{"id":256401,"date":"2019-09-10T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=256401"},"modified":"2019-09-12T20:36:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T23:36:38","slug":"a-1200-kilometer-journey-through-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/a-1200-kilometer-journey-through-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"A 1,200-kilometer journey through Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Damascus \u2013 Syria\u2019s Ministry of Tourism invited journalists from several countries to visit the 61st<\/sup> Damascus International Fair<\/a>, as well as historical and religious sites damaged during the war that broke out in 2011. During a week in late August and early September. Professionals from Argentina, Cuba, Iraq, Oman, the Czech Republic, and Brazil\u2019s ANBA journeyed across over 1,200 kilometers, spanning the capital, in the southwest, and the countryside and coast, in the northwest. The agency is featuring a series of reports on the trip starting this Tuesday (10).<\/p>\n

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Mugs portraying Assad, Putin and Nasrallah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to get to Damascus, I had to fly to Beirut, Lebanon, and then cross the border into Syria by car, since not many airlines will fly into Damascus International Airport these days. The heavy military presence along the roads and cities is a constant reminder that the fighting still goes on \u2013 as of this trip, mostly in the northwestern Idlib area.<\/p>\n

In downtown Damascus, telltale signs of war aren\u2019t easily spotted at first, but wherever you look there\u2019s someone in a uniform. Posters of president Bashar Al Assad are everywhere, as are the colors of the Syrian flag. The faces of Syrian government allies, like Russia\u2019s president Vladmir Putin, and of Lebanese movement Hizbollah\u2019s leader Hassan Nasrallah, are also seen all over \u2013 even in souvenirs.<\/p>\n

The capital is still bustling, the traffic heavy, and throngs of people walk about in popular shopping areas like Souq Al-Hamidiyah, the best-known of them all. ANBA had last been to Damascus in late 2010, a few months before the war broke out.<\/p>\n

Heritage<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A soldier patrols the entrance to Souq Al-Hamidiya, in Damascus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Damascus is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on Earth, and its downtown area\u2019s home to remnants from multiple civilizations, like the ruins of the Roman Empire\u2019s Temple of Jupiter, and the Umayyad Mosque, erected in the 8th century during the Umayyad Caliphate, and housing a relic that\u2019s revered by Muslims and Christians alike: the purported skull of Saint John Baptist.<\/p>\n

In an area adjoining the Mosque\u2019s patio, a sanctuary marks the original burial site of the head of Hussein, son to Ali and Fatima and grandson of prophet Muhammad, whose 7th<\/sup> century death during Battle of Karbala, in what is currently Iraq, further compounded the grudge between Shia and Sunni Muslims. This is a Shia pilgrimage site inside the premisses of a Sunni mosque.<\/p>\n

One side of the Mosque harbors the grave of Saladin, the Muslim hero who triumphed over the Crusaders in the 12th <\/sup>century before going on to create the Ayyubid Dynasty and establish a Sultanate spanning Egypt, Syria, Palestine, part of what\u2019s currently Iraq, the Hejaz region in current Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. More recently, this was the burial site of Sunni religious leader Mohammad Said Ramadan Al-Buti, killed in 2013 in Damascus during the Syrian war.<\/p>\n

The Ancient City of Damascus is riddled with palaces, lodges, bathhouses, and markets partly enclosed by medieval walls. The remains of an Umayyad Dynasty palace have been converted into a restaurant and a venue for Sufi dance performances. Sufism is a mystical current of Islam whose best-known practitioners are the whirling dervishes, who attain a state of religious ecstasy through a combination of song, dance and prayer. Before the war, people from around the world used to flock to this site to showcase their art, but this isn\u2019t the case anymore, patrons said.<\/p>\n

(Story continues after photo gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n