EBDA

Damascus City

          Damascus - Dimashq

The altest capital city in the world

The Nickname: (Madīnatu 'l-Yāsmīn) City of Jasmin

Damascus (Arabic: Dimashq), commonly known in Syria as Al Sham (Arabic: Al Shām), and as the City of Jasmine (Arabic: Madīnatu 'i Yāsmīn), is the capital of Syria and the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.

Carbon-14 dating at Tell Ramad, on the outskirts of Damascus, suggests that the site may have been occupied since the second half of the seventh millennium BC, possibly around 6300 BC. However, evidence of settlement in the wider Barada basin dating back to 9000 BC exists, although no large-scale settlement was present within Damascus walls until the second millennium BC. According to some scholars damascus existed when Genesis was written around the 13^th century BC.


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The walls and gates of Damascus

The Old City of Damascus is surrounded by ramparts on the northern and eastern sides and part of the southern side. There are seven extant city gates, the oldest of which dates back to the Roman period. These are, clockwise from the north of the citadel:

1. Bab al-Saghir (The Small Gate)


2. Bab al-Faradis ("the gate of the paradise")


3. Bab al-Salam ("the gate of peace"), all on the north boundary of the old City


4. Bab Tuma ("Touma" or "Thomas's Gate") in the north-east corner


5. Bab Sharqi ("eastern gate") in the east wall


6. Bab Kisan in the south-east


7. Bab al-Jabiya at the entrance to Souk Midhat Pasha, in the south-west.

Other areas outside the walled city also bear the name "gate": Bab al-Faraj, Bab Mousalla and Bab Sreija, both to the south-west of the walled city.

Useful Links:

http://www.oldamascus.com/