit monks. Several of us had enjoyed the
wines of Ksaara in Damascus, preferring them to the more astringent
products of Syria. Those Frenchmen know their wine! And the
locals who sheltered in the wine-storage caves during WW I learned
the business well.
Chateau Ksara wines are really good, as the buying frenzy which
followed the winetasting amply demonstrated. Despite the weight
of our luggage, we were willing to add two bottles to the collection,
as many of us did. How much made it to the US Customs desk is
a matter for idle speculation.
The rifles (an AK-47 and an M-16) we saw in the arms of Lebanese
soldiers on opposite sides of the bus when we entered Lebanon
reminded me, that even as weapons from the Cold War’s
“East” and “West” exist side by side,
Lebanon’s people have long been drawn to opposite power
poles outside the country, and no outside power group has a
lock on this country -- today.
From the bus windows Lebanon appeared more “like me”
than Syria, less alien. There was little trash, the homes were
neatly painted and some even landscaped. And yet, it’s
close to Syria in blood. Elissar told us, “Everyone has
Syrian relatives.” And there are other ties to the region.
For example, Istikbal, a Turkish furniture firm, operates factories
in the Beka’a. But economic connections and blood tie
the area to the wider middle east while politics divides them,
from Syria, from Turkey, from the international commercial world.
They look like “us” -- they’re economically
connected to “us” -- and yet the divisions and hostilities
are deep and implacable.
During the same noontime as our crossing into Lebanon (but apparently
slightly earlier) an incident occurred of the sort that we see
on the evening news at home, representing this area. An armed
Syrian identified in the Jordan Times as Omar Abdullah, a leader
of an islamist group called “Tawheed and Jihad”
attempted to cross into Lebanon using bad documents. He fled
when questioned, and about half a kilometer later the Syrian
border guards caught up to him. Some reports were circulating
in the restaurant at lunch. This story was reported in Wednesday
(Nov 25)’s Jordan Times. I couldn’t even begin to
summarize their analysis -- the situation was so complex. But
Elissar (perhaps knowing about the event, perhaps not) said
that unknown, unidentified “people” want to get
Lebanon into a civil war. She said, “We don’t want
war again -- we know it, from 16 years ago. “ She said,
with a kind of despairing hope, “Think before you take
action.”
Carved stones and broken monuments pale beside events of such
immediacy. After lunch overlooking the Baalbek ruins from a
sixth floor window, we set out to try to make those ancient
stones live in our imaginations. Baalbek dwarfs description.The
site is not so extensive as Jerash, nor so developed and reconstructed
as Basra, but it exudes power in the same way some Christian
cathedrals do. “Know that I am God” is probably
not a fair quote, but it rumbled though those rocks in my imagination.
No wonder statues of Baal in Hebrew territories were destroyed!
Huge roundels of stone were once part of the tallest pillars
in the world, and it makes a human feel puny.
Half-expecting lightning from Zeus or Jupiter or Baal, our crowd
crawled over the stones and positioned ourselves for maximum
photographic value at sunset.
Despite my eager anticipation of Baalbek and the Beka’a
Valley, it was a bombed-out bridge on a major street, with its
UN replacement -- or maybe it was Cynthia’s purchase of
a Hezbollah t-shirt-- that will stick in my memory. Politics
trumped history today.
Peace roses, yellow with a red heart, grow outside the winecaves
of Ksara.
I think they express our hope too. |
I
woke up at 5:30. It was a clear cool day. I missed the cereal
and yogurt we had had in other hotels. We left the hotel heading
south on Syria Highway 5 enroute to Bosra. We passed through
the bread basket of Syria where they raise grapes, olives, pistachio
nuts, wheat and vegetables. Many migrants were working in the
tomato fields. The migrants are Bedouins who live in nearby
tent camps. They may have two wives and they have many children
to help in the fields.
At 9:45 we arrived at Bosra, formerly Nabatian but occupied
by the Romans in 67 BC. The Romans built the amphitheater in
106 AD to honor Emperor Trajan. It has 15,000 seats and is still
in use. The main theater is basalt (volcanic rock) but the columns
and the stage are limestone. There were three tiers of seats:
Nobles sat in the lowest section, Plebians in the middle section
and women in the worst seats in the highest section. I was surprised
to see Morning Glories blooming when we made our WC stop upon
entering. We entered through a statuary museum with an interesting
hunting mosaic on the wall with all sorts of odd looking animals.
One scene showed men trapping falcons. David and Sarah posed
behind two headless statues—just like Disneyland or Nemrut.
The stage brought out the ham in us: we sang “Happy Birthday”
to Ben and David gave a bit of oratory from high school Midsummer
Night’s Dream (he wanted to be an actor but flunked out
of acting school and had to settle for medicine). Long after
the Romans left, the Muslims fortified the theater by raising
a wall around it. Bosra was on the main caravan route and was
a trade center.
Soon after we left Bosra, we arrived at the Syria/Jordan border
at Dara. We said goodbye to our excellent Syrian guide, Hussein
Henna. We got out of the bus. Passports were collected and stamped.
The men were instructed to walk through on the right side of
the border gate house. The women were told to go to a Women’s
Area on the other side of the gate house. In the Women’s
Area, Lale was asked how many women were in the group and what
their nationalities were. Something was scribbled on a piece
of paper and she was told to “give it to the man.”
Our bags were unloaded from the bus, scanned, and re-loaded
onto the bus (by our men). While we waited, we found a bank
and exchanged Syrian pounds for Jordanian dinars. Back on the
bus we met our Jordanian guide Adnan. Adnan was educated as
an aircraft mechanic but couldn’t find work in Jordan
so he worked for his brother in St. Louis, Missouri for 10 years.
Now he has a 5000 sq. ft. home near Amman and he invited us
to come to visit him.
Our next stop was Jerash ruins. French archaeologists began
rebuilding the ruins in 1929 and it is still a work in progress.
Our first stop was the Hippodrome where races are still held.
We visited the Temple of Zeus and the oval plaza and then the
theater. It is basalt with 3000 seats and it is cut 600 feet
into the hillside.
As we started to enter the theater, Adnan held us back then
went ahead. He returned and a mighty noise arose from inside.
There was a boom, boom, boom and rat-a-tat-tat and a bagpipe
band struck up “I Love a Lassie.” There ahead of
us, marching around the orchestra of the theater, was a 4-piece
Arab band. They were British trained and long retired from the
Jordanian Army. The four man band consisted of a bass drum,
snare drum, and two bagpipes and they put on a grand show. The
played “Yankee Doodle” and “The March to Finchley”
and other Scottish airs. Finally they stood in place and played
“Happy Birthday” to Ben Cameron. Other parts of
the ruins included the Temple of Artemis, the Propylaeum Church
(Byzantine), and a huge column that Adnan could move slightly.
It was getting cool by 5 PM when we got back to the bus.
We arrived in Amman (ancient Philadelphia) at 6 PM. We sang
“Happy Birthday” to our Syrian bus driver Immad
and told him goodbye. Dinner included a birthday cake for Ben.
We walked 3.7 miles today. |
After
a bountiful breakfast buffet replete with eggs cooked any way
you want, we head out to see Petra with our guide. On the way
are several Indiana Jones trinket shops which, somehow, seem
very appropriate. At the Petra Visitor’s Center, we have
our last WC stop for two hours. Our guide buys our tickets and
we enter this magical, mystical place that has been home to
many ancient peoples. Petra was “lost” to the general
public for over 1,000 years but, thankfully, rediscovered. In
the meantime, the Bedouins continued to live in and around Petra
and carefully guarded the site.
Our tour is over about lunch time when we arrive at the lunch
buffet deep in the canyon amid the Roman ruins. Some of us return
to our hotel while some choose to explore the carved sandstone
buildings higher up in the canyon. After dark, some return to
the canyon which has been lit with luminaries all the way to
the Treasury building which is lit with over 2,000 luminaries.
Magically, a bottle of celebratory wine appears and our fellow
travelers celebrate their day in Petra.
Humans first set foot in the area in the 8th millennium BC but
the region’s occupants didn’t enter the written
record until Edomite King Bekem unwisely denied Moses and his
follower’s passage through his territory on their way
to the Promised Land. The Nabateans arrived in the 6th century
BC. Originally nomads, they settled down in the canyon because
of Petra’s abundant water resources. Over the next three
centuries, they carved temples and various other buildings out
of the sandstone in and out of the canyons of Petra. Later,
although the Romans were everywhere around Petra, they didn’t
occupy this special place until 106 AD. Then they did what the
Romans did so well: built streets, erected buildings and shops,
built rain collection systems, etc. After an earthquake in 363
AD, trade routes shifted and the 30,000 inhabitants of Roman
Petra drifted away and Petra fell into rubble, guarded over
by the Bedouins.
Petra defies accurate description but surprises and assaults
one’s eyes and spirit with its colors, light and shadow.
Who knew that sandstone came in so many colors? The areas of
colored sandstone appear to be ancient petroglyphs. And the
ancient Roman ruins of a city that once held 30,000 people reminds
us of the Roman’s engineering skills.
With visitors from many countries, locals and the Bedouins selling
donkey, horse and camel rides, life arrives anew each day in
the canyons of Petra. Mother Nature did a fine job of creating
this beautiful canyon in Jordan which the Nabateans improved
upon. |
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