SOUKS AND MOSQUES

A lazy start to the day, with minor chores that took much of the morning, and then we were off exploring Damascus again. We passed through the Souk to reach the great Umayyad mosque about lunchtime. The Traveller was required to rent a monkish habit, all enveloping with a grey hood, and we had to leave our shoes at the front entrance, but we were welcomed everywhere.
This is a view across the courtyard in front of the mosque. If it looks a bit like a cathedral, that’s because it was. First, it was the site of an Aramean Temple of Hadad, 9th century BC. Then about the 1st century BC it became the Roman Temple of Jupiter. In the 4th century AD it was converted into a cathedral. And having been a cathedral for 400 years, it was sold to the Muslims in the 8th century AD. 2 800 years of the worship of four different deities. Richard Dawkins, your people have need of you!The northern basilica, clearly Christian in origin, is decorated by marvellous mosaics with visions of heaven. In the courtyard, a wonderful fountain allows the worshippers to wash before entering the mosque. The Koran teaches that one should only wash in, or drink from, running water, which helps to explain the prevalence of fountains, and also, perhaps, the absence of bath plugs! (We later searched the Souk, and finally found a street devoted to plumbing works, and in a back room, after a long search, the owner found a plug that we carried off with happiness).Within the mosque, there is a shrine to John the Baptist, sacred to Islam as well as to the followers of Christ. He is reputed to be buried within, one of three such tombs in the Middle East. When we entered the mosque, we were welcomed by someone who seemed to be just an ordinary worshipper. He insisted I follow him, and that The Traveller go through the women's section with a female guide whom he found, so that he could show us the sacred shrine. I wondered what might happen if a couple of Muslims strolled into a cathedral at the height of the Christmas season (it was Ramadaan in Damascus).Back in the entrance courtyard, we admired the extraordinary mosaic work on the walls of the Treasury, a strange structure on six legs with no visible means of entrance. Nearby, above the colonnaded walkway, there was a huge mosaic with a paradise of palaces by the side of a flowing river, shaded by tall trees, dating from the 9th century AD.The walkway led on round the courtyard, offering some escape from the burning heat, and back into the Souk. One of the many alleyways we explored was devoted to fabrics. Normally they would have bored me, but these were definitely different. The hand-embroidered beadwork turned the display into an art gallery!In the southern end of the Souk was the Street Called Straight, famous since biblical times but very boring(!). Off to one side was another narrow entrance, inside of which was the Khan As’ad Pasha, now housing a museum celebrating the spread of Islam in South America. Then exploration was over for the day, and we tottered back to our hotel and coolth. The streets were full of vendors, and we stopped and bought a kilo of nuts, mainly pistachios, to keep us going till dinner. The nuts were fresh and crisp, and very cheap by any normal standard.