Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
The Elfrange Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Damascus
The synagogue in the Jewish quarter of old Damascus. Named after Sephardi arrivals, it is the last synagogue in Syria still used for worship; entry by permission.
Damascus · Ottoman — second half of the 19th century
The Al-Fathiyah Madrasa
A madrasa founded in Qaymariyya in 1743 by an Ottoman treasury official, a mosque today. One sentence exists about it in print; this record says the rest.
Damascus · Ottoman
Umayyad Square
The largest square in Damascus and the knot of the city’s western side. The Damascene Sword monument stands at its centre, the Opera House on its edge.
Damascus · Modern Damascus
The Al-Jawziyya Madrasa
A Hanbali madrasa founded in the middle of old Damascus in 1254, rebuilt from scratch in 1941. The stone is gone; the name gave us Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.
Damascus · Ayyubid — the present building dates from 1941
Dahdah Cemetery
The best-known cemetery in Damascus, north of the walls in Uqaybiya. Writers, scholars and statesmen lie here, and a plot costs more than anywhere else.
Damascus · Ottoman — present
The Al-Jawza Mosque
A mosque with a wide courtyard in the Uqaybah quarter of Damascus, outside the walls. It is named after a walnut tree, and its minaret is worth the detour.
Damascus · Ayyubid core, Mamluk extensions
Jawdat al-Hashimi School, Damascus
The first state secondary school in Damascus began inside Maktab Anbar as the Tajhiz school and still teaches today. A building to see from the street.
Damascus · A late Ottoman foundation; the present building dates to 1929-1933
Hammam al-Bakri
A working bath house in the Qaymariyya quarter, on the Bab Touma side of the old city. Hours for women and men shift with the season, so ask before you go.
Damascus · Uncertain — no construction date in the sources
The Barada River
The water that made Damascus. It rises near Zabadani and enters the city at Rabwa, then splits into six branches that water the gardens of the Ghouta.
Damascus · An irrigation network in continuous use since the Aramaean period
Bab al-Faraj
The eighth gate of the Damascus wall, and the only one opened from scratch after the Islamic conquest. Nur al-Din built it; the Ayyubids made it double.
Damascus · Zangid — Ayyubid — Mamluk
Souq al-Asruniyeh
Open to the sky across from the east wall of the Damascus citadel. For about 150 years it has sold kitchenware, copper and glass. Hamidiyah is one lane south.
Damascus · Late Ottoman
The Al-Ajami Mosque
Just outside Bab al-Jabiya in Damascus, built in 1348 as the tomb and Quran school of a Persian merchant. Its marble portal is among the finest in the city.
Damascus · Mamluk
