The Old Clock of Homs

The Old Clock is a public clock in the square at the eastern end of Quwatli Street in Homs, where Hamidiyah Street begins. It was put up in 1923, under the French Mandate. The clock was made by Abdullah Kishi, the best-known clockmaker in the city; his name is still engraved on it, and the mechanism is brass. Despite the word tower in its common name, the photographs show no tower: a double-faced clock set halfway up a cast-iron post, with a lantern on top.

Why the square mattered

When the clock went up, this was the centre of the city, in the middle of the old markets. It stood on the road to Hama, so the Hama bus garage was built beside it. To the north was the Firdaws Cinema; the City Center building stands on its site today. In the 1970s a market with gardens called Souq Ghazoul lay east of the clock, and it too is gone. The square was once called Martyrs’ Square. Executions were carried out here.

What happened in the war

The clock stopped and was damaged during the war years. The repair was taken on by the engineer Muslim Abdullah al-Sulayi, from a Hama family that has built tower clocks for generations. The clock went back into place on 9 September 2022, and it now carries the Sulayi family name inside.

What is around it

Hama Street starts here and crosses the city from south to north. Quwatli Street links the clock to the New Clock Tower to the west; the two clocks stand at either end of this short street, about 400 metres apart. Turn east and Hamidiyah Street runs into the old Christian quarter. The covered souq and the al-Nuri Mosque are to the south, within walking distance.