Syria

Syria stands at the junction of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Mediterranean and Arabia, and almost every civilisation of the ancient world passed through it. Ebla and Mari kept clay archives; Ugarit produced one of the earliest alphabets.

Damascus became the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661, and for a century governed an empire that reached from Spain to the Indus. Its Great Mosque, built on a site sacred for three thousand years, is one of the earliest monumental works of Islamic architecture.

Abbasid, Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods each added to the cities, and Aleppo remained one of the great commercial centres of the Middle East until the modern era.

The ancient cities of Damascus, Aleppo and Bosra preserve continuous urban life across thousands of years — souqs, citadels, mosques, churches, khans and a Roman theatre built of black basalt.

Palmyra, the caravan city of Queen Zenobia, rose in the desert on the route between the Mediterranean and Persia. Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din are among the finest surviving Crusader castles anywhere, and the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria — the Dead Cities — record rural Byzantine life left largely undisturbed.

Damascus lays claim to the longest record of continuous habitation of any capital city. The Street Called Straight still crosses the walled old town, past the Umayyad Mosque, the Azm Palace and courtyard houses hidden behind plain doors.

Aleppo grew where the caravan routes met, and its covered souq — many kilometres of vaulted stone lanes beneath a citadel on an ancient mound — was among the largest in the world.

Syrian craftsmanship is exceptional in range: damascene inlay of silver and gold into steel, brocade weaving, mosaic woodwork, glass blowing, olive oil soap from Aleppo made to a recipe centuries old.

The kitchen of Aleppo is regarded as one of the great regional cuisines of the Arab world, and the muwashshah and qudud songs of the city hold a repertoire that has been sung for hundreds of years.