Articles from this Category
8 November 2025
Lazy morning I had hoped to make my third visit to Palmyra today but it wasn’t meant to be. I wanted to see what damage had been done during the civil war. Abdullah had appeared to discourage us from going and priced the trip at a prohibitive level. Instead, he suggested a half-day trip instead […]
7 November 2025
Complimentary breakfast It’s Friday today and the only day of the week that Abdullah has a sleep-in. But he came in early to bring me breakfast, as I’m a very old repeat guest. With so many guests over the 23 years I doubt if he actually remembers me but he was putting on a good […]
6 November 2025
Aleppo Citadel After breakfast at the hotel, I packed up but kept my room, and headed out to visit the Citadel. Getting there at 0855, I had to wait till 0910 before visitors were let in. I walked up the steps to the first gate-tower and then into the second tower which led into the […]
5 November 2025
Damascus to Aleppo Today, I move from Damascus to Aleppo. I had received conflicting information on which of the several bus stations to catch the bus from. The last time I did it, it was from Baramke but that was nearly 20 years ago. And on the remaining visits, I did the journey in reverse […]
4 November 2025
Maaloula & St Thekla I wanted to make an excursion to the village of Maaloula, which I visited in 2002. It is well-known as one of the last areas where Aramaic (specifically Western Neo-Aramaic) is still spoken on a daily basis. That language is believed to be the closest language of Jesus, which was Galilean […]
3 November 2025
Return to Syria Today I return to my favourite country after 15 years, having visited in 2002, 2004 and 2010. Since my last visit, parts of the country have been to hell and back: Over 40% of Syria’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Some cities lost over 70% of their housing stock. 13 million+ […]
15 July 2010
I had a whole day free so decided to head down close to the Jordanian border and visit Bosra. This is an old Roman theatre from the 2nd Century AD, but appended with an Arab citadel from the 1100s. All this was rather unusually built with black basalt rock, apart from some Roman columns (built […]
14 July 2010
Getting to Damascus My hotelier offered to give me a ride to the bus this morning (for a small fee of course). Strangely he didn’t take me to the bus station but to the various restaurants (rest stops) for various intercity buses. It would have been a couple of hours waiting at the first restaurant […]
13 July 2010
Sunrise at Palmyra We decided to wake before 0500 so we could catch sunrise at the ruins. The wind had built up over night … it wasn’t so pleasant having a mild sandblasting. In the cool of dawn, I better appreciated the beauty and magnificence of Palmyra. My first time had been as a day […]
12 July 2010
Dayr Az-Zawr Museum We heard reports that the local museum is the best in Syria. However unlikely that sounded, it did not disappoint. Even though I’m not exactly a museum person, I was rather captivated … every item was labelled with numbers and referenced to a brief description. The whole museum was organised by era, […]