Visit Damascus, Syria
The Umayyad Mosque is at the heart of the labyrinthine streets and alleys of Old Damascus, where traders display their wares against a backdrop of Corinthian columns and delicate Mamluke stone-work.
Umayyad mosque, Damascus
Though several cities in this region claim to be the longest continually inhabited city in the world, Damascus has a better claim than most.
Archaeological remains dating to the third millennia BC have been found and King David, the Persians and Alexander the Great were some of the city’s earliest conquerors.
Around Damascus
The Romans and Arabs left a more visible legacy. The city walls date back to the Romans, as does the Biblical Straight Street, whilst the Caliph Khalid ibn al-Walid, ruler of the Islamic world, moved his capital to Damascus in the 8th century AD.
To celebrate this, he converted a Christian basilica into the most magnificent mosque. Mosaics, precious stones, gold and priceless carpets were all incorporated in a building exercise that took 1,000 stonemasons ten years to complete and soaked up every penny of tax from the Islamic Empire for seven years.
The Umayyad Mosque
The Umayyad Mosque is now at the heart of the labyrinthine streets and alleys of Old Damascus where traders display their wares against a backdrop of Corinthian columns and delicate Mamluke stone-work. It is a scene that belongs just as much to the Ottoman era as to the Syria of today.