The Road To Damascus

Syria has quite bowled me over. I assumed it was going to be a more difficult country in which to travel. That I might run up against instances of anti-western hostility, religious extremism or simply a brooding police presence suspicious of visitors from Britain. We have been outspoken on Syria in recent times and doubtless there have been reasons for that, but then it has seemed all the more remarkable to reflect on the reception one receives here. This is an exceptionally friendly and hospitable place. You are greeted and treated as a friend, with courtesy and genuine interest in the places from which you hail and in your impressions of Syria. And for once one doesn't feel that the friendliness is a honeyed veneer to a hoped for sale.

Damascus is a cosmopolitan place and undoubtedly one of my favourite cities of the trip. It has a relaxed feel, more westernised and modern than you might imagine. Like the rest of Syria, and particularly Aleppo, it is also religiously very mixed. The Christian quarter is a fascinating maze of old alleys with a host of holy sites associated with the conversion of St Paul. Religious toleration is a cornerstone of Syrian life, not least because the ruling Assad family themselves belong to minority religious sect within Islam. Perhaps that toleration does not extend to Juduism, I'm not sure, but nonetheless the general atmosphere of rubbing along together well contrasts quite favourably with the situation you often see back home. To me it is epitomised in the fact that the superlative Umayyad Mosque, one of the architectural wonders of Islam, houses an elaborate shrine to St John the Baptist and is therefore also a holy place for the Christian community.

What you do notice is that Syrian society is very male in its public aspects. If you visit a restaurant or a bar you will invariably find it devoid of women, and though a western woman will be welcomed without hesitation she will certainly attract stares from some of the other clientele. The mystery of where all the women were hiding was revealed when I visited one of the many Damascene ice cream parlours. The delicious taste of creamy Syrian ice cream with crushed pistachios on top is reason enough alone to visit this country.

The other reason is the quite staggering richness of the architectural treasures that survive from ancient times. I had waited all my life for the chance to visit the crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers, the very epitome of the medieval castle. It's interior was more ruinous than I had envisaged, but the scale, solidity and setting of the structure could not fail but to impress. However, it was the desert city of Palmyra that left the greatest impression. A beautiful limestone city in an exceptional state of preservation, Palmyra had briefly enjoyed a golden age under the fiery Queen Zenobia in which it vied to crush Rome. Alas, it wasn't long before the legions marched in under the command of Emperor Aurelian and consigned the city to historical memory and the enveloping sands.