|
SYRIA TALK Afternoon Club, 7th January 2009
St Peter's Pilgrimage, October 2008. 18 people,
2 from St Barnabas' Church.
SYRIA
Lies in Middle East at far eastern end of Mediterranean. Borders with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. Only about 100 miles of coastline. Greatest river is the Euphrates. Main cities, each with population of 2 million, are Damascus in south and Aleppo. We were based there, apart from the night we spent in Palmyra.
Land is divided between fertile crescent and desert.
 Syrians dress conservatively, so the guide advised ladies to have at least knee-length dresses or trousers and to keep shoulders covered, sometimes also elbows. Gentlemen were discouraged from wearing shorts in public.
(a suitably-dressed gentleman pilgrim)
 Population of 19 million very hospitable people. 90% are Muslim, but significant number of indigenous Christians, mainly Syrian Orthodox. History of tolerance. Arabic is local language, but English is widely understood. In some ancient Christian villages, Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken.
We made our own way to Heathrow for a flight to Damascus International Airport. All signs in Arabic.
Coach to Omayyad Hotel (4*) about 10 minutes from city centre.
Spent Sunday in Damascus, renowned as the oldest continuously-occupied capital city in the world.
Top
Omayyad Mosque
Ancient temple first built on site 3000 years ago, then Roman Temple to Jupiter, converted to church in fourth century. When Muslims conquered Damascus, church was part converted to mosque and Christians and Muslims prayed together. Christians received compensation when it all became a mosque. Damaged by fire in 1893, but restored.
 
Head of St John the Baptist in shrine
(Christian then Muslim)
Nearby - Saladin’s Tomb.
Kurd who became Sultan of Egypt and Syria.
Dates 1137 - 1193; reigned 1174 - 1193.
Statue in Damascus.
Best known for leading Muslim armies during the crusades and for recapturing Jerusalem.
Saladin and Richard the Lionheart were reputed to have held each other in great respect, despite the bloody battles they fought against each other.
 Saladin's tomb is a modest one: he died with practically no material wealth. His tomb was finished in 1196, three years after his death. In 1898, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II funded the restoration of the chamber as a tribute to Abdel Hamid II, the Ottoman Sultan.
His inscription reads: “Oh Allah, be satisfied with this soul and open to him the gates of paradise, the last conquest for which he hoped.”
Damascus is also famous as the place Paul was heading towards (to persecute the Christian population) when he received his “Damascus Road Experience” of conversion to Christ.
- rather a “flat” iconographic depiction.
Caravaggio does much better!
The Conversion story is in Acts 9.1-22. A Christian called Ananias receives a vision and is told to go to “The Street called Straight” where he will find the blinded Paul and restore his sight.
Top
We visited the Street called Straight, lined with little shops and businesses, bits of Roman archaeology all over the place:
and the Chapel of Ananias – said to be his house, now about 30 feet underground:
 Also visit St Paul’s chapel, built into the wall from which Paul was said to have been lowered in a basket from a window, in order to escape the city:
Top centre is the actual window!!
Said Mass there.
We ended the day up the Qassioun Mountain, with its view over Damascus.
 Next day we went to the ancient mountainside Christian village of Maaloula, where Aramaic is still spoken. The population of 2000 is still predominantly Christian.
 The gorge of Maaloula cuts through the mountains of Qalamoun, forming a beautiful narrow corridor.
The legend of the gorge says that St Thekla, Christianity’s first girl martyr, a disciple of St Paul, converted to the Christian faith and was then persecuted by her family and the Roman authorities. She was being chased by Roman soldiers and came up against a dead end in a huge mountain, with no hope of escape. She prayed, and God miraculously split the rocks, forming the narrow passage through which she made her escape. (“Maaloula” means entrance in Aramaic.)
 We visited the Greek Catholic monastery of St Sergius (or Mar Sarkis). It’s one of Christianity’s oldest monasteries – built in the 4th century on site of pagan temple. It has a good display of icons, and a round altar. (Round altars were prohibited at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD, which is evidence of its early date.) 
.
We also visited the Greek Orthodox convent of St Thekla (who is believed to be buried in the mountain nearby).
 This, again, has many icons.
Including one of St George and the dragon:
Top
Maaloula is a place of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims alike. The most popular spot is a cave with a sacred spring of water with miraculous properties.
Later, we visited the convent in Sednaya, another ancient Christian village. The chapel contains one of four icons of Mary (“Hodegetria” – “all holy”), said to have been painted by St Luke.
 (St Luke at work on his icons!)
We went back to Damascus for lunch in the Old City – this is its gate.
In the afternoon we saw Azem’s Palace – an 18th Century residence for the Ottoman governor of Syria.
 
We also saw the National Museum:
Top
On Tuesday, we drove from Damascus out into the desert and saw Bedouin tents
Went on to Palmyra, and the spectacular remains of the 2nd century city of Queen Zenobia.
 
 
Odd ledges on columns (unique) for statues of the rich and famous!
 There are underground burial chambers in the City of the Dead and a Temple of Bel:
Ceiling in temple often copied in 18th century English houses – eg Osterley Park, West Wycombe.
Top
City of dead also had towers for burial (unique) four or five storeys high – extra added as required for family.
We drove, next day, to the old town of Hama, with famous “norias” (waterwheels) that raised water from the River Orontes into aqueducts. The oldest still standing date from the 13th century.
 
One of the highlights was our trip to the greatest of the Crusader castles, Crac des Chevaliers, built in 12th century by Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
 (chapel)
After lunch, we headed to the coastal resort of Lattakia and the Cote d’Azur Resort Hotel.
On Friday we drove to the monastery of St Simeon.
 Simeon, or St Simon Stylites, lived around 390-459AD, and was a famed Christian ascetic who indulged in a number of bizarre acts of self-denial – fasting for long periods, standing upright for days on end, living in a small hut for three years, living on a mountain ledge after that. Finally, in order to escape the crowds who sought his advice or prayers, he took to living on a small platform balanced on the top of a pillar (a “style”) for the last 37 years of his life. Over the years, he progressed from a pillar 4m high to one over 15m high, or so the legend says! Each afternoon, three disciples were permitted to climb a ladder to talk with him.
The plinth on which his pillar stood is still to be seen in the ruins.
Celebrated Mass in the ruins.
Top
Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a poem on “St Simeon Stylites” in 1842. Here are a few lines:
“Let this avail, just, dreadful, mighty God,
This not be all in vain, that thrice ten years,
Thrice multiplied by superhuman pangs,
In hungers and in thirsts, fevers and cold,
In coughs, aches, stitches, ulcerous throes and cramps,
A sign betwixt the meadow and the cloud,
Patient on this tall pillar I have borne
Rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp, and sleet, and snow;
And I had hoped that ere this period closed
Thou wouldst have caught me up into thy rest,
Denying not these weather-beaten limbs
The meed of saints, the white robe and the palm.”
And a few more!
“Three winters, that my soul might grow to thee,
I lived up there on yonder mountain-side.
My right leg chained into the crag, I lay
Pent in a roofless close of ragged stones;
Inswathed sometimes in wandering mist, and twice
Blacked with thy branding thunder, and sometimes
Sucking the damps for drink, and eating not,
Except the spare chance-gift of those that came
To touch my body and be healed, and live:
And they say then that I worked miracles,
Whereof my fame is loud amongst mankind,
Cured lameness, palsies, cancers. Thou, O God,
Knowest alone whether this was or no.
Have mercy, mercy; cover all my sin.”
“Then, that I might be more alone with thee,
Three years I lived upon a pillar, high
Six cubits, and three years on one of twelve;
And twice three years I crouched on one that rose
Twenty by measure; last of all, I grew
Twice ten long weary weary years to this,
That numbers forty cubits from the soil.”
On Friday, we toured Aleppo and its famous labyrinth of souks, covering 12 hectares, the biggest shopping centre in the world.
Aleppo is a city that dates back to the 6th millennium BC and has been home to more than 30 different civilizations. It is now a World Heritage Site. 
We visited the Arab citadel on its moated mount: 
And then the Grand Mosque...
...which has a famous free-standing minaret:
(view from minaret)
Early on Saturday we flew back from Aleppo to Heathrow.
The aircraft may, possibly, have been re-fuelled by Aleppo’s unusual local mobile petrol station:
© Mark Powell Top
------------------------------------- |
Links