Old town

The old city of Damascus is enclosed by city walls and is approx. 1.5km long and 1km wide. It contains a number of historical buildings, of which the Umayyad mosque is the most important. To its northwest lies the Damascus citadel, a fortified defensive structure built in 1202 AD. The Christian quarter with many Christian churches occupies the southeastern part of the old town. The old town is criss-crossed by a maze of narrow alleys. The Street called Straight (Via Recta in Latin) is the Roman street that runs from east to west in the old city. It was visited by St. Paul as recorded in the book of Acts and contains several interesting sights from the Roman, Christian and Islamic periods.


01 Citadel walls	02 Bronze statue of Saladin	03 Bronze statue of Saladin	04 Traditional tea seller


05 Citadel walls	06 Citadel walls	07 Bakdash ice cream parlour	08 Bakdash ice cream parlour	09 Roman temple of Jupiter ruins at night


10 Roman temple of Jupiter ruins at night	11 Roman temple of Jupiter ruins at night	12 Souvenir and handicraft shop	13 Alley behind mosque	14 Plate with Arabic text


15 Roman arch	16 Roman arch	17 Strawberry and Boysenberry juice sellers	18 Bread and pastries	19 Story teller cafe


20 Pita bread	21 Traditional Syrian furniture shop	22 Al Fathiyeh madrasah Quran school	23 Decorated building facade	24 Narrow alley	25 Dried fruits and spices shop