Damascus (Arabic: دمشق, Dimashq) is the capital of Syria. One of the most fascinating cities in the world with 3000 years of history. Christians, Jews and Muslims live together peacefully (!) in the old town and one of the highlights of a trip to Syria is to stroll through the different districts and experience the flair of this city. The people of Damascus are extremely hospitable and the city itself offers many sights.
Around 75 percent of the population of Damascus are Sunni Muslims.
Six percent of the inhabitants are Alawites (Nusayris). Another four
percent are divided between Druze, Shiites, Ismailis, Yazidis and Jews.
15 percent are Christians of various denominations. The Melkite
Orthodox form the largest Christian community. Others belong to the
Armenian Apostolic Church and the Syrian Catholic and Greek Catholic
Church united with Rome, as well as the Maronites.
Believers of
the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, also known as
the Apostolic Church of the East, also live in the capital. There are
also various Protestant, Roman Catholic and Syrian Orthodox communities.
The patriarchal seat of the Syrian Orthodox Church is in St. George's
Cathedral.
Although there have been a few inter-denominational
conflicts in Damascus' history, such as in 1860, coexistence is
predominantly peaceful.
In 2006, President Bashar al-Assad paid a
Christmas visit to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatios
Hazim. The Patriarch resides in Damascus. It was the first Christmas
visit by a Syrian president to the Patriarch since the country gained
independence in 1946.
The National Museum, founded in 1919, displays archaeological finds
and historical evidence. Among other things, documents from Ugarit
dating to the 14th century BC can be seen. AD, more than 4,000-year-old
sculptures from Mari, marble and terracotta statues from Palmyra, the
wall paintings of the Dura Europos synagogue from the 2nd century AD,
Korans from the 13th century, as well as Damascus weapons and old
surgical instruments.
The Army Museum, located not far from the
National Museum, houses a collection of Damascus weapons, relics and
equipment belonging to the first and so far only Syrian cosmonaut
Muhammed Ahmed Faris, who orbited the earth in Soyuz TM-3 in 1987, as
well as a depiction of the conflict with Israel from a Syrian
perspective.
Other museums in the Syrian capital include the
Museum of Syrian Art and Folk Traditions in the Azim Palace and the
October War Panorama Museum. The latter shows a model of the city of
Quneitra in the Golan Heights and a film documenting the Syrian view of
the conflict about the city.
The old town of Damascus with its many alleys is narrow and densely
built. Typical of the Damascus architecture of the old town are houses
with an inner courtyard, to which all windows and doors open. Lemon and
bitter orange trees stand around the fountain - which is present in most
cases.
The citadel of Damascus is an almost completely preserved
Ayyubid fortress in the Syrian capital. A special feature of the defense
technology is the Ayyubid north gate. It had two opposing outer gates
that led into the gate hall. A second gate located at right angles to
the outer gates and the third, old Seljuk gate led into the citadel. A
hall building was connected to the gate hall. This served as a staging
area for military units to carry out sorties during a siege. The unity
of the gate hall and hall building is a typological specialty in the
castle construction of the region. The east gate has a similar, albeit
smaller, facility.
Remains of the Roman Temple of Jupiter, whose
former inner area is now occupied by the Umayyad Mosque, have been
preserved, particularly between the Suq al-Hamidiya in the west and the
Umayyad Mosque in the east. This includes the western gate of the temple
and a colonnade running from west to east.
The old town of Damascus has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since
1979. It is divided from east to west by the Via Recta, which is not
completely straight, but has a slight bend. In the northwest of the old
town is the Umayyad Mosque, the city's most important place of worship.
The city's famous souks are located around the mosque, especially the
covered Suq al-Hamidiya. To compensate for the conversion of the Church
of St. John the Baptist into the Umayyad Mosque, the Mariamite Cathedral
of Damascus from the 2nd century, which had also previously been
converted into a mosque, was returned to the Christians in 706. The
synagogue in the formerly Jewish district of Dschobar was destroyed in
2014.
There are also many hammams in the old town. The most
notable of these is the Hamam Nur-ed-Din. Also worth seeing is the Khan
As'ad Pasha, a caravanserai built by the Ottoman governor Asad Pasha
al-Azim, who also had the Azim Palace, another tourist attraction,
built.
Ten kilometers south of the center is the Sayyida Zainab
Mosque, built in 1979; Sayyida Zainab was Mohammed's granddaughter and
is buried here. For Shiite Muslims, the tomb and mosque, built in
Iranian tradition, is an important pilgrimage destination.
In the northeast of the old town, behind the Thomas Gate Bāb Tūmā and the eastern gate Bab Scharqi, lies the centuries-old Christian quarter with many old churches. According to tradition, the Ananias Church was built in the house of the biblical Ananias, who laid his hand on Paul so that he regained his sight. The church is around six metres deep in the ground and is one of the oldest Christian religious buildings. Also worth mentioning is the Chapel of Saint Paul, built in the 1930s in the ruins of the Bab Kisan city gate. According to the Bible, the apostle was lowered from the city wall in a basket by his followers so that he could flee from his persecutors. The Church of St. Mary is said to have been built near the Roman triumphal arch and has served as the Mariamite Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Church for centuries. The Saint Sarkis Cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church on Bab Sharqi dates from the 15th century. Many churches date from the 19th century, when the Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire allowed the construction of new churches. One of these is the al-Zeitoun Church, the cathedral of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint John of Damascus was also built during this period.
The Tishreen Park is one of the largest public parks in Damascus.
Within the park there are themed gardens, which show, for example, the
citadel of Aleppo, the Islamic Capital of Culture in 2006. Public
concerts are held in the park in summer. The International Flower
Festival is held annually between June 15th and 30th.
The park
with the Saladin Mausoleum is also worth mentioning. The marble tomb of
Sultan Saladin was donated by the German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1898. The
wooden sarcophagus in the mausoleum, made in 1193, is decorated with a
Kufic inscription and numerous carvings. The tomb with the red dome and
the surrounding garden is located outside the northern wall of the
Umayyad Mosque.
Jabal Qasiyun (1150 meters) is Damascus' local
mountain. The restaurants there offer a good view of the city.
Four football teams from Damascus play in the country's first league.
Al-Jaish is the most successful club with eleven national titles. Its
home ground is the al-Fiha stadium, which has a capacity of 10,000
spectators. The al-Wahda team, which plays in the Abassid Stadium
(capacity for 45,000 people), has won the national championship once.
The club's most successful division is the women's basketball team.
There are also men's and women's teams in martial arts and handball. The
Al-Majd football club has so far not won a national title. It also plays
its home games in the Abassid Stadium. Al Shorta is new to the first
football league in the 2006/2007 season.
The American chess
master Yasser Seirawan was born in Damascus. He won a number of
tournaments in the 1980s, including the important Lugano Open twice
(1983 and 1987) and the New York Open (1985 and 1987). In 1990 he won in
Haninge, beating former world champion Anatoly Karpov. At the Chess
Olympiad in Dubai in 1986 he defeated the then reigning world champion
Garry Kasparov.
By plane
An Israeli missile attack destroyed the passenger
terminal at Damascus airport in June 2022 and operations were suspended.
If there are flights into the country, they go to Aleppo.
As of
February/March 2019, there were regular flights from
Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Cairo, the UAE and Saudi Arabia to Damascus with
Syrianair and Cham Wings. These flights cannot be found on online
booking portals.
The only way to get there from Europe is via the
airport in Beirut, Lebanon.
By train
Due to the war, rail
traffic has been suspended.
By bus
Unaccompanied tourist
travel is undesirable in 2019. There are numerous checkpoints where
special permits for certain areas may be required.
By road
The
main road Damascus ↔ Aleppo (356km) is still closed north of Homs
(حمص) in April 2019. The diversion takes place via Ithriyah (إثرية), a
good 160km additional route.
If you find out where the many minibuses you see all the time are
going, you can travel very quickly and cheaply (5-10 sy₤). The drivers
or other passengers are usually very helpful if you ask how to get to
your actual destination. It is also no problem for women to use the
minibuses.
Taking a taxi often degenerates into discussions about
the fare. Especially when you go to certain sights, special prices
suddenly apply (e.g. on Qasyun Mountain). The state-controlled petrol
prices were raised from 225 to 600 sy₤ in April 2018, and the fares rose
accordingly.
The bazaars (souks) in the city center are the best places to shop.
You can buy food, tea, clothing and souvenirs there.
Money
There are only a few ATMs in the old town near the east gate. Otherwise,
you can find the machines in the modern center. As is common in Germany,
practically every bank has an ATM, but thanks to the pressure exerted by
the US government on Western financial service providers, tourists
cannot withdraw money from them with a Maestro, MasterCard, VisaPlus or
Visa card. However, the machines are often broken.
Exchange
You can exchange money at the airport or in banks. There is a black
market rate, with US$ being preferred, which is 20-30% cheaper in spring
2019. There are no official exchange offices.
The typical dishes are no different from those in Lebanon. In spring
2019, you paid around US$1.50 for a snack, such as Schwarma. A meal in a
restaurant costs around US$10.
There is a lot of traditional
"fast food" available in the bazaars, although the quality is often not
the best.
Which accommodations are actually open in 2019 must be determined on
site. As far as can be determined, there was a price increase of 30%
between the end of October 2017 and the following year -- in US dollar
terms!
It is not unusual for couples to be asked for a marriage
certificate before being given a room together.
Luxury
Beit Al
Wali (بيت الوالي), Bab Touma Main Road, بولاد، دمشق. During the war,
this was the preferred place for correspondents, with corresponding
expectations of their fat expense accounts.
Damascus is very safe, but you have to be careful on the roads;
drivers are often very reckless.
Unveiled women have no problems
in the city.
In the large souks or the shops along the "straight road", most
sellers speak English. However, when you are out and about in the
smaller markets for everyday use, you should at least be able to read
and understand Arabic numbers.
There is also always someone who
speaks English at the bus stations.
Consulates
Most of the
consulates in Damascus are still closed at the beginning of 2019 or have
a diplomatic emergency staff that is not open to the public. Germans
(ONLY on call ☎ +961 (0)3 600 053), Austrians and Swiss must contact the
corresponding offices in Beirut.
The city is located approximately 80 kilometers from the
Mediterranean Sea, east of the Anti-Lebanon Range, and stands on a
plateau rising 680 meters above sea level. The total area of Damascus
is 105 km², 77 of which is the actual urban development area, and the
rest is occupied by Mount Qasioun.
The old city area with the
remains of fortifications is located on the southern bank of the Barada
River, which is almost dry (the average water level is about 3
centimeters). From the southeast, north and northeast, it is surrounded
by the districts of Al-Midan, Saruja and Imara; their history dates back
to the Middle Ages, when settlements arose along the roads leading to
the city, in the immediate vicinity of the burial places of religious
figures. In the 19th century, the slopes of Qasiyun also began to be
actively settled (although people had lived there before - the suburb of
As-Salihiya, for example, was formed near the shrine of Sheikh Ibn
Arabi). Initially, the settlements mentioned were built by Kurdish
military formations and Muslim refugees from the European regions of the
Ottoman Empire; they are located at a distance of 2 to 3 kilometers
north of the old city.
At the end of the 19th century, to the
west of the old city, on the banks of the Barada, a modern
administrative and commercial center began to form, the heart of which
is known as "al-Marje" ("meadow"). This name soon became associated with
the main square of Damascus, where the municipality building is located.
A little higher, to the south, the magistrates' courts, the post office
and the railway station were located. In turn, residential areas of the
European type were built along the road leading from al-Marje to
al-Salihiya; the business and administrative centre of the new city
gradually shifted in the same direction over time.
By the
beginning of the 20th century, new districts were being built both north
of Barada and to the south, partially taking over the territory of the
Ghouta oasis. Since 1955, one of these, Yarmouk, has become a place of
residence for many Palestinian refugees. Surveyors and planners sought
to avoid the influence of the city on the oasis, so towards the end of
the century the city expanded mainly to the north and west (El-Mazza
district). In recent years, construction has also taken place in the
Barada Valley in the northwest (Dummar district) and on the mountain
slopes to the northeast (Barza district). Poor neighbourhoods, in which
buildings were often erected without official approval, were formed
mainly to the south of the main part of the city.
The Ghouta
oasis, supplied with water from the Barada River, previously surrounded
Damascus. To the west along the river valley was the Fijeh spring, which
provided the city with drinking water. As the city expanded and new
residential and industrial buildings were erected, the oasis shrank in
size; currently, there is virtually no water left in it. In addition to
drying up, it has also become polluted due to the city's heavy traffic
and the active dumping of various wastes, including sewage.
The capital is divided into the old town, the newer districts and the
suburbs of Midan in the southwest, Sarouja in the north and Imara in the
northwest. The old town in the center of Damascus is characterized by
narrow streets, covered markets and traditional residential buildings.
The al-Merjeh area, with its modern high-rise buildings, is the
administrative and economic center of the city.
The districts
north of the old town on the slopes of the Kasioun (Qāsiyūn) have been
predominantly inhabited by Kurds since before the founding of the state.
In the second half of the 20th century, the city expanded primarily in
the western district of Mezze, along the Barada depression in Dumar in
the northwest and on the slopes of the mountains near Berze in the
northeast. In recent decades, numerous informal settlements have been
built, often without official permission, particularly on the southern
outskirts of the city. Many internally displaced people live there, who
moved to Damascus because of the poorer living conditions in the
countryside.
The climate of Damascus is subtropical desert. Summers are very hot and practically without precipitation, but are softened by the altitude of the city, which is about 680 meters above sea level. Precipitation in Damascus is rare. 130 mm of precipitation falls per year, mainly in winter. Winter in Damascus is noticeably colder than in most areas adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, there are often frosts at night, less often a slight frost, sometimes snow falls. The average temperature in January is about +6 °C. Summer in Damascus is typical for cities with a Mediterranean climate: hot and dry, there is practically no precipitation. The warmest month is July, the average temperature of which is +27.3 °C. Daily fluctuations are quite large: at night, even on the hottest days, it is usually cool (in the summer months, the difference can exceed 20 °C, and in winter it is usually 10 °C).
As a large oasis in a dry landscape, the area around Damascus was an attractive settlement area from an early stage. In Tell Ramad, a suburb of today's Damascus, traces of a Stone Age settlement from the Preceramic Neolithic B were found, in Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh and in Deir Khabiye two settlement mounds from the Bronze Age were found.
After Egyptian conquests in what is now Syria, Damascus was first mentioned around 3,500 years ago under Pharaoh Thutmosis III, who had taken over the city state of Tamasqu (t-m-s-q, see Egyptian hieroglyphs). At the time of Akhenaten, it was mentioned with his prince Namiawaza in two Amarna letters (139, 63; 142, 21). Damascus remained under Egyptian rule until the end of the 2nd millennium BC and was the center of the province of Ube.
The Aramaean territorial state of Aram-Damascus probably came into being in the 13th century BC, when the Egyptians had finally lost control of Canaan and Syria.
In 853 BC, Ben-Hadad II fought in an alliance of twelve countries
together with Ahab and Irhuleni of Hama in the Battle of Karkara on the
Orontes against the Assyrians under Salmānu-ašarēd III, but was unable
to achieve a lasting victory. Ben-Hadad II died between 844 and 840 BC,
and Haza’el became his successor as the new dynasty founder.
The
alliance with Hamath dissolved in 845 BC. Four years later, the gardens
of the oasis of Damascus were devastated in another Assyrian attack.
Shalmaneser III. undertook further campaigns against Aram in the years
849–838 BC, but without lasting success. In 733 BC, Damascus was taken
by Tiglath-pileser III, Rezin was killed, the population deported to Kir
and the empire was divided into three Assyrian provinces (Damascus,
Karnini (Karnajim) and Haurini). Damascus recovered relatively quickly
from the destruction by the Assyrians, mainly thanks to its importance
as a stopover for trade from the Phoenician coastal cities of the Levant
to the cities of Mesopotamia and from Arabia to Asia Minor.
After briefly belonging to the Neo-Babylonian Empire under
Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BC), Damascus fell to the Achaemenid Persian
Empire. Strabo (16,2,20) describes it as its most important and most
brilliant city. Parmenion, a general of Alexander the Great, conquered
Damascus in 332 BC and looted Darius's state treasure. Damascus was
incorporated into Alexander's empire and thus became a Macedonian
colony; a Greek settlement was established to the north and east of the
Aramaean city.
Under the rule of the Seleucids, Damascus was
expanded and fortified and in 111 BC Antiochus IX made it the capital of
Phoenicia and Coelesyria. In 85 BC the Nabataeans under King Aretas III
managed to conquer Damascus. They were able to hold out until 66 BC,
when all of Syria was conquered under Pompey and incorporated into the
Roman Empire. Damascus probably joined the Decapolis in the following
period.
In 38 BC Marcus Antonius gave Coelesyria and thus
Damascus (together with other parts of the empire) to Cleopatra VII of
Egypt.
The once exiled Nabataeans managed to conquer the city
again in 37 AD. With the Romans' tolerance, they were able to hold out
until 54. After that, the Romans ruled again. The city's importance
increased after Nabataea became a Roman province under Trajan in 106 AD
and the Romans built a road from Damascus via Bosra to the Red Sea.
Damascus briefly became a bishop's seat, but had to hand it over to
Emesa in the 3rd century. Emperor Theodosius I founded a basilica in
Damascus in the 4th century over the presumed relics of John the
Baptist.
In 635, Damascus was conquered by the Arabs after offering only weak
resistance to Islamic expansion. The city's capitulation treaty was
intended to serve as a model. The Christian and Jewish population had to
pay the poll tax, the jizya, but otherwise remained largely undisturbed.
Under Caliph Muʿāwiya I, Damascus became the capital of the Umayyad
Empire in 661. In 705, Caliph al-Walid I had the Basilica of St. John
converted and expanded into the Umayyad Mosque, the first monumental
mosque of Islam. Inside the building is the shrine of John the Baptist.
After the end of the Umayyad dynasty in 750, the victorious Abbasids
moved the seat of the caliphate to the newly founded Baghdad, probably
also to emphasize the break with the Umayyads. Damascus was now only a
provincial capital, and its importance declined considerably over the
years. Nevertheless, it remained contested under the changing Islamic
dynasties (878 Tulunids, 945 Ikhshidids, 970–1076 Fatimids). Throughout
the Middle Ages, Damascus was always closely linked to Egypt.
In
1104, Damascus became the seat of the Seljuk Burid dynasty. The six-day
siege of Damascus by crusaders during the Second Crusade in July 1148
was unsuccessful. In 1154, the city surrendered to Nur ad-Din, who made
Damascus the new capital of his empire. Under Nur ad-Din and Saladin,
the city again gained importance, especially in the fight against the
crusader states. The population grew and the city expanded beyond the
old city walls. Under the two rulers and Saladin's descendants, the
Ayyubids, numerous buildings were built that still shape the cityscape
today. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Palestinians fleeing the
Crusaders founded the northeastern suburb of Salahieh.
The
Mamluks, who had ruled Damascus from Egypt since 1250, were able to hold
the city against the Mongols in 1260. Under their rule, grain and cattle
traders from Hauran founded the Midan district south of the city wall.
In 1401, Damascus was plundered by the troops of Timur Lenk and tens of
thousands of residents were killed.
After the collapse of Mameluke rule, Syria fell to the Ottomans in
1516, who set up their administration in the Sarouja district. As a
starting point for the annual pilgrimages to Mecca, Damascus was also
economically favored and further developed by the new rulers.
Under Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Egyptians conquered Syria and Cilicia in
1831. A phase of intensive reforms followed: the administration was
centralized, the economy promoted, and new schools founded. However,
after an intervention by European powers in 1840, the Egyptians were
forced to hand Syria back to the Ottomans. In the Ottoman Empire,
intensive reform activity began in 1839 with the Tanzimat, which also
had an impact on Syria. In 1840, the Damascus affair occurred, which
played an important role in the emergence of Zionism.
In 1860,
civil war broke out in the Lebanon Mountains, which spread to the city,
and the Christians in Damascus were massacred, although it is still
unclear who caused the tumult. The local Ottoman rulers did not
initially intervene in the conflict and even disarmed the Christians. On
July 9 and 10, 1860, mobs and soldiers entered the Christian quarter and
used violence against the residents there. A total of more than 3,000
Christians are said to have fallen victim to the bloodbath; according to
other sources, more than 5,000. More than 1,500 houses were destroyed,
all Christian shops were looted and more than 200 burned; all churches,
monasteries and Christian schools were devastated, looted and in some
cases set on fire. The Arab freedom fighter Abd el-Kader defended the
persecuted, for which he was later awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion
of Honour by Napoleon III. France itself sent troops led by General
Charles de Beaufort d’Hautpoul to intervene. At the same time, the
Sublime Porte sent Mehmed Fuad Pasha to Damascus. Fuad Pasha took tough
action: he put an end to the attacks, deposed the Wali of Damascus, who
was sentenced to death by a tribunal along with other culprits; he set
up commissions to clarify the claims of the Christians and to provide
compensation. When Charles de Beaufort landed on the Lebanese coast with
his expeditionary force, Fuad Pasha, as the new Wali of Damascus, had
largely brought the city and the province under his control. The Karaite
community fled to Cairo in 1860.
After peace was restored, Fuad
Pasha switched to modernization and centralization. He built the
telegraph line between Damascus and the Ottoman capital Istanbul and
awarded the concession to build the road between the provincial city and
the port city of Beirut. In 1861, Fuad Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier
of the Ottoman Empire, his protégé, Mehmed Rashid Pasha, became the new
Wali of Damascus and carried out further reforms. With the new
administrative law, Damascus became the centre of the newly created
Vilayet of Syria and the Sanjak of the same name in 1864. Like the
Vilayet Tuna, the Vilayet was intended to serve as a reform example for
other provinces and several modernisation reforms were introduced.
After 1887, the district of al-Muhadschirin (the immigrants) was
created when refugees from the Balkans settled as a result of the
Russo-Turkish War. Towards the end of the 19th century, Damascus
developed into a centre of the Eastern Arab national movement.
In
1898, the German Emperor Wilhelm II visited the city on his trip to
Palestine. The prominent guest was followed by other tourists, after
which Dimitri Tarazi & Fils opened a branch. At that time, Damascus
already had a modern sewer system and trams. In 1909, the Hejaz Railway
to the holy city of Medina was opened. With the defeat of the Ottomans
in World War I, their rule over Syria ended. On September 30, 1918,
Arab-British troops marched into Damascus.
Faisal I declared
himself head of the short-lived Kingdom of Syria in March 1920, but was
expelled by the French shortly afterwards. At the Sanremo Conference in
1920, Syria and Lebanon were placed under French mandate by the League
of Nations, with Damascus as the capital. The French made the Shaalan
district their preferred residential area. In 1925 and 1926, this state
of Damascus was the center of anti-French unrest in Syria, which was
suppressed with military force.
British and French troops
liberated Damascus from the rule of the Vichy regime in 1941. In 1946,
the last Allied troops left Damascus. In the same year, it became the
capital of the independent state of Syria. In the course of the Middle
East conflict, the Menarscha Synagogue was attacked in 1949. In the
1940s and 1950s, the districts of Abu Rummaneh and Malki were built,
where the elite and wealthy sections of the population lived. From the
1950s onwards, numerous house owners in the old town were expropriated
to make room for the construction of representative office and
government buildings in the Soviet style. During this time, Revolution
Street, a wide traffic axis, was built.
The Palestine War of 1948
caused many more people to flee to Damascus, and the Yarmouk refugee
camp was built on the southern outskirts of the city. In 1967, the
Six-Day War brought an influx of Nazis who had been forced to leave
their homes in the Golan Heights. Between 1960 and 1990, the population
of Damascus roughly tripled. The old town of Damascus has been a UNESCO
World Heritage Site since 1979. As a result of the massive population
growth in recent decades, the increase in private transport and the
associated tendency towards slumification of the old center, which is
essentially only accessible to pedestrians, there is a risk of being
placed on the Red List of endangered cultural assets. The city grew
strongly into the rural outskirts of Ghuta. The informally built homes
of some Damascus residents are sometimes located right next to the
closed housing complexes of the middle class in government service.
Rowda is a district that was already built by the French and has a
certain prestige. Kafr Souseh, formerly a vegetable growing area, is the
preferred new district of the upper class.
In 2000, the Damascus
Spring began here, with calls for democratic reforms that quickly spread
to other major cities. Meanwhile, Damascus was the cultural capital of
the Arab world in 2008. In 2011, a revolt also led to protests by the
population in Damascus. From July 2012, violent clashes between the army
and armed insurgents also broke out, which led to the civil war in
Syria, which continues to this day. The protests were particularly
popular in the northern outskirts of the city, Barzeh, and in Quadsaya.
In Damascus, a different militia ruled almost every district at times.
As a result of the civil war, the districts of Darayya and Jobar were
almost completely destroyed. The population was bombed and starved.
While many Damascenes fled the city, Damascus also became a place of
refuge for other Syrians, so that the city continued to expand rapidly
into the surrounding areas. On April 23, 2016, a fire broke out in a
shop in the Asruniyeh market, which is adjacent to the Suq al-Hamidiya.
Dozens of other shops in the old city were destroyed. In the Mezze
district, Iranian agents Sadegh Omidzadeh, Ali Aghazadeh, Saeed Karimi,
Hossein Mohammadi and Mohammad Amin Samadi died along with other
military personnel on January 20, 2024.
Due to the high birth rate and the large exodus from rural areas, the
population of Damascus grew very rapidly, particularly in the second
half of the 20th century. In 1943, only 286,000 people lived in the
city, but by 1960 there were already half a million. By 1980, this
number had doubled. In 2010, the city had 1.8 million inhabitants. 2.8
million people live in the agglomeration (as of January 1, 2010).
The majority of the population in Damascus are Arabs, the second
largest ethnic group are the Kurds, with 300,000 inhabitants. More
recent estimates assume a larger Kurdish population, as many refugees
come from Turkey and Iraq, but are not Syrian citizens. They settled in
the capital because they could hope to find work there. The majority of
Kurds live in the districts of Sallahiya and Harat Al-Akrad (the Kurdish
quarter). Other ethnic minorities include Armenians, the still
Aramaic-speaking Aramaeans (also called Assyrians or Chaldo-Assyrians),
Greeks and Turks (Turcomans). Numerous Palestinian and Aramaic refugees
from Iraq and guest workers from neighboring Arab countries also live in
Damascus.
Damascus is an important trading center for figs, almonds and other
fruits from the surrounding area. Textiles, gold and silver goods,
leather goods and inlays in wood, brass and copper goods are produced in
the capital. Damascus is also a center of the clothing, food and
printing industries.
The city's economy is undergoing structural
change and is being converted into a functioning market economy. This is
to be financed with annual private investments, additional income from
oil exports and investments from abroad.
Economic policymakers
see the next few years as the best opportunity for structural changes.
The far-reaching changes include privatization, the dismantling of
monopolies, deregulation of important sectors and the reduction of the
public sector.
Problems are caused by the inadequate
infrastructure and the extremely large housing shortage caused by rural
exodus. In the industry, which is concentrated in the Damascus
agglomeration, there are only inadequate disposal and cleaning
capacities for waste water, exhaust gases and waste. In addition to the
numerous infectious diseases that are spread by inadequate hygienic
conditions, there are also respiratory and skin diseases caused by the
toxic emissions from numerous industrial plants and car traffic. Private
households pollute the air with numerous diesel stoves, especially in
winter. The poorly cleaned diesel oil pollutes the air with sulfates.
Airport
The capital has an international airport, Damascus
Airport. The Syrian airline Syrian Arab Airlines, based in Damascus,
flies to national and international destinations in Africa and Asia, but
has not flown to destinations in Europe since 2012 due to sanctions
imposed by the European Union because of the civil war.
Railway
The city was connected to the standard gauge railway network in 1983 by
a branch line. The railway line is single-track and not electrified. The
route between Damascus and Aleppo was completely overhauled before the
start of the civil war and modern trains ran on it about four times a
day in each direction (journey time at least 4 hours). A new underground
main station was planned for the future. In anticipation of this, the
Hejaz station (terminus station) Damascus-Kanawat was closed and the
tracks dismantled. The only station at present is the Kadem depot about
five kilometers to the south. In the future, the Al Kaboun station
planned in the north of the city should serve as the new main station.
This was to have been built directly next to the central long-distance
bus station, where all buses to northern, western and eastern Syria
already depart. The new main station should also provide transfer
options to the future green subway line.
Public transport and
road traffic
On February 7, 1907, the electric tram began operating
during the Ottoman period. The network was ten kilometers long with six
lines, including an intercity line to Duma in the Rif Dimashq
governorate. The track width was 1050 millimeters. In 1967, traffic was
stopped.
The inner streets of the capital are in some cases in
poor condition and the city does not have an efficient public transport
system with high capacity, such as a subway, light rail or tram, that
would relieve the pressure on the streets. Local public transport is
handled by diesel-powered buses that have to share the lanes with
private vehicles. The situation is somewhat better for the growing
private transport on the western outskirts of the city and with the
recently built expressways to the modern satellite settlements in the
northwestern mountains. There are currently plans for a subway network
with four lines. The first line (Metro Green Line) should be built by
2016 with a total of 16 stations (construction period 2012 to 2016). The
tender should have been issued in 2010/2011.
The capital is home to a university, several colleges, research
institutes and libraries. The University of Damascus is a state
university and, with over 85,000 students and 2,000 academic staff, the
largest of four universities in Syria. It was created in 1923 through
the merger of a medical school (founded in 1903) and a law school
(founded in 1913), making it the oldest university in the country. Until
the University of Aleppo was founded in 1958, the university was called
the Syrian University. Today it is divided into 15 faculties.
Damascus is also the seat of the "Center for Historical Documents"
(markaz al-waṯāʾiq at-taʾrīḫīya), which functions as the Syrian national
archive, and the "Academy of the Arabic Language" (maǧmaʿ al-luġa
al-ʿarabīya).
The inhabitants of the city are called Damascenes. In Arab countries
(and in Turkey) the word "ash-Sham" ("the northern one") is used for
Damascus (Dimaschq is read in the newspaper and heard in the news, but
in everyday life the word Dimaschq is almost never used). The four
countries Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine are called "Bilād el
Schām" (بلاد الشام) (Countries of Schām/the North). The city gave its
name to the fabrics damask and damassé as well as to the plum (via
Italian damascino).
A special forging technique is named after
damask, damascus steel. It originated in India and was then mainly
cultivated in Persia. Alternating layers of high-carbon and low-carbon
steel make Damascus blades particularly elastic and sharp. At the same
time, a band pattern is created that is reminiscent of the fabric. There
are also pieces with special regular patterns (wave damask, band damask,
etc.), which are often highlighted by etching.
The expression
“Damascus hour” and the now rarely used expression “to experience one’s
Damascus” refer to the biblical story of Paul, to whom Jesus appeared in
a vision outside Damascus, after which he converted to Christianity.
This means to have a radical experience that leads to a radical change
of mind.