Visited during a group tour in April 2023.

It is important that the city was practically not affected by military actions, unlike many other ancient Syrian cities.

It is quite difficult to move around Syria, there are many checkpoints, the only chance is to join an official tour, with a strictly planned route. But in Damascus you could safely go out into the city in the evenings without the control of a guide. 

Damascus is considered the oldest capital in the world and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, but, as usual, the issues of sufficient urbanity are very controversial. But it is undoubtedly one of the greatest cities in the Arab and, more broadly, the entire Islamic world. 

From the period when Damascus was truly the capital of a superpower, the Umayyad Caliphate (661-744), only one building remains, but Umayyad Mosque has the proud title of "the first great mosque", 

The place has been prayed for thousands of years, because there was an Aramaic temple of Hadad, which gradually turned into a Roman temple of Jupiter (a piece of the wall remained), which was transformed into a Byzantine church of John the Baptist (from which the mosque inherited the saint's head).

After the conquest of Damascus during the Jihad, Muslims and Christians prayed in one temple in different halves, until Caliph al-Walid in 705-715 decided not to build a new mosque on this site, which would correspond to the Islamic empire of the Umayyads in terms of its scale and richness of decoration.

It is interesting that, according to Muslim ideas, during the Day of Judgment, it is in this mosque that Christ will appear on earth, even one of the minarets is called that - the minaret of Jesus.

There are many Christian churches, the Church of Ananias is outstanding, one of the most sacred places in Damascus.

According to tradition, it is the house of the Ananias, who brought Saul here (who was struck by lightning on the way to Damascus with a terrible warning), was located here. Ananias cured Saul of blindness, baptized him as Paul, and together they began to spread Christianity.

There is a lot of Ottoman heritage in Damascus, of which the Caravanserai of Pasha Assad stands out. Built by the Ottoman governor of Damascus in 1751-52 and named after him, it is considered one of the most ambitious Ottoman projects in the Syrian capital.

A reminder of the rich trading history of Damascus, which was an important stop on trade routes. Merchants stayed in the rooms on the second floor, and on the first floor there was a fair, where you could immediately buy freshly delivered goods. Very carefully restored, but only the first floor functions as a cafe.

Al-Azm palace, or rather the whole complex, was completed in 1749 for the long-term wali (governor) of Damascus, Asad al-Azm. From the beginning of the 18th century until the death of the Ottoman Empire, his family was the most influential in the Eyalet of Damascus, despite certain periods of disfavor and periodic dispossession by the sultans and viziers sitting in Istanbul. The palace, which the Al-Azmas used from the time of its construction until 1920, is a kind of symbol of their influence. It is believed that it was built on the site where the palaces of the Umayyads used to stand, and then the palaces of the Mamluk emirs (the Great Mosque is very close by). It opens onto the street with boring, almost deaf walls, but inside there are rich facades, turned into a network of courtyards with trees and fountains. The palace is clearly divided into the owner's and guest's half, there is also a household part. There are hammams in private rooms, and reception halls in public rooms. This is not a governor's palace, but a private residence, but too many representatives of the family occupied the main position in the province.

There are many people in Damscus, the buildings are dense, although not high, there is trade everywhere, such a quintessence of the old Arab city, very pleasant to visit. In the Christian quarters in the evenings there are drinking parties, and there are almost no foreign tourists. The Jewish quarter is predictably empty, but the guide assured us that all the buildings are mothballed and waiting for the owners to dispose of the property.