Country Info
- Damascus
- Capital
- Syrian Pound (SYP)
- Currency
- 16,728,808
- Population
- SY
- Country Code
Syria Slideshow
Syria
Travel Blogs from Syria
The power of football...
... Saeda Zainab, a slum-like district outside Damascus that is home to a large number of the 1.5m Iraqi refugees now living in Syria. Arriving there in the blazing 47c afternoon heat, I could have been forgiven for thinking we'd taken a wrong turn and ended ...
Fairy Chimneys and Dead Cities
... , no like George Bush!"), and when he wasn't saying "no problem, no problem" he was saying "welcome, welcome". The highlights of Syria so far are: · The Basilica of St. Simeon. This was a magnificent old church (or the ...
"When I'm in Syria i am safe!"
Dat vonden wij toch wel de quote van de week. Het kwam van een Pool. Ene van Warschau. Raar mannen daar. Goed waar waren we gebleven. Voor jullie moet dat na de dode zee zijn. Ok hier gaan we dan: (dag 3) Amman achter ons gelaten en naar een ...
Into Syria
... nbsp; Car honks, they're going to Aleppo, I hop in and it smells like fish. Caught on the Turkish coast for sale back in Syria. They take me about 5 km, and then tell me they have to go somewhere else. Taxis cost $20 he says (yeah ...
Boarder Patrol
Today was the day. The infamous border crossing into Syria. Maybe not so infamous, but interesting because we are going without Visas. All the ‘official’ literature tells you that you must have a Visa prior to arrival. ...
Damn that Bloody Sun... and the Israelis
... I missed it – I don't want to talk about it). Then there's the Umayyad mosque. Possibly the most beautiful in Syria, definitely a strong contender for the world. Its Byzantine cathedral roots can be seen on the outside, by the suspicious integration ...
First Days in Damascus
Hello All ! I took the opportunity of everyone sleeping off some jetlag to create this blog. I promise pics and more entries very soon. After 2 days of travel (of which Heathrow on crucial alert was the worst!) we arrived at 6am. Customs took ...
The Ancient City of Palmyra
Today we had a semi-early start. The heat in this part of the world starts at around 1pm, when the breeze dies down. So we started out guided tour of Palmyra at 9am. Our guide was this funny Syrian guide who talked more or less like Dr. Evil from the ...
Railway sleepers
30 kilometres south of Lattakia where I'd slept relatively well, I ran out of energy, a combination of lingering illness and the depressing pollution from the trafficated roads brought a premature end to the day’s southerly venture. Cheap hotel, ...
End of Ramadan
... wife and family and brought them to Israel, and secret agents were after him-- that's what I got out of it. Palmyra is located in Syria's largest oasis, and is a huge producer of dates. The city was famed in the Roman times, as it was a stop on the ...
At (everyone elses) home in Hama
... in Syria always seem to go like this (usually conducted in a mix of arabic, English, mime and possible even pictionary): Welcome to Syria!! Where are we from? Ah, Australia, we love Australians! How old are we? Are we brother and sister? Ah!! married!! ...
Allah Has Gone Digital
... I was walking around I was thinking about how Beirut repelled me within minutes but Damascus has drawn me in. Something about Syria has just captured my imagination and I love wandering around with no agenda or list of things to see. My visa ...
Home of the Golden Hamster: Basics
... that may or may not have rabies Dates of Production: Monday, September 21 thru Saturday, September 26, 2009 Filmed on Location in Syria: Damascus, Siddnayya, and Maalula Base Camp: The Pink House (down the street from Al-Rabie Hotel) Sources: All of the ...
Oh sweet Palmyra, the desert, ruins and beddouins
Palmyra was beautiful. Situated out to the west, I got quite a kick out of seeing 'Iraq' with an arrow on the highway signs or 'Baghdad 225km' posted. Palmyra was also smack bang in the middle of the desert, and as a result, freezing. Kamel ...
Alep
nous sommes sur le point de prendre notre bus de nuit. esperons arriver en syrie demain midi au plus tard (si les autorites syriennes ne font pas de zele...) Alix et fab depuis l'otogar de Kayseri on y a survecu (il y est en effet plus difficile ...
One day on the bazaar of Damascus
WOW..... From Beirut we went to Damascus for one day, most time we spent on the bazaar (which was canopied - great when it has 44 degrees). Damascus and Beirut, these cities couldn´t be more different. I visited bazaars in Turkey, in Egypt, in Morocco ...
Too Conservative for Lyrics
Upon arrival in Damascus it became painfully clear just how conservative Syria is compared to Jordan and Egypt. This was a whole other ballgame and not one I was willing to play. Feeling run down and not yet recovered from the food ýn Jordan, ...
The Desert City
The bus trip through the desert to Palmyra was as unspectacular as any bus trip and quite boring, just the odd irrigated olive plantation to bring a touch of dusty greyish green to the otherwise dusty landscape. Palmyra town itself is an oasis in ...
Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Really Bad Day!
... I was finally sent downstairs into a little room. They wanted all sorts of crazy information like phone numbers and address in Syria. When I finally got through all the hassles the woman tried to rip me off. As if I could grow to ...
Last night in Syria
... outweighed any real concern. We choose a restaurant that nýght because they made khubz tannoor and ate our last dýnner ýn Syria. We enjoyed a nice selectýon of mazza including the best kibbeh nayeh Ý´ve had. Evrim got enough protein too (stop ...
Welcome to Syria
Damascus, the oldest inhabited city in the world, is a city of souqs, wonderful architecture, restored Damascene houses and the most beautiful of mosques, the Umayyad Mosque. The Old City is like wandering through a meandering maze of medieval alleys ...
The service industry is alive and well in Syria!
Staying in a 5 star hotel for a week is an amazing experience. This is my second time here but the attention to detail never ceases to amaze me. The kids are blown away and I will have my work cut out for me to deprogram Bruce who has lived like this for ...
Matar
... border was steep and gruelling, the drizzle turned to rain and the temperature was steadily dropping. I had mistakenly associated Syria with deserts and general lack of water and had thus slackened off from my waterproofing plastic discipline; I was ...
Oldest Citadel
We decided take advantage of the optional late start and decided to miss the 9am guided tour of Aleppo (second oldest inhabited city in the world after Damascus). We met up with Carl and Amy at 10am to explore the town ourselves. We had heard storeys of ...
My movie debut, Part One
... that the filming was actually taking place in Crac des Chevaliers, a marvellous Crusader castle in the lush green countryside of western Syria. This was an excellent turn of events, as Homs is a bland city and Crac des Chevaliers had been top of my list ...
As close to Iraq as I'm gonna get any time soon
... stood a Roman bridge that was supposedly worth a visit, but to do so was illegal because it was right on the closed Syria/Turkey/Iraq border. Unperturbed, however, we set off by foot in search of the bridge, having just about established the correct ...