The Damascus Historical Museum

Down one of the side lanes of Souq Saruja, behind a door that looks like nothing from outside, stands a Damascene house built at the start of the 18th century. It is known as the house of Khalid al-Azm, of the Azm family. The Damascus Historical Museum has been here since 1979, holding documents and manuscripts on the history and social life of the city.

Getting there

Souq Saruja is the old quarter north of the Old City, outside Bab al-Faradis. You walk north from Marjeh Square. Rather than hunting for a street number, ask in the quarter; the sign is small and the entrance is a courtyard door.

What to see

The building is the main exhibit. The ground-floor walls of the courtyard are built in ablaq, alternating courses of black basalt and pale limestone, with inlays of coloured stone above the windows. The upper floor carries wooden lattice windows and a painted wooden frieze. The floor is paved in black and white stone around a stone basin and citrus trees. The rooms hold the city’s documents, maps and manuscripts.

How long it takes

Forty minutes is enough. The museum is small and usually empty; coming here after the crowds of the Azm Palace means seeing the same architecture with the noise turned off.

Don’t miss

The painted wooden frieze on the courtyard wall. Sheltered from rain and sun, it has kept most of its colour, and it is exactly the layer that disappears first in Damascene houses. Walk the courtyard once before you go into the rooms.