Syria Stories


Syria, Mohammed and Mark Twain

Today I'm leaving Lebanon. This is a country from which I had not expected much actually, but I have been positively surprised and I will definitely visit here again. I had originally planned to go to Damascus at this point, but in the past few days the situation in Syria has gone from bad to worse. There are even talks on the news of them shutting d...


Death by Souq

There is evidence that Aleppo has been continuously inhabited for 8000 years. It may be older than Damascus, but it's less charming and tourist-friendly, so it gets less visitors. Aleppo is a city for it's inhabitants, full of people going about their daily chores, unpolished and unsanitized. If you think it's tricky getting though a souq crowded wi...


Hama and Hospitaliers

The city of Hama is famous for it giant wooden water wheels, called norias. They are picturesque to be sure, but are not the predominant feature of the place. What strikes me most about Hama is the general sense of a theme park in disrepair. Or of a much loved and time-worn summer destination in the off-season. The rivers are lined with empty, rusti...


Dreamy Hubris in the Desert

The rise and fall of Palmyra is a simple case of hubris. The city's location was key: an oasis in the desert along the spice caravan from the east where merchants passing through could be housed, fed and taxed. Important enough to fall under the influence of Rome but remote enough to govern itself, Palmyra quickly turned into a beautiful, rich and inde...