Khan al-Khayyatin, the Tailors’ Khan

This is the first khan the Ottomans built in Damascus. The name means the tailors’ khan, and four centuries on it still does that work: the shops around its court deal in cloth and stitch traditional dress, the tarbush, the shirwal, the abaya, embroidered fabric. Most of the khans of Damascus have become warehouses, car parks or cafes. This is one of the few still in the trade it was built for.

Getting there

In the Old City, inside the tailors’ souq. From south-west of the Umayyad Mosque, follow the line of the souq. The gateway is tall and carved, but shop awnings hide the facade, so the easiest method is to follow the shops spilling bolts of cloth into the lane.

How long it takes

Half an hour. The khan is a working place of business, not a museum. Walking the court, looking up at the upper gallery and stepping into a few shops takes about that long.

What to see

Behind the carved gateway is a vestibule with a staircase at either end and a wide hall between them. The vestibule opens onto a rectangular court. Twelve rooms ring the court and the same number sit on the floor above. The floor is paved in black stone with a pool at the centre, once fed from the Qanawat channel. Each of the lower stores has its own door and an iron grilled window onto the court. The building stands two storeys high.

Ahmad Shamsi Pasha, governor of Damascus, had the khan built in 1552. It was first known as Khan al-Jukhiyya, after the heavy woollen broadcloth traded in it. The researcher Rihawi, in his study of the khans of Damascus, dates the building to that year.

What most people miss

The ground you are standing on. Excavations in 1948 turned up Byzantine columns here, which means the khan was not raised on empty land but over something far older. That is common enough in the khan lanes of Damascus, but here there is a record of it. Ask one of the shopkeepers and they may be able to tell you where the pieces ended up.