Half a day in Damascus: five stops outside the old walls

The old city of Damascus ends at the wall, but the city does not. This walk follows the Damascus that lies outside it: 2000 metres, five stops, all beyond the gates. It starts at an Ayyubid mosque that Damascenes call the little Umayyad, crosses a quarter founded under the Mamluks, calls at a new mosque on the edge of a square, and ends in a complex built by the architect Sinan.

The route

Come out of Bab al-Faradis and walk a few minutes northwest. The courtyard of the Al-Tawba Mosque in the Uqayba quarter is paved in black and white stone laid out in rays. From there, 620 metres west takes you into the market street of Souq Saruja, under wooden upper floors that overhang the lane. The Damascus Historical Museum is in one of the side streets of the same quarter; its door is an ordinary courtyard door and the sign is small, so ask in the quarter rather than hunt for a number. From the museum, 510 metres south brings you out at Marjeh Square; the Yalbugha Mosque is on the north edge, marble-fronted and metal-domed, and it shows from a distance. The last leg is 830 metres, west from the square along Shukri al-Quwatli Street. When the lead domes of the Tekkiye Suleymaniye come into view, so does the Military Museum in the west wing of the complex: two fighter aircraft in the garden stand in for a sign.

Timing

Be at the Al-Tawba Mosque at 09:30. The courtyard is empty then and the pattern reads better in low light. Enter Souq Saruja before noon; the market street works in the morning and the overhangs throw their shade onto the far pavement. Go into the Historical Museum near midday, when the courtyard has warmed. You reach Marjeh at noon. There is little shade on the square, and fifteen minutes covers the mosque. Leave the Military Museum until last, because whether it is open is uncertain; a closed door then costs you nothing. The courtyard of the Tekkiye is open either way.

Take care

Work at the Military Museum stopped in 2011 and a move of the collection was put on the table; ask whether it is open before you go. The same question applies to the Historical Museum, whose door is not open every day. Marjeh Square is the traffic hub of Damascus: use the underpasses to cross. The lanes of Souq Saruja are narrow and the quarter is lived in, so do not photograph through courtyard doors. The whole walk is flat. The only tiring part is the last 830 metres west of the square, with no shade.