The oldest capital of the world

Every corner of Damascus is carrying History, everywhere you can feel the burden of several centuries. Damascus is supposed to be the oldest capital city in the world. In its streets Romans, Christians, Arabs and Muslims have walked, dominated, assaulted and looted the city; in its streets writes, scientists and religious figures have created and maintaining a great percentage of the worlds-heritage and when you walk around the city all that is felt around you. The perfect example of this is the main mosque, in the old city; before the entrance, two Roman arcs mark the path at the end of a enormous souq; once you are in, a Christian-byzantine style impregnate every corner, however, it is a mosque, one of the most important mosques of the Muslim world and people from all over the world go there to pray in that sacred space.

But Damascus is not only religion, its also politics. In the entrance of the old city a big regime-ad, with the picture of Bashar al-Assad and the sentence “I believe in Syria” welcomes the visitors. Inside, the president is depicted in several signs, sometimes as the president, other as the commander of the country (with top-gun sunglasses and three days’ stubble), other as part of a biggest group, in which Hizbullah and Iran leaders are also included. In many shops there is a Syrian flag hanging, but also Hizbullah flags are around and the leader of Hizbullah also has its owns signs, claiming a future victory over the enemy, Israel. The Christian quarter of the old city is the only alive place during the night and there women do not cover their hair, either because they are Christians or because they can be there without the hijab. Iraq and Palestina are also present, in the feeling and in the flows of refugees hosted by the city. It is, summing up, a perfect example of what is the Middle East. Islam, Christianity Arabism, politics and the Palestine occupation are present in each corner and in each mind.

Damascus is my style, dusty, messy, dirty and chaotic..as I like. It is not a city created for tourism, it is over that, is bigger than that; the tourist is just an adventurer how decided to explore the city in his/her free time, but he/she is not welcome. That does not mean that Syrians are not nice, in fact, they are extremely nice, but Damascus is for them, is not for the tourist so you must adapt to the norms of the place. You must learn how to grab a cab, how to eat, to find places, to bargain in the shops and this helps to keep the spirit of the city alive. Sometimes touristic hot-spots have lost their identity, they have set up an stage for the tourist where things are not anymore following the daily-life path but rather, adapting it to the desires and wishes of the travelers. Luckily, Damascus is not like that and thats the reason why it is a extremely nice and interesting city.

There are some things you cannot miss there. Go, walk the old-city and get into their frenetic Saturday activity. Go to the door of the mosque after Friday praying, that will help you to understand why Islam is so important and finally, get lost, find a tiny restaurant, ask the waiter to bring you their best food (is going to be good, do not worry), grab a narguile (water pipe) and relax in the shadows of the oldest capital city in the world, you cannot do that all the days of your life!

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