Hurry up to visit Syria

Advantages: a great trip !
Disadvantages: really hot in July !!!

...Syria is located in the middle east, south from Turkey ; it is not yet a very famous destination for tourists because of its bad image abroad. Nervertheless, Syria is a great country with very friendly people, great archaeoligical sites and wonderful landscapes. A good idea is to take a plane ticket, arriving in Damas and leaving from Alep, the two major cities of the country. Syrian Airline enable to do this for around 450 euros (300 £) from Paris and I think it should be quite the same from London. Two weeks are enough to discover the main sites but three weeks wouldn't be too much. I will now describe the route I've tested : - two days in Damas, a the capital of Syria, a big city ; you will visit the big mosque (women are allowed but they should wear the sort of chador the guy at the entrance will give you), museums...

LittleSuperGigi 14.03.2002 · Read review
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Review of General: Syria

  One Long Day In A Modern Oasis

Advantages: A Friendly and Very Interesting City
Disadvantages: None really!

...Damascus (Al-Shâm, in Arabic) is not a city to spend a single day in, but due to "forces majeures", I had a choice between not going there at all or going for a day. So I went for a (marathon) day? This happened last October, while I was in Lebanon, a country which shares its entire north eastern border with Syria. The reason I decided not to stay for longer than a day was that I could not take my son with me. We were told that he would need a signed "authorisation" from his father (who was in Chile) in order to be allowed to enter the country. The fact that I was his mother and that he was on my passport did not change anything to this. For reasons too long to explain, I did not wish to be away from him at night and so I escaped for just a day. I was travelling with my French passport and Lebanese ID, and I am not sure if all...

Librelola 13.11.2005 (15.11.2005) · Read review
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Review of Damascus (Syria)

Damascus: A Very Brief History!

Advantages: Long and very rich history...
Disadvantages: Not quite the Exact Category...

...finding out about the diversity of certain lands, might appreciate it. So here goes? ****************************************** Pre-History The History of Damascus (known as "Al Shâm, in Arabic) is very old, long and quite? complicated. I have tried to be brief, but this has proved extremely hard to achieve. Damascus is the capital of Syria and has a very long and rich past. I have read somewhere that it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, but I've read the same thing about other places, so who knows? It is a natural oasis irrigated by the river Barada, and was once known as "Dar Meshq", which apparently means "well watered place". There is firm evidence to suggest that Damascus was inhabited by a prosperous civilisation in the third millennium BC, but no one is sure which civilisation that was...

Librelola 13.11.2005 (15.11.2005) · Read review
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Review of General: Syria

Dimashq...Damascus

Advantages: Fascinating old city with mosques, markets and monuments galore.
Disadvantages: Too hot in summer, miserable in winter, polluted and chaotic traffic

..., tanks can now penetrate into the heart of the old city, but ssshhhh, we don?t talk about that? MOSQUES Anyway, on to the Omayyad Mosque, or Masjid al-Omawi if you want to say it properly. Luckily for tourists, Syria is one country where anyone can enter a place of worship, regardless of religious beliefs. The upside is that all and sundry can marvel at this amazing structure, but a Syrian friend complained that it is fast becoming some sort of religious zoo, with insensitive tourists flashing their cameras in the faces of worshippers as they pray. If you do enter, and you really should, behave with respect and decorum. Men should wear trousers, women should wear a headscarf and hire one of the loose gowns available at the entrance. Shoes must be removed before entering the prayer hall (carry them with you?just outside is a stall which...

kassalawi 08.12.2004 · Read review
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Review of Damascus (Syria)

The Carlton - not quite as good as it sounds, for us anyway

Advantages: Very clean; has an ATM in the lobby; polite and helpful English-speaking reception staff
Disadvantages: No restaurants within easy reach; 25% charged on top of advertised food and drink prices

...We stayed one night at the Carlton Hotel, Damascus recently on a whistlestop (independent, rather than organised) tour of Syria. Hotel reservations for the trip had been made on our behalf by a Syrian travel agency, who assured us that accommodation had been booked but did not actually advise the names of the specific hotels, so we had been unable to do any "checking up" in advance. Having spent the previous night in a beautiful hotel in the centre of old Aleppo (the Dar Maria, located in sympathetically restored old houses with lovely courtyards, fountains etc), I was very disappointed with both the run-of-the-mill appearance and the location of the Damascus Carlton: set slightly back off a busy main road, in a commercial/residential area some distance from the interesting parts of the city. Unless you like pounding city pavements...

roundthekitchentable 21.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Carlton Hotel Damascus, Syria

Aleppo

Advantages: Beautiful and ancient city
Disadvantages: Not well advertised

...Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria and is located in northern Syria about 30 miles south of Turkey, 60 miles to the east of the Mediterranean and 60 miles to the west of the Euphrates River. Aleppo is a very beautiful and ancient city with a history of more than 4000 years. You can't miss its tourist attractions if you visit Syria! You'll defiantly need to spend few days to see the main tourist sites in Aleppo. Hotels are available and cheap compared with many other countries, prices range from £3.00 to about £100.00 a night depending on the quality of the hotel and services. Here is a brief information about the main attraction site in Aleppo: * The Citadel of Aleppo: is the most famous site in Aleppo. It has been built on a high hill for the purpose of city defence. Although all the attacks and earthquakes over...

engna 30.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of Aleppo (Syria)

Damascus

Advantages: Beautiful and ancient city
Disadvantages: Not well advertised

...Well! today I'll write about Damascus, the capital of Syria. First of all it is interesting to learn that Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world! It is now the biggest city in Syria with about quarter of the 16-million population of Syria live in greater Damascus. Damascus is famous for the Ghouta Oasis, river Barada, Damascus university which is the largest in Syria and was established in 1903 and the city's international airport,. The main attraction of Damascus are: - National Museum: Contains a fantastic array of exhibits, including written cylinders from the 14th century BC that use the world's first known alphabet, statuary from Mari that's over 4000 years old, two halls full of marble and terracotta statues from Palmyra, Damascene weapons, old surgical instruments from surgeons' graves...

engna 06.08.2001 · Read review
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Review of Damascus (Syria)

A week is not enough

Advantages: Friendly people, so much to see
Disadvantages: None

...A friend and I spent a week in Syria, looking at historical architectural sites. We started in Damascus and spent a day seeing such things as the Umayyed mosque (a must) and the market. We then picked up a hire car and headed north to Hama. The water wheels (Norias) on the Orontes river are an interesting feature and there is a range of budget accomodation available. From Hama we travelled East to Krak De Chevaliers. If you're a castle nut like me allow a whole day here. This is in my mind the single most impressive "Norman" castle, and was worth the visit to Syria by itself. Next we visited the castle from which the Assasins originated, while en route to Margat on the Mediterranena coast. Margat was superb. Its location high above the sea is breathtaking, and we were the only visitors there! Next we tried to visit Saone, but alas...

mikewhite 12.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of General: Syria

Bravo Two Zero

Advantages: Excellent story of behind the lines action
Disadvantages: none

...I found this a compelling and gripping read from start to finish. This eight man SAS team were indeed very brave. This is an account of an eight man patrol that were sent behind enemy lines during the first Gulf war to locate scud missile launchers. The hostilities they encountered when their cover is blown in the Iraqi desert, from a firefight with the Iraqi forces, freezing temperatures during the night, running marathon distances and trying cross the border into Syria is true boys own hero stuff. Then the horrific torture of the soldiers by the Iraqi Special Forces when captured makes this story unique. It says something when only one man Chris Ryan escaped (The One That Got Away). This account has been turned into a film starring Sean Bean. Andy McNab is now a talented fiction writer....

johanni333 29.08.2008 (30.08.2008) · Read review
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Review of Bravo Two Zero - Andy McNab

True history with a dash of artistic licence.

Advantages: well written and compelling story weaved through real history
Disadvantages: not much really

...Compelling and well written sequel to the fantastic book Brethren. This book thrusts you into the land of Outremer ( old French for overseas and the name given to the lands known also as the Holy Land) during the period of the last Crusades. The book takes historical events and weaves and imaginative plot through them that includes the Knights Templar, the Egyptian Mamluk army, English Royalty and various other factions all vying for power in the Holy Land. This book starts of at the end of the reign of Sultan Baybars Bundukdari ( sultan of Egypt and Syria 1277-1279) and follows on through the rise to and eventual fall from power of Kalawun Al-Alfi (Mamluk amir, Baybars chief lieutenant. Sultan of Egypt and Syria 1280-1290) and his succesion by his son Al-Ashraf Khalil (sultan of Egypt and Syria 1290-1293). The book follows...

nilouche 22.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Crusade (Brethren Trilogy 2) - Robyn Young