2006.05.16_Farewell Damascus

Before hiring a service taxi from Baramke Station, we wandered in the old city of Damascus one last time. We had some delicious vanilla ice-cream. A ice-cream cone was only about 15 cents USD. A large crowd of school children gathered around the vendor as we about to walk off.

At Baramke, we hired a taxi to make the trip to Amman of Jordan. We picked a driver in his fifties, who drove back and forth Amman and Damascus. He wore a full set of suit.

It didn't take us much time to go through the passport controls on both the Syrian and Jordanian sides. After 1.5 hour we finally arrived at downtown Amman. We checked at Sydney Hotel, dropped off our bags, and off we go to look for the famous Palestinian juice stands for a cup of refreshment. We had our first Jordanian dinner at Cairo Restaurant.

2006.05.16_Maalula

In the morning we took a minibus from Damascus to Maalula, a small town 50km north of the Syrian capital. Backed against rocky cliffs, Maalula is a small place of rich history and religion. Several Christian monasteries and around 2000 inhabitants. The town is famous for the last town in the world where inhabitants can speak Aramaic, an ancient language that people spoke in Jesus' era, including Jesus himself.

We get off at a fork road. Immediately we went up to the cliffside Mar Sarkis Monastery. We made a short hike to tour around Mar Sarkis. The gorge is so narrow here that it strongly resembles a miniature of the Siq in Petra. We reached a plateau with good views of the village. We turned back to the monastery and made a brief tour of the interior. At the end, a priest offered us a special wine prepared from the monastery.

It was unfortunate that we couldn't stay longer in Maalula because according to our schedule, we were due to travel south to Amman of Jordan in the afternoon. We had another brief glance of Maalula, passed by some new concrete houses under construction, before heading back to Damascus by minibus.

2006.05.15_Damascus

In Damascus, we decided to visit the National Archaeological Museum. It has a fabulous archaeological collections from all over Syria, from pre-Classical periods up to Islamic and Byzantine times. I was particularly interested in the Ugarit inscriptions. There are the earliest alphabet that we have discovered so far. At the museum shop, I bought a necklace carved with Ugarit alphabet.

MC and I passed dinner. We strolled from district to district and ended up reaching the Mezzeh District, a wealthy area dotted with various embassies. We passed by many embassies and walked through a market area. We passed by street after street of well-maintained French mansions, from which piano music could be heard occasionally.

Back at the hostel, we bumped into a German photography student and an Australian Chinese. Similar to us, the German student visited Turkey before coming to Syria. He planned to travel until mid August. The Australian Chinese is an experienced traveler. He has been to many places in the world. Iran, India, and Pakistan are among his favorites.

In the evening, MC, HC and I went to Galaxy Internet cafe to go online. At 01:00, MC, SH and NU took a taxi for the airport. Their Middle Eastern journey had come to an end. On the other hand, HC, AK and I continued our journey as we entered the final day in Syria.

2006.05.15_Bosra Roman Theatre

The best preserved remains in Bosra is the impressive Citadel Theatre, a Classical Roman theatre embraced by an Islamic citadel. The construction began in Trajan's time when a 9000 seat theatre was built in this newly selected capital of the Roman Province of Arabia. The fusion came under the Muslim rule when the citadel with eight guard towers was built to defend against the Crusade.

A bridge over a moat led us into a entry hall of the citadel. Walking through the Islamic citadel to enter the theatre was like walking through a labyrinth of tunnels. Without proper signage, it is quite possible to temporary get lost in the underground portion of this complex. Steep stairs and dark corridors led to the entryways of the theatre. Under the bright sun, the dark tone of the basalt, the main construction material of the entire city of Bosra, was clearly shown.

We stayed at the theatre for about half an hour, found our way onto the stage, and hurried out of the labyrinth-like tunnel to exit the complex. We made it on time to the bus station to take the 14:00 bus back to Damascus.

2006.05.15_Bosra

From Baramke Station we hopped on a minibus for Bosra. Bosra is a World Heritage town that contains artifacts and ruins from many periods, including Nabatean, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic. At the Agora, we were approached by a local who claimed to be an assistant of a French archaeologist. As a temporary guide, he took us to have a quick tour of various archaeologist sites in Bosra, and led us to visit his aunt at a domestic home. We parted with our temporary guide at the entrance of the Roman Threater before getting in.

2006.05.14_Souk, Damascus

After Umayyad Mosque, we wandered in the souk. We discovered an unique shop that sells all kinds of textile, scarfs, bags, and embroideries made by Syrian and Palestinian women. I bought two scarves made with camel hair and silk. AK bought a piece of embroidery that depicts a Palestinian marketplace. After some souvenir shopping, we went to a shop called Bakdash, which is Syria's oldest ice-cream parlour. Bakdash has been around since 1890, selling rosewater and almond ice-cream topped with fresh pistachio. Each of us had a cone, and it was delicious.

2006.05.14_Umayyad Mosque, Damascus

After checking in at Al Rabie Hotel, we ventured out immediately to explore the famous Syrian capital. We walked through the busy streets and congested traffic, passed by the citadel, stroll through a covered souk, and at last reached the gate of the magnificent Umayyad Mosque, probably one of the most holiest Islamic sites in the world. The marble floor of the entry courtyard is clean and smooth. Like others, we took off our shoes, wandered in the courtyard and admired the two beautiful fountains.

The Umayyad Mosque was built in early 8th century by the Umayyad Caliphate at the shrine where Christian and Muslim pilgrims came to pay respect to St. John the Baptist. The small shrine which housed the head of St. John the Baptist still exists today within the Mosque. Inside the Mosque, it was fairly easy to locate the shrine of St. John the Baptist. It was kept in an elegant Classical structure with green-glazed archways on all four sides. Also kept in the Mosque included the head of Husayn, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.

After a brief visit of the interior, we walked out to the courtyard and found our way to the Mausoleum of Saladin, the famous and powerful Muslim knight who fought off the Crusades and recaptured Palestine from the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Mausoleum is a small stone building in which a large coffin covered with green textile is placed at the centre.

2006.05.14_Palmyra

Photos: Tetrapylon, Funerary Temple, Funerary Temple and Citadel beyond, Theatre, Monumental Arch and Colonnade Street.

We get up 05:30 in the morning, and left Citadel Hotel at 06:00. We spent about three hours to tour the ruins in the morning sun. Named "Bride of the Desert", Palmyra lies on an ancient desert trade route between Homs in the west and Dura-Europos in the east. From Homs merchants could go further west to Tyre, a large port city at today's Lebanon with all sort of trade routes in the Mediterranean; and from Dura-Europos, the trade route ran eastern along the Euphrates, passing by cities in the Mesopotamia such as Babylon, then to the Persian Gulf, where access to the Indian Ocean and China could be made. Palmyra gained significance after the Nabatean Empire collapsed in AD 106, when earlier trading usually went through the southern routes across Arabia and converged at Petra before reaching the Mediterranean. In the first century AD, Palmyra became part of the Roman Empire and one of the wealthiest cities in Near East. However by mid third century, as the Sassanid Empire emerged in the lands of Persia and beyond, and disrupted trading along the Silk Road, Palmyra's fortunate turned to a gradual decline.

We left the ruins at 08:45, and headed to the post office to mail out some postcards. We dropped by the Palmyra Museum to see the mummies, and headed over to the storefront of Pancake House to wait for our prearranged transportation that would send us to the closest bus station. To much of our surprise a pickup truck came instead of a mini-van. So we all sat down at the back of the pickup truck for the 5-minute journey in the Syria desert. The truck took us to a local tea-house. Nothing here resembled a bus station, but it was the right place where we hopped on the regional bus that bounded to the Syrian capital Damascus. After about 3.5 hours we finally arrived at the renowned Middle Eastern city of Damascus.

2006.05.13_Palmyra Funeral Towers and Temple of Bel

At around 14:30 we finally arrived at Palmyra, the famous desert oasis of magnificent ruins from the time dated back to Alexander the Great. We checked in at Citadel Hotel. The staff asked if we wanted to hire a car to visit the tomb towers, and we agreed. We stepped out to the nearby Pancake House to get some snack. Later we found out that there was supposed to be student discount for the transportation. We asked the hotel staff again at Citadel and after some bargaining he finally agreed to offer us discount. At the village museum we bought the tickets for the tomb towers, and then the six of us squeezed into a small red car for the tombs.

Our hired guide from the museum waited for us at the entrance of one tower tomb. He told us some history, and unlocked the door of a well preserved tower for our visit. Many towers in the valley are badly damaged by earthquakes throughout the centuries. The one we visited was a rare exception. Inside we could see the slots on the walls where coffins were once placed. We walked up to the third level, saw many sculptural portraits of the deceased, beautiful and colourful fresco of stars and constellations on the ceiling. After, we visited an underground tomb in which fresco is still well preserved. I can recognized scenes of the Trojan War with Achilles and Odysseus on one of the fresco. Tower tombs at Palmyra are unique examples of Classical necropolis. Some tower tombs can be dated back to the Hellenistic period. Inside there is a narrow staircase that can reach several floors high. Dead bodies were placed on landings and sealed with a sculptural portrait. Some of the larger towers could hold up to 400 corpses.

After the tombs, we had a moment to visit the Temple of Bel. It is the single largest building in Palmyra, and one of the largest temple complex in the Classical world. Bel was the main god of Babylon. The temple was erected in the first century, with influences from various roots from Classical Greece and Rome, Ptolemaic Egypt, to Syria itself. We bumped into the previous guide again, and he told us some brief information about the temple. We walked through the main gate into a huge courtyard that was once surrounded by Corinthian colonnades. At the centre stands the ruin of the Sanctuary of Bel, where we could admire some detail relief carving.

At last, our little red car drove us up to the citadel behind the ruins of Palmyra, where we could watch the sunset. Nothing spectacular but it was a decent way to end the day. In the evening we headed back to Pancake House again for dinner.

2006.05.13_Beehive Houses

Our second stop was the Village of Twalid Dabaghein where we visited the unique vernacular architecture - beehive houses. Beehive houses are conical houses made with mud bricks. The mass of the masonry and the high volume of the dome are perfect to keep out the summer heat. We were invited to enter one of the houses for tea. Chickens and a herd of sheep wandered in front of the house. Our host showed us his guest-book and offered us mint tea. As we passed around the sugar and tea pot, I began to observe the interior of the beehive house. The interior was painted mainly in white. A fan was hung from the very top of the spiral brickwork. Several decorations were also hung on the wall, including a poster of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad and a few textile works. As I finished writing my comment in the guest book, an old man who was the host's neighbour and his young daughter came in the house to chat with us. I brought out my sketchbook and let the old man and his daughter to write something down. I showed them a photo of my birthplace Hong Kong, and they seemed very delighted and curious. That's it. We had some pleasant moments in the beehive house, which was actually quite cool despite the late morning sun outside. At the end, we left some tips for the host.

2006.05.13_Qasr Ibn Wardan

On our return to Cairo Hotel, we passed by a house called as the Palestinian Institute. There was a mural on its front facade, expressing its manifesto in English.

We returned to Cairo Hotel and joined another organized tour by the hotel, a journey that would take us from Hama to our next destination, the desert oasis of Palmyra. The first stop on our way was the Roman ruins of Qasr Ibn Wardan. In the middle of an arid landscape where ancient Romans marked their eastern boundary, Emperor Justinian built this enormous complex in the 6th century attempting to impress the desert nomads. A mixture of local materials and Byzantine styles imported from Constantinople created a magnificent architecture that once encompassed a palace, church and barracks. To the Romans, this site was once a beacon on the border that separated civilized and the uncivilized world. The strips of dark basalt stones on the facades create a strong sense of horizontality against the desert horizon, articulating the grandeur of both the structure and the vastness of the surrounding landscape.

2006.05.13_Norias of Hama

At 06:30 in the morning, HC, MC and I went to check out the famous norias of Hama. We walked through the old town of Hama and reached a bridge where we could take some good photos of the enormous noria structures. The norias are no longer in use for practical purpose. Though in ancient times they were essential to bring water uphill to irrigate farms.