Ottoman Damascus, last chapters: from the Takiyya Sulaymaniyya to Saladin’s Mausoleum

From the Takiyya al-Sulaymaniyya on the Barada to the Mausoleum of Saladin north of the Umayyad Mosque, this walk covers close to 2200 metres: seven stops, three hours. It follows the last Ottoman century in Damascus in order. In the grounds of the complex that Suleiman the Magnificent completed in 1560 lies the last sultan, Mehmed VI Vahideddin, buried here in 1926. The Hejaz Railway Station, whose passenger building was finished in 1913, is where the pilgrim road to Mecca became a railway. In the north wall of the Citadel is a shrine to Abu al-Darda. At the last stop, in the courtyard of Saladin’s tomb, built in 1196, are the graves of three Ottoman aviators who crashed in 1914.

The route

The two pencil-thin minarets of the Takiyya are like nothing else in Damascus. Its cemetery is a small garden shaded by trees at the foot of the minarets. Around the sultan’s marble sarcophagus, with its gabled top, lie thirty more members of the dynasty. Leave the Takiyya and walk 420 metres south-east to the Hejaz Railway Station on Hejaz Square. From there go into An-Nasr Street. After 280 metres east comes the octagonal minaret of the Mawlawiyya Tekke, a lodge of the Mevlevi dervishes; the Awqaf plaque on the door calls it the Mawlawiyya Mosque. Then comes the longest leg, 800 metres. Walk east along An-Nasr Street, turn into Al-Thawra Street and then onto the road north of the Citadel. To the left of Bab al-Hadid, three tall windows inside a pointed arch belong to the Abu al-Darda Mosque. From here the tomb is 550 metres away: carry on east along the Citadel road, turn into the Asruniyya and walk through the souq to the north wall of the Umayyad Mosque. Saladin’s tomb stands against that wall, and the aviators’ graves are in its outer courtyard.

Timing

Be at the Takiyya at 09:00. The courtyard is in shade in the morning and the cemetery is quiet. Ask the attendant for the cemetery gate, and be at the graves by 09:30. The Hejaz Railway Station at 10:15: if the hall is closed, the facade and its clock can be seen from outside. The Mawlawiyya at 10:45, while the sun is on its front. Reach Abu al-Darda close to the midday prayer. The door of the small mosque in the Citadel wall opens at prayer times; if prayers are under way, wait outside until they finish. Then walk on to Saladin’s tomb and allow half an hour for the tomb and the outer courtyard. There are two sarcophagi inside: the walnut one is the real grave, and the marble one was a gift from Wilhelm II in 1898.

Take care

Whether the cemetery is open to visitors, and when, has to be checked at the entrance. On 24 December 2024 it was announced that the sultan’s grave would be restored. No dated source shows whether the work has started or finished, so the sarcophagus may look different from the photographs. No trains leave the Hejaz Railway Station, and the platforms are closed. The opening pattern at Abu al-Darda comes from a source dated 2015. The most recent record of the aviators’ graves is a set of photographs from 2009; do not climb onto the platform, look from outside the railing. The stone in front of the graves gives 3 March and 8 March 1914, while the sources give the dates of death as 27 February and 11 March. An-Nasr Street carries heavy traffic, so take your time crossing. In mosques and tombs keep shoulders and knees covered; shoes come off at the prayer hall door.