Key areas

Damascus sits in the lee of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range to its north-west, in a fertile plain created by the waters of the Barada river. The main river channel runs west to east, following the key road artery of Shoukri al-Kouwatli from the smart western suburb of Mezze, past the President’s bridge and up to the congested centre of Martyrs’ Square. Shaalan and Makli To the city’s north lie the up-and-coming neighbourhoods of Shaalan and Makli, a favourite shopping district for Damascus’ bright young things, where cappuccinos and boutiques replace Turkish coffees and carpets.

Old City In the south-east, enclosed by ancient walls, the Old City is cut across by the aptly named Straight Street. The Citadel, on its north-west tip, leads into the famous Hamidiyeh souk, from where the visitor emerges through a Roman arch to face the breathtaking Umayyad Mosque. Bab Touma This is the popular Christian quarter, located to the east.

Getting around

Taxis are always yellow, always available and always cheap. A ride anywhere in the city shouldn’t cost more than 50p, or 75p out to a suburb. Prices double after midnight. Look for the number on the taxi’s roof, which means it has a meter, then make sure the driver turns it on. It shouldn’t take more than half an hour to cross the city. Small change makes life much easier as you can just give the correct fare and leave. It is fine for women to use taxis by themselves, though they should sit in the back, preferably behind the driver.

Don’t get too unnerved if you keep getting blank looks when you say an address to a taxi or bus driver. Addresses are not reliable in Damascus. Streets often have two names as President Hafez al-Assad decided to rename most of the streets in 1970. The new names are given on the maps, but the citizens have never quite got to grips with the new scheme and tend to use the old names. To avoid confusion, Damascenes refer to places by district, landmark and building name. If you have a mobile phone and the telephone number of your destination, call them and get someone to give directions to the driver in Arabic.

Microbus Integral to the local transport system, these minivans with sliding doors weave wildly all across the city. Just SP5 (less than 1p) will take you as far as you want, but getting on the right route either needs luck and a friendly driver or an understanding of Arabic script. You can always shout your destination at the driver or his boy and see if they beckon you on board. Handy tip from bitter experience, though: in Arabic la means ‘no’, whereas kla, which sounds almost exactly the same to the untrained ear, means ‘climb aboard’.

Walking Most of Damascus is best explored on foot. Indeed, it’s the only way in the labyrinthine streets of the Old City.

Shopping

In the Old City, a first walk through Souk Al-Hamidiyeh, Syria’s most famous traditional covered market, is one of those experiences that genuinely surpass expectation. A visitor walking along through this dusty, bustling arcade with the sun dappling down from the holes in its roof of, may well lose their consumer instinct altogether and be happy just to experience the atmosphere. The souk, named after the 19th century Ottoman Sultan, offers a range of handicrafts, as well as more everyday items, making it popular with both Syrians and tourists. For those who like to follow their nose, Souk Al-Bzouriyya, the aromatic spice souk to the south of the Umayyad Mosque, is a great place to take in the smells of Syrian sweets, perfumes and spices. Best visited in the evening when the covered passageway is beautifully lit by grand old chandeliers. It’s also a good spot to track down some herbal remedies, should they be required.

Meanwhile, a stroll west to east along the length of Straight Street, also known as Madhat Basha, will reward the more casual shopper wanting to get a feel for everything on offer in Old Damascus. Beginning with traditional clothes, like jalabiyyas and kufias, the street leads on to a row of spice and coffee sellers (try the beans mixed with cardamom) and onto a more touristy area selling carpets and antiques. This gives way to a line of normal grocery stores.

The silk market, built in the 16th century, links up with the Souk Al-Khayateen, or tailors’ market, making it a great destination for those looking to shop for fabrics and presents. The area also boasts many historical and archaeological sites.

In the New City, or downtown, the most famous and popular street is Hamra Street, located just north of the Cham Hotel. A favourite with ladies seeking Italian fashions at reasonable prices and good for non-touristy shops, ranging from veil specialists to a large Benetton. Abu Roumaneh in the north of the city also has some boutiques and Western-style shops.

Gifts to buy

Arabic spice mix from Souk Al-Bzouriyya is easy to cook with and adds a tang to almost any dish. A traditional argile pipe might be one for the evening smoker in the family. Hand-crafted backgammon (tawle) boards or jewellery boxes are always of the finest quality and reasonably priced. A huge variety of silver and gold jewellery is available. And why not have a suit tailor-made if you’re staying for more than a week? It won’t cost much more than £100 all in and you can probably find one for less.

Things to do

The Umayyad Mosque, the fourth most holy site in Islam, boasts Byzantine architecture that is awe inspiring. One of the great surprises to first-time visitors to the mosque, though, is its open-for-all atmosphere. Look out for the mosaics on the western arcade wall, whose intricate patterns still baffle scholars. Damascenes will tell you, however, that they represent the Barada valley and the paradise the Prophet Mohammed saw in Damascus. While the National Museum comes recommended for its lavish setting and large range of historical artefacts, more revealing of Syria’s modern past are the broken bits of military hardware housed in the Army Museum, Tekkiyeh asSuleimaniyeh Complex, near President’s Bridge. Wreckage of MIGs shot down in the 1973 war with Israel sit alongside a fine example of a social-realist panorama painted by North Korean artists and the capsule that brought Syria’s only cosmonaut safely back to earth from his participation in a 1987 Soviet space mission.

The traditional Damascene house is one of the city’s greatest cultural legacies, but the grand interiors are often hidden from the gaze of visitors. Just south of Straight Street, however, the doors of the government-owned houses of Sibai, Kuatli and Nizam are open and well worth a look inside. Look out for signs of building work, which locals say is preparing them for development into a series of super luxury hotels.

Tucked away among the dilapidated buildings of the Jewish quarter, Mustafa Ali’s Gallery (Jewish Quarter, Old City, Tel: 542 1988), the new gallery of one of Syria’s leading artists, is an unassuming but rewarding venue for art lovers. Ali’s sculptures mix antique form with modern meanings and the gallery often plays host to visiting exhibitions. If his plans succeed, the whole quarter may soon become Damascus’ first dedicated art district.

Excursions

There are two tourist offices in central Damascus, though they are only really useful for maps of the city. The main office is on 29th May Street, just north of Azmeh Square (Tel: 232 3953). The other is at the Ministry of Tourism building off Shoukri al-Quwatli Street. They’re open 9am-midnight, supposedly, but avoid 2pm-4pm as sometimes they knock off for lunch.

For those with only a few hours to spare but a need to escape the city, the line of cafés on the rocky ridge of Mount Qassioun offer wonderful views, cooler air and a chance to see the city in its entirety. Best visited in a friend’s car, if possible, or take a taxi and arrange a price for the driver to wait and bring you back down again. At night the view is across a city of emerald green mosques and out to the darkness of the eastern desert.

An hour’s minibus ride north-east of Damascus lies the ancient town of Maaloula. With its colourful houses gripping the sides of a huge cliff that rises dramatically from the desert floor, this is one of Syria’s most idyllic settings. It is also one of the last places on earth where you can hear Aramaic, the language of Christ, still spoken by some of the mainly Greek Catholic residents. A visit to the Monastery of St Sergius at the top of the cliff reveals some unique, and disturbingly pagan looking, altars. Chamtour (at the Cham Palace Hotel, Tel: 223 2300) and Adonis (34 Moutanabi Street, Tel: 513 1643) organise trips if the minibus option from Garagat Maaloula doesn’t appeal.

The same companies can take you on a long day or two-day trip over the border into Lebanon to the ancient ruins of Baalbek, founded by the Phoenicians and elevated to greatness by the Romans. This boasts one of the largest acropolis’ in the world.

Paul Theroux perhaps summed it up best when he described the Krack de Chevalier as the epitome of the dream castle of childhood fantasies of jousts and armour and pennants. Dawn Travel (opposite the Cham Palace, Tel: 331 5800) does a good deal on a car with driver who can take you there and back in a day, given a reasonably early start.

Tourist traps

It’s hard to find any real tourist traps in Syria as nowhere is over-priced or over-developed. The only advice for the independently minded would be to avoid the tour guides at places like Palmyra or Krack de Chevalier as they can be over-bearing and ruin something of the feeling of discovering these great sites for yourself.

Convention centres

Damascus Fairground, Airport Road, in front of Ebla Cham Hotel, Tel: 562 6907.
Ebla Cham, Airport Road, Tel: 224 1900.
Meridien, Choukri al-Quwatli Street, West Downtown, Tel: 222 9200.
Sheraton, Umaweyeen Square, Umaweyeen, Tel: 373 4630.
Cham Palace, Maysaloun Street, Downtown, Tel: 223 2300.