I know I have been very critical about group travel, not my thing, etcetera. Earlier experiences were not necessarily a great success altogether. But for a trip to Syria, once again because of the uncertainties ahead of the trip, I had selected group travel once more. I am actually not sure whether you can travel … Read more
Firstly, contrary to common belief, traveling in Syria is not dangerous. There has not been a single moment that I have felt uncomfortable, let alone threatened. I suppose it has been relatively quiet in Syria for the past four, five years, fighting has subdued, the government is in control again of most of the country … Read more
After the Great Umayyad Mosque and the souk, the highlights of Damscus and the sites we visited first, we also had some time for the rest of the Old City. There is the Azem Palace, an 18th C Ottoman house, which has now turned into a museum. The museum itself, of popular arts and tradition, … Read more
At the end of our trip we finally spend time in Damascus. Less than 48 hours, by far not enough, of course, but we do get to wander around. Thankfully, although the outskirts of town also show quite some war damage, the centre, especially the Old Town, has been spared the ravage we have seen … Read more
So far we have been moving generally north-south or south-north, in the area where the vast majority of the population lives. For Palmyra we turn east, into the desert. For a short while the road is still lined with olive groves, and with other trees, although many of these have been reduced to stumps. But … Read more
there is nothing, absolutely nothing, attractive in this post; yet I have to share this – with far too many photographs, I agree – because it is so impressive, and so sad. The entry into Homs is humbling. I have seen ruins before, last in and around Aleppo, but the destruction of the outskirts of … Read more
We have got a hour or two in Hama. If you think internal violence in Syria is a recent development, think twice: Hama rose to fame in 1982, when the Muslim Brotherhood, which had a strong following in conservative Hama, staged an uprising against the regime of Assad-pére. It took three weeks, heavy bombardments by … Read more
The world famous Mosaics Museum, with more than 2000 m2 of some of the finest, most complete Roman and Byzantine mosaics, is housed in an old caravanserai in Ma’arat al-Numan, some 80 km south of Aleppo. And Ma’arat al-Numan has been in the firing line of the Syrian civil war for many years. To get … Read more
(this is going to be a long story, a sad story – with plenty of somber photographs and a few uplifting ones) Aleppo used to be the commercial capital and the biggest city of Syria, bigger than Damascus. My guidebook, from 2010: ‘In Aleppo 80% of its old monuments inside the walls have survived’ and … Read more
NB: not all the pictures are equally sharp, I am afraid, as many have been taken from a driving bus with a partly malfunctoning camera. But you’ll get the idea. Only a few days ago we drove through Quneitra, seeing the remains of the damage done by the Israeli army 50 years ago on display. … Read more