Damascus
Damascus is the capital of Syria, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, and has one of the largest and liveliest market areas in the Middle East.
The old town has a wealth of churches, hammams, khans, and mosques, including the Ummayad Mosque – one of the oldest and largest in the Islamic world, built on the site of a Christian basilica, and believed still to contain the head of John the Baptist – and the gaudy, Iranian-style Sayyidha Ruqayya Mosque, which houses the grave of one of the Prophet Mohammed’s great granddaughters.
As well as museums such as the National Museum of Damascus, there are arty cafes with bubbling water pipes, restaurants in old Damascene houses where you eat in orange-tree-scented courtyards, and the gelatinous, pistachio’d ice cream of Bakdash in Souq Hamadyya.
