Alfiras Travel الفراس للسياحة والسفر

A land of diversity:

Ancient irrigation canals and modern dams , the plough and the tractor , wooden norias in perpetual motion and the latest spraying devices are to be found side by side giving life to the dry and thirty land .The costumes of country people are no less colourful and divers than the lands they cultivate .The individual character of each village is reflected in the architecture of its houses , and in the dress of its inhabitants .The art festival held at Palmyra and Bosar every year show how the symmetry of the ancient columns and arches blends with the music from all over the world .

Traveling in Syria :

one can see several civilizations within an hour . for example, when browsing in the Damascus souq near the Omayyad Mosque .

The mosque is an impressive Islamic construction erected on the remains of an ancient Aramaic temple . Just outside it there is an enormous Roman arch on huge columns , and close by are Byzantine engravings surrounded by Ottoman , Ayoubite and Mamluk domes .

As you leave urban areas behind to wander about the countryside with its mountains , hills , valleys and plains , you will find an endless variety of colour and scenery .

An hour’s driver will take from fields wheat and cotton to vineyards and olive trees , to pomegranate and palm-tree oases , to daisy and oleander meadows .

On the sea-shore to the north you can watch the Mediterranean’s white waves , while in the golden desert you will see a deluge of wild flowers in spring .

Administrative Regions

The immense strategic importance of Syria is due to her unique position as a meeting – point of three continents ( Asia , Africa , and Europe ) and as a crossroad between the Caspian sea , the Indian Ocean , the Black Sea , and the Nile River . through Syria lay the silk route which led from China to Doura Europos ( Salhieh ) , from Palmyra and Homs to the Syrian ports on the Mediterranean , where for thousand of years Syrian seafarers had ridden the wave in their enormous fleets with gleaming white sails .

This geographical position lent distinction to the country , not only as a trade and caravan route , but also as a melting-pot of diverse ideas , beliefs , talents , and cultures .

A journey through Syria is a journey through time . When you enter the old souks you realize that history is something alive and tangible , something you can see and touch . you walk down the street called straight ( Midhat Pasha ) with stretches from Bab al-Jabieh , and you feel that you are walking beside saul of Tarus when he saw the light of faith , the light on the Road to Damascus .

The silk weavers with you see in Damascus , Hama and Aleppo still work at their wooden hand looms just like their ancestors bid in Ebla four thousand years ago . Glass blowers at their brick furnaces recall their predecessors who invented coloured glass three thousand years ago . folk artists still draw pictures of epic heroes almost identical to those engraved on stone by Doura Europos artists in the year 300 B.C .

Syria is often described as the largest small country in the world because of its wealth of ancient civilizations . Modern man is indebted to this land for much of this thought and learning . Indeed it was aptly said that every intellectual has tow homelands : his own , and Syria .