From wooden stools to storytelling, centuries-old traditions are a mainstay of modern culture
Islamic faithful gather to pray at the great Umayyad Mosque, one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world.
It is sunset in Damascus, Syria’s capital and largest city, and soon the muezzin will be calling the Islamic faithful together to pray at the great Umayyad Mosque. As I stroll along the Street Called Strait (the ancient Roman Via Recta), I see two men sitting outside their workshops. They are perched on small wooden stools, playing dice while chatting about life and business. Watching them, I suddenly have the certainty that they are sitting in the same spot, and on the same stools, where their fathers and grandfathers have gathered for hundreds of years … repeating the same moves with the wisdom of previous generations in their hands.
Here in Syria, it’s easy to imagine what life was like in bygone days. Once a thriving center of commerce on the ancient Silk Road trading route, the country is far more isolated today—and the fact that Syria has remained relatively untouched by mainstream 21st century travel, resolutely maintaining its centuries-old cultural traditions, is what makes a journey here so authentic and unforgettable.
One of my great discoveries about Syria is its diversity—the relative integration of minorities into the country’s administrative and political life. For example, while 74 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim, the country’s President, Bashar al-Assad, belongs to the Alawi minority (which accounts for about 8 percent of Syria’s population). Other ethnic and religious minorities include the Druze, Armenians, and Kurds in a mix of both Muslim and Christian confessions.
Syrian craftsman, like this glassblower, work in their shops, just as their ancestors did many years before.
This reality is most apparent while strolling the streets of Damascus, where the labyrinthine maze of streets leads the wandering traveler from the Sunni to the Christian quarter, through the old Jewish section—now mostly abandoned or occupied by Palestinian refugees—and back into the Shia quarter without any feeling of awkwardness. The only way to distinguish that a traveler is in a different section of town is noticing that the women walk unveiled and that bell towers replace minarets above the roofs of the homes in the Christian quarter.
The population pays little to no attention to religious or ethnic differences. Life and commerce (the great soul of Damascus and Syria’s other great cities, Palmyra and Aleppo) goes on like it did thousands of years before. After all, these cities existed long before either Christianity or Islam even existed.
Today, craftsmen continue to work in their shops, preparing cookie stamps (used to press into cookies and leave a design) and roasting nuts, whose tempting aromas waft along the narrow city streets. In local cafés, storytellers continue to entertain audiences with tales about Saladin and the Crusaders, or the historic battle of Aleppo, pausing now and again to sip mint tea. And in local homes, both Muslim and Christian, women prepare traditional meals of bread and kibbeh—savory patties made with minced lamb, pine nuts, and bulgur wheat—using recipes handed down from generation to generation.
Want to experience the magic of Syria for yourself? Explore the storied cities of Damascus, Palmyra, and Aleppo during an optional pre-trip extension to Syria on our Turkey’s Magical Hideaways adventure.