travelblog

On the Road to Damascus Filmed in 2008 Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world with a history that goes back to to10,000 BC. Damascus, which has many ancient pilgrimage sites for people of various faiths, is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world with a history that goes back to to10,000 BC. Visitors of this ancient city vary between religios pilgrims looking for an authentic spiritual experience to history buffs looking to travel back in time to the earliest days of civilization, businessmen, merchants and international students. One can still find some authenticity inside the old- walled city such as ancient narrow alleys, the tiny shops, outdoor hooka cafes, a millennium-old public bath houses, the indoor suq, the Citadel, the Chapel of Ananias, St. Paul's Chapel, the Mausoleum of Saladin, the Ecole of Azm, the shrines of the two granddaughters of Prophet Mohammed, the Grand Umayyad Mosque which contains the Shrine of John the Baptist and the Minaret of Jesus. This Grand Mosque is an architectural wonder. It was a Roman temple to Jupiter which became during the Rome empire, then a mosque. The colorful history of Damascus makes it a powerful cultural, economic center and also an important place in the traditions for the three Abrahamic faiths. Modernizations has brought has affected much of Damascus which has outgrown its walled ancient quarter. As a result, the city has lost much of its ancient charm due to other causes as well such...