The road to a new Old Damascus

DAMASCUS -- Scenes from the old, walled city of Damascus: A carpet dealer skilled at multilingual bargaining is cajoling a tourist into his showroom. A rhythmic tap-tap-tap resonates from a doorway as an artisan hammers silver strips into a richly decorated brass tray. A Syrian woman does the day's shopping, visiting one stall for meat, another for olives, a third for flatbread.

The charm of the ancient part of the Syrian capital has always been the easygoing harmony with which tourists and Damascenes share the narrow alleys and covered markets. But now this crowded district - at the centre of what's believed to be the world's oldest continuously inhabited city - is in danger of losing this endearing character.

Aggressive investors flush with cash have pushed property prices so high that homeowners increasingly are selling long-time family properties and moving away. Others are fleeing the pollution and congestion generated by dozens of new trendy restaurants and boutique hotels catering to wealthy visitors and Damascus' expanding hip and rich crowd.

Now, the debate on how much latitude to give private enterprise is gathering steam as authorities try to balance the revitalization of the 128-hectare old city with preservationist goals. Already, about 50 hotels and 120 restaurants and cafés have been licensed, and among the many up and running are some shoddy imitations of traditional Arab architecture.

"This city is being turned into an amusement park," complained Hikmat Shatta, a French-educated architect, describing the changes overtaking the neighbourhood where he grew up and still lives.

"In some parts, I walk with my eyes fixed on the ground," Shatta said. "I am ashamed to look up and see what is happening. We are moving from the authentic to the bizarre and ridiculous."

In the maze of alleys, cobblestone streets, Turkish baths, coffee houses and historical sites that form the old city, the prospect of most residents disappearing is especially troubling because the area once exemplified Syria's religious and ethnic harmony. Most of the Jewish inhabitants are gone, but the Muslims and Christians who remain live in peace, their places of worship sometimes just steps apart.

The human diversity is reflected in the historic sites. The Omayyad Mosque, built in the eighth century, is on a site that earlier held a temple dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter and a Christian church. Today, the mosque has shrines housing what are said to be the heads of both John the Baptist and Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Nearby is the tomb of Saladin, the 12th-century Muslim warrior who fought the Christian crusaders. The old city also is home to storied Straight Street, where, as the Bible recounts, St. Paul regained his sight and was baptized.

The old city was long shielded from development because Syria's radical politics isolated the country, but now it is attracting European tourists, and this poses complex changes, says Nazir Awad of the state's Antiquities Authority. He says authorities must simultaneously try to curb pollution, protect existing homes, attract new residents and revitalize the area without changing its character.

Not everyone opposes the developers' invasion. Some long-time residents say the area was slowly dying, with many inhabitants leaving for modern neighbourhoods to escape the high cost of maintaining old homes built of mud bricks and plaster.

As a result, poor migrants from rural Syria moved in, lured by spacious homes and low rents, and the area went downhill.

Some old-timers say that until the old city attracted investors' attention in the mid-1990s, many of its streets were deserted once stores closed shortly after nightfall.

"What we have now is the better of two evils," said Samer Antoine Kozah, an art dealer who lives in an eight-room house that has been in his family for about 150 years.

"Yes, the old city is threatened, but let us be realistic - it was dying. The restaurants and hotels have changed my life and disturbed me, but I thank their owners for doing business here," said the 51-year-old Kozah, sitting in his gallery before a large photograph he took of the old city at sunset.

OMAYYAD MOSQUE One of the world's oldest and largest mosques, it sits on a spot considered sacred for at least 3,000 years, with Arameans, Greeks, Romans and Arabs in turn building places of worship there. The mosque overlooks a broad square entered through columns surviving from the Roman era.

TOMB OF SALADIN The tomb of the legendary Muslim general, who fought the armies of the Third Christian Crusade, is in a small garden next to the Omayyad Mosque. Saladin died of a fever in Damascus in 1193. His name in Arabic, Salah a-Din, means "righteousness of the faith."

STRAIGHT STREET The street dates to Roman times. It runs east to west and, according to the Bible, is where St. Paul's eyesight was restored by St. Ananias. Part of the street is the covered Medhat Pasha market; the street is entered through Bab al-Sharki, one of the old city's main gates.

HOUSE OF ST. ANANIAS This is where St. Paul is believed to have been baptized. St. Ananias became the first bishop of Damascus and later was stoned to death by order of the city's Roman governor.

AL-HAMIDIYAH SOUK This market is next to the Damascus citadel. It's the city's largest covered market and contains shops dealing in Syrian crafts and antiques as well as everyday goods.

MORE INFORMATION

MINISTRY OF TOURISM

http://www.syriatourism.org.